Girls Just Want To Have Fun

If you ever watched Sex in the City and wondered who you need to blame for inflicting the world with Sarah Jessica Parker, then the casting agents of the 1985 popcorn movie Girls Just Want To Have Fun must shoulder some of the responsibility. After a supporting role as Rusty in Footloose, the pint-sized actress was 20 years old when she scored her first leading role in this dance-athon which was inspired by the Cyndi Lauper song.

As you might expect for a film based on a pop song, the plot is paper thin but good clean fun. Parker's fiesty leading lady Janey wants nothing more than to be a dancer on the highly originally named Dance TV. But can you believe it? Her strict Catholic father doesn't want to her throw her life away on something so lame. She probably should have listened to her Dad...

At the same time, resident bad (but pretty) boy Jeff, played by Lee Montgomery, who was at the tail-end of his child acting career and soon faded into obscurity, has a bizarre passion for dancing but his tough-nut Dad wants him to go to trade school instead. Helen Hunt also pops up as Janey's wacky best friend Lynne, whose velcro sleeved school shirt shows just how cool (or should I say radical?) she is.

Funnily enough Janey and Jeff get paired up at Dance TV auditions, wow the judges with some moderately well executed 80s dance steps (and much more impressive hair styles and fashion sense) and despite initally hating each other, end up romantically entwined while preparing for the big dance off at the end of the movie.

This movie is actually pretty fun to watch if you're an 80s child like myself. The presence of some big name stars strutting their stuff early in their careers is entertaining, as are the dance sequences which are propped up by some funny choreography but suffer from some very ordinary music. In its day, Girls Just Want To Have Fun obviously wasn't rated highly by the entertainment industry and as a result could not pick up any big name songs in its soundtrack. Even Cyndi Lauper's title song could only be included in the final credits.

A killer 80s soundtrack would have really tipped this movie into the must-see 80s classic zone occupied by Footloose, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing. However, as it stands, this is a worthy addition to the Popcorn Movie Night ranks.