Okay...maybe a few people get served. The point is that I've been to high school, I've been to high school dances - and the closest I've seen to these schoolwide coordinated dance routines were The Macarena, The Train, The Tootsie Roll, Men in Black, and...lest we forget, the Electric Slide (v 1.0 & 2.0). Were I in high school right now, I'd imagine I'd be pretty kickass at the Soulja Boy dance. As far as I'm concerned, any of the aforementioned dances in these movies would qualify as Hollywood having kept it real. That being said, see below. And don't even get me started on High School Musical. (Mashup your own vids @ here with Searchles TV video mashup tool of awesomeness).
1. She's All That (1999). Prom scene, of course. It's 1999 and the hot beats du jour are Rockefeller Skank by Fatboy Slim - I remember at the time thinking it looked like a hip hip prom. The writers (the very same writers who came up with the line 'I feel like Julia Roberts, except without the whole hooker thing') tried to cover up the obvious dance-coordination with Usher, the DJ, saying 'now come on and do that dance I taught you.' Good save, my friend.
2. RAD (1986). BMX dance. Aunt Becky and some other dude do a sweet sweet impromptu BMX serenade to 'Send Me an Angel'. Great song but the gratuitous slow-mo is a bit much, even for an 80s movie. Her top is really sparkly though.
3. Can't Buy Me Love (1987). African Anteater Ritual. Like we can even imagine McDreamy as a token dork who has to pay a popular girl to go out with him anymore. However, the arm and chest spasms of the African Anteater dance caught on like wildfire in that fateful gymnasium of yore.
4. 13 Going on 30 (2004). Thriller. I can count people that I know that know the whole thriller dance on one hand...and I'm guessing that's about all you can count either. And that's why I call bullsh*t on this scene - this is Manhatten, not Philippino prison.
5. Teen Wolf (1985). Wolf dance. Ahhh the shot as he enters the gym has the basketball net in the foreground, how symbolic...and just like the basketball court, he'll dominate the dancefloor and get all the cool kids in on his wolf dancin' ways.
6. House Party (1990). Dance-off. A few people are actually getting served here. The point is that dance-offs this sweet would never have happened at a Kid n'Play party without being coordinated and/or planned. On that note I'm going to go ahead and look up where the hell Kid n'Play disappeared to.**
7. Footloose (1984). Prom. From not being allowed to dance to...this.
8. Dirty Dancing (1987). Ending scene. No no, not the beginning of THE dance -but the part after he jumps off the stage and gathers his working-class 'entertainment' buddies standing in back to sashay (sp?) back towards the stage and form a neat little gauntlet for Baby to run through to do the lift. Co-or-din-ated.
9. Bride and Prejudice (2004). Punjabi Wedding Song. Impromptu dancing goes Bollywood...or maybe Bollywood's been in the impromptu dancing game for years - probably the latter.
10. A Knight's Tale (2001). Dance Scene. This starts out mildly believable, then gets a little less impromptu and more coordinated-like, then gets utterly irritating and starts playing rock music. No offense to Heath Ledger here, but come on. How are we supposed to keep our head in the game when you're pulling this crap and playing 'We Will Rock You' at a joust.
** Kid n'Play in the new millenium: Kid and Play amicably split in 1995. Kid continued acting, guest starring in a number of television sitcoms, most notably Sister, Sister, and hosting shows such as It's Showtime at the Apollo and Your Big Break. Play became a born-again Christian (obvi), and devoted his time to working on Christian-based hip-hop music projects. Play eventually took his industry experience and founded HP4Digital Works, a multimedia company that provides pre- and post-production for film, digital, and live theater productions. He also founded Brand Newz, an online syndicated magazine focusing on positive community leaders and events.
0 comments:
Post a Comment