From Amazon.co.uk
Adrian Lyne's appropriately flashy tale of a struggling dancer who works as a steelworker to pay the bills fits perfectly into the soundtrack-driven era of big-budget 80s movies such as Footloose and Top Gun. Driven by Giorgio Moroder's thumping, aerobicised soundtrack, Flashdance is alternately hilariously overblown and totally compelling. The thin story line and soapy dialogue hardly matter when you're watching Jennifer Beals pump her feet like a jackhammer.

Several scenes in the movie have become classics: Beals stomping to Michael Sembello's "Maniac" and the almost mythic moment where the actress is drenched in a bucket of water during an onstage dance routine. Thankfully, Flashdance never gets as ludicrous as pop fluff such as Olivia Newton John's howler Xanadu. And you've got to appreciate a movie that brought leg warmers to the masses. --Ethan Brown, Amazon.com