Beat Street

Rating:
Summary: to many out of town clowns, brooklyn in the house
Review: You know I like how this movie was getting good reviews, and then one cat from the BRONX tells it like it is and then all these cornball, albino skined, suburban living, MTV wathing I know about HIPHOP suckers, have something to say. yeah okay! listen I am from brooklyn new york, east new york, and after they cleaned up the south bronx, right now is the current hell hole in the city, I am 40 years old, not 14, GET IT, and I was in my teens when this movie came out. Every hard rock in the hood loved this movie, it was real in what it was trying to do and that was show hip hop in 1984. I hear all this !@#@# some white dude played ramo, so what!! Scarface now sucks because Al Pacino played a cuban, wow the Gogfather sucks too now that james cann is really a JEW, marlon brando is not Italian, Cornballs who are you to say BEAT STREET is not real!!!, the Italians love the Godfather because of what it tried to capture, no movie is real, but it did capture the MOB in the 1940's and BEAT STREET captured HIPHOP in the 1980's KID!!. The graffiti is fake ha ha ha, please it looked real to me and I TAG to this day, and have a FAT black book, the graffiti should pass my test not yours suburban child!!, YOU GUYs ARE NOW TALKING BAD ABOUT THIS MOVIE BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU WERE NOT THERE AND WHEN SOMEONE SPOKE UP THAT WAS, IT MADE YOU FEEL LIKE @#@#. I was there too, I can even tell you what avenue in the Bronx Rock Steady called home and that is Cortona Ave, and that's because I had to go to the BX to see them battle the TWIN PARK BOYZ. WHO ARE YOU!!! This movie did a great job taking a picture of NEW YORK HIP HOP IN 1984!! That movie BREAKIN, WAS SO FAKE, I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS YOUNG EVERYBODY IN THE HOOD WAS LIKE THAT WAS SOME BULL$$@$% RIGHT. I remember going to the record release party for BLACK ROB, some years back and heard Puffy, Black Rob and other cats talking about krush groove, wildstyle, and they said BEAT STREET WAS THE BEST OF THEM ALL CLASSIC. I love this movie because it goes back back into time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS.speaking of CAP ONE MPC AND SEEN UA, WOW man you out of towners have lots of guts to act like you know what your talking about, guess you knows CAP ONE (ME) MY MAN IS ABOUT 6'5 WITH RED HAIR THAT'S RIGHT RED HAIR LOOKS LIKE A MALE RAGGEDY ANN AND RIGHT NOW ANT DOING NOTHING WITH HIS LIFE HANGING OUT IN BRONX PARK EAST PARK DRUNKING BEER LOOKING INTO THE SKY THINKING ABOUT HIS HEYDAY WITH THE MORRIS PARK CREW, SEEN HAS A TATTOO SHOP AND HAS DONE WORK ON MY ARM FOR ME ,HE COOLING. AND THEY BOTH LEARNED THERE @#@$$ FROM BLACKS AND PUERTO RICANS.




Rating:
Summary: Highly inaccurate portrayal of early hip hop culture
Review: "Wild Style was just so ahead of its time. I remember telling Charlie Ahearn, `As soon as this thing comes out, mark my words, Hollywood will eat it.' And Beat Street came out... which was a sappy, watered-down version" -Blondie's Chris Stein (from the excellent book Yes Yes Ya'll, 2002)
Beat Street follows a small group of friends around New York City in a disjointed plot designed to showcase the talents of hip hop stars. Appearances by DJ Kool Herc and DJ Afrika Bambaataa lend credibility, but can not make up for unrealistic elements. Most notably, although one of the major subplots is about a graffiti writer, set designers painted all off the artwork found in this film. Union contracts prevented any authentic graffiti from making onto the screen. Irritatingly, this graffiti writer, Ramon (played by Jon Chardiet), is supposed to be Puerto Rican, but he appears to be your average White guy and falls in and out of a terrible Spanish accent (internet searches could not verify his ethnicity, but he has also played a Ukrainian mystic, a Russian soldier, and Adolf Hitler).
Beat Street benefits from an impressive battle at the Roxy between the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew, and the depiction some of the real dangers of life in the hip hop scene (electrocution on the third rail, arrest for breaking, teen pregnancy). Ramon's battle with "Spit", a writer who goes over all his bombs with a simple tag, mirrors the real-life rivalry between Seen and Cap. However, the inclusion of cheesy love music, far too many White people, and the conviction that gangs and violence died out when hip hop came along make this film a highly inaccurate portrayal of early hip hop culture.
Still, it's fun to watch. Just don't take it too seriously.

Rating:
Summary: One of the wackest things ever passed off as "hip hop" ever
Review: After reading review after review here, all with five-star glowing props and shout-outs to whatever Hollywood moron raped "Style Wars" and "Wild Style" to line his pockets with suburban white-boy allowance money, I must bring up the following important points.

This movie makes hip-hop as exciting and "street wise" as a day at Wal-Mart. Its music, stars, acting, art, dancing, EVERYTHING is so totally generic, like we are watching a sanitized version of what was really going on. Everything about the actual plot of this sad disaster is stolen from the above fine independent films. In fact, the "Style Wars" outtakes and unreleased parts on the new double DVD blow this entire movie away in terms of importance to the culture, entertainment, and authenticity. Basically, this movie is a fake representation of what hip-hop is (and was). Going back to the days when it came out, MTV was new, girls everywhere were trying to act like Madonna during her "Lucky Star" period, and most guys were captivated by the whole "breaking" culture, spinning on their heads on pieces of cardboard while listening to "Planet Rock" on the boom-box at the mall, waiting for mommy to come pick them up at 11. Boys called themselves "Freeze", "Frosty Freeze", "Fresh", "Kid Fresh", or "Frosty Fresh" because they heard that was what everyone in New York was doing. They always claimed to be Crazy Legs' distant cousin. They could NOT write graffiti, even though they tried. And if they were REALLY lucky, they saw "Wild Style" and "Style Wars" and devoted their lives to memorizing the lines and quoting them all the time. So basically "Beat Street" was a movie that tried to speak to these youth, and it was well-attended as I recall, but once you saw it, you never saw it again, and it disappeared and no one cared. The soundtrack was weak, with a lame fake Latin-influenced love song, an Arthur Baker-produced Bambaata track that was popular for like 3 days, and some crap that was designed to make everyone cry in the movie.

The acting is so terrible, it almost inspires laughter. The part about the auditions when the punk rock guy with the guitar is stared at in a funny way by the judges... I wonder how many kids sitting laughing in the theaters THEN would run right out and buy "Licensed to Ill" and "King of Rock" when they dropped like the very following year. (And THOSE albums have a heck of alot more pertinence and staying power than this movie EVER had.) When Ramo sees the white car, I almost fall out of my seat at his absolutely hilarious canned reaction. Where did they get these awful actors? I would have imagined that THOUSANDS of would-be b-boys and b-girls would have auditioned for this movie, but coudn't any of them actually act? I suppose not. While on the subject of Spit and Ramo, I think Cap and Seen ought to join forces, hire lawyers, and sue the hell out of these movie writers. I distinctly remember being in the theater and having everyone laugh when they saw the completed "masterpiece" Ramo does, it is so horrible. What 40-year old art teacher painted that piece of garbage, trying to look "funky fresh"? What an insult this movie is on all levels.

Suffice to say, "Beat Street" is a horrible example of hip-hop that I knew was horrible the day I walked out of the theater back in the day. I and my friends laughed at it and at the kids who "converted" to hip-hop after it was released. If anyone thinks this movie is a classic, I wonder what your definition of "wack" is, because this is the wackest movie ever made about hip-hop, and one of the worst movies ever. It made a TON of money for some lucky guy who probably snorted it away already, it created hundreds of thousands more pop-lockin' mall-rats out there, it led to increased sales of large green fatigue combat overcoats worn by people who thought they could write, but that's about it.

Rating:
Summary: The grafitti was FAKE
Review: Okay, cheezy Hollywood storyline aside, this film contains truly classic footage of some of the best MCs, DJs and Breakers from this time period. The battle scene between the New York City Breakers and Rock Steady Crew alone makes this movie worth watching.
But, for some unknown reason, there is no authentic graff art in this film. That's right, the pieces are all reproductions done by professional set painters.
Get this movie for the music and dance scenes, but know that THE GRAFF IS NOT REAL.

Rating:
Summary: A BRONX B-BOY'S TAKE ON THE MOVIE
Review: Well I'm from the(B.X)aka The Bronx, and I must say everytime
this movie end's I want to cry, becuase I know deep in my heart
those times are over. I have been reading all the postings from
people who love this movie, but think how you would feel to see
your life and times play out in a movie and done so well it takes your soul back into time. I still live in the bronx, and HIP HOP is still ineffect here but it is not the same man, TV does not copy us now we copy TV. Everyone loves this movie be it the dancing, djing, mcing, I love it because it's real baby, It was done with the real players from that time and that is why this movie will LIVE FOREVER. I knew guy's that would put a bullet in you if you went over there piece aka (graffiti). In New York City if you open the bottom of a light post there is a plug to get electricity, that is how we played are radio with no batteries. That is why THE GODFATHER AND GOODFELLAS are classics because they are time machines done with respect for what they are trying to capture. The movie (BREAKING) will never live in the minds of people because it smelled to much like HOLLYWOOD FAKE BS. There is a rumor that the graffiti in BEAT STREET is fake, are we talking about diamonds, graffiti is a style of art, if it looks like graffiti it is graffiti, who ever did the burners was well schooled in the art of HIP HOP, some look better then the stuff other guy's were doing at that time.
HIP HOP DON'T STOP! I'M OUT PEACE!!


Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE !!!!!
Review: I LOVE THIS MOVIE. IT IS ALL OF THAT. I LOVE RAE-DAWN CHONG BACK IN THE DAY I LIKE THIS MOVIE. I USED TO LOVE THIS MOVIE I WAS GLAD TO SEE IT BEING RELEASED ON DVD. THIS IS A MUST HAVE MOVIE FOR ANYONE WHO ENJOYS OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A combination of Beastmaster,Andromeda,Mutant X and Hiphop
Review: Beat street is one of the greatest movies of all time since House party and Class act came out in the 90's decade where I grew up.It was really a great movie and one of the best movies of the year!