We’ve seen some fun dance montages on YouTube before, but most of them only focus on movies that include...well...dancing. Most of the time, a look back on dancing in movies limits itself to movie musicals or other films where dancing is an important aspect of the story. This time, pretty much any moment in the history of cinema where somebody gyrates slightly differently is fair game. It opens with Ex Machina for crying out loud. One content warning: the music is very '90s.
It’s so good it makes you wish you didn’t suffer from a debilitating lack of rhythm. Or maybe that’s just me. This video, entitled, "Gonna Make You Sweat," after the song which is used, is by YouTuber Robert Jones, who has created other dance tribute videos in the past. If anything, the use of any movie that includes dancing seems to have pushed out many of the films you might expect to see here. You do get your moments from Grease and other classic musicals but there are more shots of Beetlejuice here than there are of Magic Mike. That's a crime. Also, to be fair, the video has a pretty relaxed definition of what apparently qualifies as dancing. We’re not sure what Howard the Duck is doing is actually dancing, for example, but in this instance, that’s ok.
From the "so bad, it’s good" class of films we have to say that the multiple scenes from the Breakin’ movies were both terrifying and hilarious. Seriously kids, the '80s were a ridiculous time, don’t let anybody tell you differently. A shout out also needs to go out to a couple of usually overlooked masterpieces like Swing Kids as well as the Apollo Creed/James Brown scene from Rocky IV.
While Magic Mike didn’t get much love in this video, we fully expect Jones’ next take to include Channing Tatum's showstopping (we hope) tap number from next week’s Hail, Caesar!. The slate for dance movies in 2016 looks light but there will always be dancing in films. We’ll probably see Robert De Niro bumping and grinding with Aubrey Plaza from Dirty Grandpa as well. Unless we want to all agree that movie never happened.
What are your favorite scenes from the video above? What other great moments got left out? Let us know your guilty pleasures when it comes to dance in cinema below. Honestly, we have to go with Val Kilmer in Top Secret. Truly underrated comedy with some great song and dance bits that he actually did himself. What do you think?
