Fleshdance | Ken Gibb | 1985
This Flashdance take-off is played straight and succeeds for the most part. Hollywood attempted to white-wash Jennifer Beales in much of the original film’s coverage, or at least play it ambiguously. None of that here. In Fleshdance, Essex cast Shanna Evans (although Rachel Ashley got star billing) as the Jennifer Beals stand-in, paired alongside John Leslie in a variation on Michael Nouri’s character.
But compared to other adult films cashing-in on Flashdance’s success, like the far superior Body Girls, it fails on two levels: Evans (who showed up in Paul Vatelli’s Getting Lucky) isn’t given much to do (what she does do, she does very well), and any homage to Adrian Lyne’s incredible film has to at least try to match it musically. There’s no serious attempt to riff on Moroder or Sembello in the score.
