Kickin' It Old Skool (2007)

At a talent show in 1986, young Justin Schumacher suffers a head injury and slips into a coma. Twenty years later, Justin awakes with the mindset and experience of a 12-year-old. He decides to reunite the members of his former dance team and revive their short-lived careers, to win a local talent competition and help his parents save their house.....When Jamie Kennedy was in the Scream series, he was one of the stand out characters in the franchise, and the studios must have sat up and took notice of a taken the had when he was acting under another writer.TV shows aside, and being mistaken for Seth Green, Jamie Kennedy's film career hasn't really been anything other than mundane, and he must have signed a multi picture deal with a company, because this looks and feels like it was rushed and released to end said contract.But it's a neat concept, mixing Hard To Kill with The Wedding Singer, but the eighties references are not there, and when they are, it's the predictable, popular ones that you can see coming a mile off, so they are not nostalgic, just eye-rollingly obvious.Kennedy is okay, but he has the same facial expression throughout the film, and the rest if his entourage are your atypical stereotypes you would expect to see in a film like this, but not as secondary characters.....lazy writing.And it's at least 20 minutes too long.So when all else fails in the writing department, always have a plethora of vomit, cake, and urine gags at hand, and include an extended dance off finale for good measure.With all good intentions, it's a bit rubbish.

This is a really awesome movie! Jamie Kennedy is awesome and hilarious! In 1986, a 12-year-old named Justin Schumacher has a break dancing group called The Funky Fresh Boyz who try to win a competition. During their performance, Justin falls off stage and is put into a coma. 20 years later, right before his parents take him off life support, he wakes up. He tries to adapt to the new age. He finds all of his old friends, and his childhood crush, Jennifer, who is going to marry their childhood enemy, Kip. Kip hosts a dance contest that is shown live on TV. The winner gets $100,000. Justin wants to repay his parents, so he gets The Funky Fresh Boyz back together to win the money. Justin tries to get Jennifer to fall in love with him again. If you love comedy, and Jamie Kennedy, you'll love KICKIN' IT OLD SKOOL!!!

The way I figure it, it takes about a good twenty years for a decent nostalgia trend to kick in. That's just about the point at which the youngsters of a particular era will have experienced enough of adult life to start them pining away for the "good old days" of their pleasantly carefree and invariably misspent youth. In the 1970's, audiences escaped back to the more innocent and halcyon days of the 1950's through works such as "American Graffiti" and "Happy Days," while in the '80's, it was the '60's that got replayed, via "The Wonder Years" and "The Right Stuff." In a similar way, "That '70's Show" came to define nostalgia for the young adults of the '90's. Now, apparently, it is the '80's that are making a comeback, as those who were kids in that decade begin to edge their way ever so reluctantly into middle age. That's where the comedy, "Kickin' it Old Skool," comes in.The premise of the movie is as follows: in 1986, a ten-year-old named Justin Schumacher suffered a concussion at one of his break dance competitions that left him in a coma for twenty years. When he finally returns to consciousness two decades later, he discovers, much to his dismay, that the world has moved on without him, and that everything that was once important and familiar to him - from the fashions to the technology to the music - is now hopelessly "un-cool" and out-of-date. After he learns that his parents will soon be going bankrupt if they can't find a way to pay for all the medical expenses they incurred while caring for their comatose son, Justin convinces his old break dancing buddies to come out of retirement and enter a contest, the winners of which will receive a whopping $100,000 in prize money.There really is very little point to "Kickin' it Old Skool" beyond providing an opportunity for us to laugh at all those pop culture trends and icons that we thought were so cool at the time but that seem merely quaint and funny to us today. Thus, we get the big hair, the head bands, the glitter, the parachute-pants, the synthesizer-laden music, the boom boxes, the Michael Jackson moves, the "What yu' talking' 'bout, Willis?" quips that, for some at least, have come to define the era. Unfortunately, that is hardly a sufficient foundation upon which to build a quality movie, and "Kickin' it Old Skool" ultimately emerges as a wan, not-very-funny cross between "Footloose" and all those inexplicably popular flicks in which a youngster mysteriously wakes up in an adult person's body. Although it's genial and harmless, "Kickin' it Old Skool" suffers even more in comparison to a movie like "Superbad," which is a truly whip-smart and astutely observant study of what it means to be a dork or a misfit in a society that values appearance and coolness above all else. Moreover, Jamie Kennedy is clearly no Jonah Hill or Michael Cera in the acting department. In fact, with his pratfalls, clowning and mugging, he often seems to be channeling a bad imitation of Jerry Lewis.Even though David Hasselhoff and Emmanuel Lewis stop by for a couple of good-natured cameos, this is one fish-out-of-water tale that should probably be thrown back in the water.At best, the movie makes one wonder how audiences twenty years from now will be looking back at the 00's. One shudders at the thought.

A fantastic movie for any child of the 80s! That's really all you need to know. If you grew up in the 80s, collected garbage pail kids, carried cardboard and a ghetto blaster, sang we are the world, and watched different strokes and knight rider, then gather up some friends who share your history, and watch this movie as a celebration of our childhood. The soundtrack was great, the acting tolerable, and the script was creative. The b-boying was alright. There's a little antagonistic dude that does a great job, the rest is OK, and is actually pretty realistic depicting the differences between the style of the 80s and todays breaking. it's pure fun and entertainment. expect more, and you might be disappointed. expect a montage of the best of your childhood,and you'll have a great time.