LAMBADA: SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE

1990 / Director. Joel Silberg. 
Review by Justine Ryan.

Kevin Laird (J. Eddie Peck) is a maths teacher during the day at Stonewood, a rich Beverly Hills high school. At night he changes into his motorcycle gear (bandana, leather jacket and jeans) and is known as Blade by the less fortunate kids at the underprivileged Galaxy High, where each night he tutors maths in a back room of a Lambada dance club called 'No Man's Land'. Blade eventually gets busted and loses his teaching job after he sneaks the kids of Galaxy High into Stonewood to give them a simulated GED exam. The kids at Galaxy High band together and suggest to the principal that they have a super maths quiz against Stonewood to show what Blade has taught them. The principal agrees and as you probably guessed it - the kids at Galaxy High win and Kevin (Blade) gets his job back. The snotty Beverly Hills kids make peace with Galaxy High, after Kevin makes a touching speech to the school about the importance of education and that one's race or neighbourhood where one comes from doesn't matter- we're all human. So peace is made and everyone runs outside into the rain to dance the lambada together! 

BREAKIN' (1984) actor, dancer and choreographer, Shabba Doo (aka Adolfo Quinones, also a founder of the dance style that is known as "locking") re-teams with Breakin' director, Joel Silberg (whom passed away in 2013) and plays Ramone, a guy who gives Blade a lot of grief throughout the film because he thinks Blade is just there for the chicks. He delivers some fun lines in the film like, "It's the 90's, a chicks got a right to choose." Blade eventually earns Ramones respect when he see's Blades tattoo on his chest and realises that he is a homey and comes from his side of the tracks. "Everybody comes from somewhere, Ramone."

The film is peppered with little gold nuggets like a dorky dance sequence during a computer class at Stonewood and even a day-dream fantasy sequence of Mr Laird on a motorcycle, shirtless, after Sandy (Melora Hardin) becomes infatuated with him after discovering his double life. 

Lambada: Set The Night On Fire is pure cheesy fun but with a lot of heart and an upbeat soundtrack that moves the film along nicely -- heck, I own the Soundtrack and break out some lambada moves in the privacy of my bedroom - guilty as charged but with no regrets!

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