Plucky girls with dreams unite! This is the basis of Heavenly Bodies, an 80s flick that followed in the footsteps of the success of Flashdance to give us the most basic of women empowerment stories while catering to one of the decade's hottest trends (aerobics), containing a soundtrack filled with synth-pop, and a male love interest who sports a most impressive mullet. This is a movie so dated that I felt like I should be wearing a neon headband and some legwarmers while watching it. As far as lower-budgeted clones of Adrian Lyne's "steel worker who aspires to be a dancer" romp go, this makes for a watchable time that benefits from a cute lead actress, the repeating refrain of "breaking out of prison, baby, breaking out of prison, girl" on the soundtrack, and a lot of dancercise routines where the camera lovingly lingers on toned female anatomy.

In what has to be the quickest realization of ambition in a movie ever, the first ten minutes of the flick introduces us to twenty-something Samantha (Cynthia Dale) who goes from a boring office job as a typist to leasing an old abandoned warehouse with a pair of friends and converting it into an aerobics studio dubbed "Heavenly Bodies" where she becomes the head instructor - not that her co-founders do much of anything but toot her horn for her from what I can see. Yes, this girl has already reached for the stars and the studio is a huge success thanks to her mix of dance, aerobics, and just plain F-U-N!

Of course, if that's all this had to offer it'd be pretty dull so the script tosses in a love interest in the form of football player Steve (Richard Rebiere), who we see in a montage bonding with her young son, as well as Samantha winning the coveted role of hosting a television exercise show - much to the chagrin of competing instructor Debbie (Laura Henry). From there we hit all the expected dramatic notes with the lame couples split-up, Samantha spurring the advances of fitness club mogul Jack (Walter George Alton), and ending on a televised(!!) exercise marathon showdown between the two groups with the club hanging in the balance.

Your enjoyment of Heavenly Bodies will really depend on your tolerance for (way too many) dance sequences, girls in leotards, and mild drama that wouldn't feel out of place on a soap opera. Considering that this was co-produced by Playboy it's surprisingly tame without any of the steamy sex or nudity of Flashdance. There's one mild glimpse of skin when Samantha jokingly sends a strip-o-gram to Steve and she does get naked but it's all hidden in shadows. Which, really, is the only reason guys like me would watch this in the first place. Possibly the most sexualized moment is when Samantha is questioned by her six-year-old about what orgies are - creepy! Otherwise, it's just your standard 80s fare that's mostly notable for being the only directorial effort for Canadian character actor Lawrence Dane who appeared in such films as Scanners, Happy Birthday to Me, and Of Unknown Origin.

In the lead, Dale is all sorts of cute. She's got an energetic smile and gives it her all in the dance sequences which, like I said, are numerous as it seems anytime anything goes wrong in Samantha's life she deals with her emotions by bursting into dance. That's definitely something I can relate to. She gets to obviously ape Jennifer Beals in the scene where she's giving it her all in the empty television studio and I can't argue with the see-through top she sports at one point. Rebiere has an impressive blonde mullet on display and does the usual love-sick stuff early on before disappearing only to try and get redemption in the finale. Henry is as bitchy as bitch can be and Alton does his best to be a prick even though I had to chuckle at his hairy-chested, shower cap wearing freak out while playing water polo. Of them all only Dale has gone on to a career and, for us horror fans, you might recognize her from the original My Bloody Valentine.

If you're looking for the kind of mild titillation this movie gave me when my pre-pubescent self saw it on cable all those years ago, Heavenly Bodies might make for an okay 90 minute timewaster. If you have an interest in the female dance craze of the 80s then, for sure, go with Flashdance but I can't deny Dale's winning personality or those goddamn catchy songs - plus it's much better than the overlong stinker that is 1985's Perfect with Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta. (Chris Hartley, 12/11/14)

Directed By: Lawrence Dane.
Written By: Lawrence Dane, Ron Base.

Starring: Cynthia Dale, Richard Rebiere, Walter George Alton, Laura Henry.