Beat Street

While Charlie Ahearn's 1982 independent feature Wild Style worked frontline reportage of New York's nascent rap and breakdance scene into an otherwise anodyne teenage romance, this rather glossier affair sprinkles the latest happening sounds over a selection of familiar narrative moves. So we get troubled cross-ethnic relationships, the drama of a young dj's first night on the decks at a big club, the dangers of spraying graffiti on subway trains - all of it unfolding against the streetwise setting of the Bronx, but with a strictly PG-rated filter on sex and bad language. Pretty bland, but you have to admit co-producer Belafonte had an eye for talent, spotlighting HipHop legends-in-the-making Afrika Bambaata and the Soul Sonic Force, the Rock Steady Crew, and Grand Master Melle Mel and The Furious Five.