Kickin' It Old School

Hector: Ain't nobody wear parachute pants no more
Justin: Parachute pants are timeless!.

Kickin' It Old Skool is a 2007 comedy starring Jamie Kennedy, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Michael Rosenbaum, Maria Menounos, Bobby Lee, Christopher McDonald and Debra Jo Rupp.

Justin Schumacher (Kennedy) wakes up from a 20-year coma he had fallen into while breakdancing when he was 12, only to get his old group back together for a TV dance contest to save his parents from having to sell their house to pay his medical bills.

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This film provides examples of:

• The '80s: The first ten minutes take place in 1986 and countless references are made throughout the rest of the film.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Alan Ruck cameos as "Dr. Frye" who's still struggling to pay off a Ferrari.
  • During the epilogue, it's revealed that David Hasselhoff got arrested for impersonating a lifeguard at a beach.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. Jennifer is initially engaged to Kip, but later rekindles old feelings she had of Justin after spending time with him.
• Berserk Button: Never say "Retarded" around a Taco Palace restaurant children's entertainer. Justin and Kip found this out the hard way.
• Big "NO!" and Villainous Breakdown: Kip after Justin and his crew win the contest.
• Book Ends: The Funky Fresh Boyz dance to Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" in the final showdown just like how they did in the talent show when they were kids. Justin finally lands the special move that first made him comatose and wins the competition.
• The Cameo: David Hasselhoff, Emmanuel Lewis and Vivica A. Fox all make one.
• Chekhov's Gunman: "Caw-Caw-Carl"; the crazy, "breakdancing" homeless man.
• Coming of Age: Played with. His body's there, now his mind has to catch up.
• Convenient Coma
• Cool Car: KITT makes a welcome appearance much to everyone's surprise, though it's lampshaded earlier on.
• Disco Dan: Gradually subverted with Justin.
• Everyone Has Standards: Cole as he checks on the DJ after Kip assaults him and asks him if he's alright
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Of the Coma variation.
• Four-Token Band: The four main guys form a really diverse group with White guy, Justin; Darnell, the Black dude; Aki, the Asian one and Hector, the Latino.
• Four-Man Band:
  • Only Sane Man: Darnell
  • The Smart Guy: Aki
  • The Pervert: Hector
  • Butt-Monkey: Justin
• Inherited Illiteracy Title/Xtreme Kool Letterz: You may have noticed 'school' is spelled with a K, perhaps due to the urban nature of breakdancing.
• Jerkass: Kip, big time! Actively invoked to the point of obnoxiousness.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Kip, after being such an incredible douchebag, has a massive tantrum and assaults a coworker on stage and TV and gets fired, then knocked out cold by a mentally-handicapped man who gets offended by the word "retarded". The epilogue reveals he recovers and is actually now "slightly" retarded as a result.
• Love Triangle: between Justin/Jen/Kip.
• Manchild: Justin. Though justified since he went into a coma at age 12 and thus his mindset is stuck there. He gets better though.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Jen says this after going on a date with Justin and getting a text message from Kip reminds her she's still engaged.
  • Arguably, Kip as well.
• N-Word Privileges: After a misunderstanding from Darnell about the current tolerance of the "n-word", Justin learns he has none.
• Nice Guy: Justin along with really nice girl, Jennifer.
• Putting the Band Back Together: After 20 years, the four main friends (a.k.a. "The Funky Fresh Boyz") reunite and part take in the dance-off of their lives.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Justin and Jen's first kiss when they were pre-teens. So much that Justin's friends have to ask him questions and try to snap him back to reality.
• Recognition Failure: When David Hasselhoff shows up, Justin is starstruck, but Jennifer doesn't know who he is.
• Running Gag: Darnell's weird ideas for toys, like the the "Jew-bix Cube" for example.
• Shout-Out: Where to begin. The movie is a love letter to 80's POP Culture.
  • The Smurfs, Garbage Pail Kids, Sixteen Candles, Flashdance, Rubix Cubes, most of all, the Breakdancing Craze and many more.
  • Young Justin's jacket is the same one Michael Jackson wore in the "Beat It" music video.
  • Aki: "Danielsan, karate here (points to head), karate here (points to heart)...karate never here (points to belt)".
    • "Hello, McFly?"
  • "There comes a time, when we heed a certain call...when the world must come together as one'"
  • Justin's speech to his parents about choices: "The world don't move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you may not be right from some"
  • An Optimus Prime action figure can be seen in Justin's hospital room.
• Stealth Parody: The movie could be seen as something of a spoof of the Breakdancing film genre and to "Underdog" films in general.
• Take That!:
  • "Mom, TV's broken; supposed to be MTV, but they're not playing any videos!"
  • "Darth Maul? Jar-Jar Binks? Who are these gaybirds? They weren't in Star Wars."
  • The epilogue shows that Justin's Jerkass rival became slightly retarded as a result of head trauma...and later became a judge on Dancing with the Stars.
• The Talk: Darnell gives it to Justin by showing him The Internet...yeah.
• Totally Radical: Both done deliberately and mined for laughs... kinda like how the Gran Chaco region was for oil.
• Turn of the Millennium: The majority of film is set in 2006 while Justin, still mentally stuck the '80s, has trouble adjusting to this era with both hilarious and dramatic results.
• Vomit Chain Reaction: Justin vomiting Mexican food all over his rival Cole is disgusting enough that even Kip gets nauseated and runs away to vomit.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After losing the first dance-off against Ice Cole Krew, Justin throws up Mexican food all over his rival Cole before taking off running.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
  • Justin and Jen get married, save his parents house with the contest money and she tries to teach him how to use an iPod.
  • Darnell opens his own 97 cent store and becomes a millionaire but still gets bitch-slapped by his wife.
  • Aki marries the co-worker he crushes on in a Jewish ceremony. She now claims that his chances of sleeping with her increased to 3%.
  • Hector moved to Las Vegas where he gets a new job as a Jennifer Lopez impersonator.
  • Justin's rival Kip never recovered from being punched in the face from a children's entertainer and is now slightly retarded. Somehow he finds work as a judge on Dancing with the Stars.
  • David Hasselhoff got arrested for impersonating a lifeguard.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Hector gradually becomes this after helping Justin practice what to say to Jennifer on their date by "pretending to be her" wearing a wig and bra. Later, during the final dance number, Hector shows the audience he's been wearing the bra underneath his shirt. The Stinger reveals he eventually went on to become a Jennifer Lopez impersonator in Las Vegas.

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