As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I almost gave it 5 out of 10. However, I don't want to be hard on Flashdance. It's not a perfect movie by any means, I can't even say that it's a good movie. However, at its core, it has heart, soul, and passion. It also has the drive to send its message clear, stay close to your dreams, but try to make it a reality. Do what you love to do, and you will never have to work a day in your life. I felt the movie depended way too strongly on the dancing and the music, which left what remained of the film hollow and weak. And Jennifer Beals just wasn't a strong enough actress to pull this off. Can't overlook it. Sorry. All in all, I think Flashdance served its purpose for its time, it made a lot of money, and love it or hate it, but you can't knock it...it's an iconic film of 1983.

Watching this film screams 1980's. However this film to me is just as entertaining now as when it was first released in 1983. Alex is a welder by day and dancer by night. Her dream is to be able to enter a dance academy but she is afraid of not only getting in but even applying freaks her out. Alex at times is very mature for her age but at times she acts very immature. The dance sequences in this film along with a great characters and great original soundtrack made this film a huge hit.I am shocked that this film never got a sequel. Even more shocking is hasn't ( as of 2018) there has not been a remake.

Style-over-substance films usually annoy me. When those movie are as bad as Flashdance, I just want to ask the people who made them what they were thinking. Actually, this was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who are well known for making films of cinematic gloss, but nothing with real humanity. The story is so simple, the whole thing is probably 50 minutes too long. This is basically Rocky if the story has dance scenes for filler, the numerous subplots went nowhere, and the characters weren't appealing.For a story, Jennifer Beals plays a young girl named Alex who wants to be a professional dancer, and not just to dance at a small nightclub. By day, she works as a welder at a steel mill; shocking since she is only 18. The steel mill boss's son falls in love with her and later tries to help her get into the professional dance group that she yearns to be a part of, if only she had more confidence.Everything that I highlighted in just three sentences is everything there is to know about the main story. Everything else is just music video-inspired dancing scenes (which, unfortunately, are mostly performed by Beals's body double instead of Beals herself) set to popular 80s songs, and subplots that go nowhere or are resolved in five minutes. For one thing, Alex sees the boss's son with his previous wife, she gets mad and throws a rock at his window, but the next day, he explains why his ex-wife was with him in the first place. Later, her friend joins a sleazy strip club, and Alex forces her to leave after three minutes. There is even an old woman who is Alex's friend, and conveniently, was also a famous dancer. Not enough time is spent on the relationship they have and the film never establishes how they met.The acting is average at best, with Beals giving the warmest performance of the whole cast, and most of the characters act like old stereotypes, such as the pathetic friend who makes useless jokes (which leads to another sub-plot that goes nowhere) and the aggressive jocks who have eyes for the main heroine. Alex herself is also the victim of the horrible screenplay. Close to the beginning of the film, she actually does come close to signing up for an audition for the dance group, but she backs out because she is afraid. Not a good enough reason? Well, the film still has an hour and fifteen minutes left, and if she did get her confidence at that moment, it would be nothing more than a short film.I have very little to say about Flashdance because the film offers so little. I guess the dance scenes are well shot, and Beals performance makes things a little more tolerable, but everything else is quite awful. Even some of the 80s songs are poor. This is easily one of the most uninteresting pieces of nothing ever made.

Released in 1983, "Flashdance" is a drama/music/romance film starring Jennifer Beals as, Alex Owens, an 18 year-old welder in Pittsburgh who dreams of being a professional dancer and longs to be accepted into a prestigious school. She dances at a nightclub in her spare time, which is contrasted by the strip club across the street, owned by a sleazebag who tries to lure the respectable dancers into his seedy lair (Lee Ving). One of her friends aspires to be a figure skater (Sunny Johnson) and another friend a stand-up comedian (Kyle T. Heffner). Meanwhile her tall, dark and handsome boss takes a liking to her (Michael Nouri). This is an entertaining dance flick with the requisite early 80's soundtrack. All the dance sequences were performed by the uncredited French dancer Marine Jahan, who later sued the producers for not crediting her (the brief break-dancing scene was done by a dude). While the wide-eyed Beals and Jahan are in top shape and comely enough, I favor Sunny (the skater).I was impressed by the quality characterizations for a relatively short sports movie. I call it a "sports movie" because that's essentially what it is – "Rocky" with a female protagonist and dancing instead of boxing. I also like the Pittsburgh locations. Despite my positive feelings, the less-popular "Heavenly Bodies," which came out 9½ months later and stars cutie Cynthia Dale, is superior IMHO. The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. GRADE: B