My Review of "Kickin' It Old School"

Kickin' It Old School came out back in 2007. It's a fun idea that could work in theory but the execution of the whole film made me a little queasy. There are a ton of wrong in this movie, namely corniness and bad acting. By today's standards this movie would require a ton of editing because there is so many social norms of today that would not allow this film from being released.

The film starts innocently enough. The main character Justin is a tween and waking up to start his day. He's obviously into hip hop and pop culture but he's in the 80's. Here's where a ton of nostalgia for kids of the 80's will reminisce on some of the great toys, music and pop culture things around him. It's definitely meant to pander to those of this generation.

He goes to the mall where he meets up with his multicultural friends to participate in a dance competition. Throughout the movie they kind of poke fun at racial stereotypes which is okay fun throughout the movie but some of it makes me cringe.

Justin's arch nemesis is this guy named Kip. The two of them are trying to win the heart of a young girl named Jennifer. Basically this breakdance competition is the way these two are going to duke it out with each other. So the competition goes well and the two are neck and neck. In order to win the competition Justin decides to do a special dance combo that he hasn't totally perfected yet. Everything seems to going great until he does a backflip and he falls off the stage and falls into a coma.

After 20 years he wakes from the coma all to find that he's a fish out of water in this new generation. His mother and father are broke because they paid the medical bills to keep him alive. Everything around him has changed even his friends who have grown old and uncoordinated.

There are tons of jokes aimed at the fact that Justin still has the mind of a tween in the 80's when in fact he's a grown man in the late 2000's. To fix all the problems of his family and friends Justin decides that he and his friends should reunite to enter a brand new dance competition.

The story is pretty cheesy and very 80's but in theory I think it could work with a lot of revamping. There are glaring issues throughout this movie. A lot of the acting is somewhat annoying and awkward. Justin's character started to drive me nuts in his child like behavior. I know that's what he's supposed to be like but there's no likeability factor to his character after a while.

A lot of the jokes just didn't really have good timing. Even worse some of the jokes are terribly outdated. Watching this kind of reminded me how bad we were to certain groups of people back in the day.

The worst part is that it almost seemed like this was supposed to be a movie based on dancing and there's barely any of it in this movie. Of the dancing that is in the movie, I think they did a good job but it's sprinkled sparsely within the movie. That was one of the biggest bummers about this movie. I was really hoping to see a lot more and more innovative ways of implementing the dance in this movie. The main actors within this movie are definitely not dancers. This makes it really awkward to see them beat out dancers that are obviously leaps and bounds better than them.

Overall, I remember sort of liking this movie back in the day and I now question my tastes way back when. This movie was a struggle to watch so it's hard to even suggest anyone to watch this movie. Even as a device to catch some nostalgia it doesn't work because you kind of realize how much we sucked back in the day. I unfortunately have to give this movie a 3 out of 10. I'll only give some points for some nostalgia points but in the end you can avoid this movie altogether.