By Curt Schleier
Do not rent this film if you are a government employee, particularly if you work at the DMV. But for the rest of us who can appreciate the occasional stupid joke in a stupid film, KICKIN’ IT OLD SKOOL will provide more than a few belly laughs.
There may be some of you out there too young to remember that time before there was an Internet, when you actually had to go to a video store to get porn. Not that I ever did, of course. But people tell me that to keep anyone from seeing what they were renting, they’d cover Boudoir Baby with a legitimate film, preferably something by Bergman.
This came to mind when considering KICKIN’ IT OLD SKOOL. If I were renting this DVD today, I’d probably cover it with porn. Frankly, I’d prefer people see me with Lickin’ It Old Skool rather than a stupid film about break dancing that was released just four months ago. Break dancing, do you believe it? In 2007? I’m here to tell you I was partially wrong. Oh this movie is stupid, all right. But it is funny stupid, a guilty pleasure. Please don’t tell anyone.
Twelve-year-old Justin Schumacher (Alexander Calvert) leads a break dance group called the Funky Fresh Boyz. He has a crush on classmate Jennifer Stone and competition (in both break dancing and matters of the heart) from an obnoxious Kip Unger. To assure victory, Justin does a difficult move and back flip, but misses the stage. He winds up in a coma. But don’t worry; this is a comedy.
Twenty years later, Justin (now played by Jamie Kennedy) wakes up unexpectedly. He’s a 21st Century man with a 1980s boy’s mind. So we have something between BIG and ENCINO MAN. The newly awake adult Justin (Jamie Kennedy) discovers his parents may lose their home because of his medical bills. So he enters a break dancing contest run by adult Kip (Michael Rosenbaum) who is now engaged to Jennifer (Maria Menounos), who has dilled out quite nicely since elementary school. So Justin has to get his old posse together: Darnell (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.), Aki (Bobby Lee), the last also having filled out since grade school.
“Is that Hector,” Justin wonders when he first sees his formerly slender friend.
“Or someone who ate Hector,” Darnell replies.
Bringing Justin up to date on the two decades he missed yields some funny moments. For example, when Darnell explains current usage for a word popularized by the rap group NWA. Or when Hector puts on a bra in a training session for Justin, who is about to go out on a date.
The dance contestants are acrobatic, but there’s something missing in the contest sequence. The deleted scene extras are nothing special. Still, I laughed. Again, I caution you, if you have a sophisticated sense of humor, if you would actually rent a Bergman film, KICKIN’ IT OLD SKOOL is definitely not your cup of tea. But there are laughs here for the rest of us.
Does Justin win the dance contest and save his parents’ home? Does he win back Jennifer’s love? Does Kip get his just reward? Are you kidding? Stupid movies don’t have trick endings.