Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)

This is absolutely the greatest movie I have ever seen. I know all of the words to the movie and yet I still get butterflies in my stomach and tears in my eyes. The connection that was made between the two of them seems so real and incredible. You feel their pain and their love. This movie is really great for a low point in your day if you are looking to feel better as well as any other second of the day. It's great how they bring elements of the first movie into this one but keep them very subtle so as not to confuse anyone into thinking that this movie is a sequel or a continuation of the first. Like I said before, I really feel that this movie is really and truly amazing, and everyone should at least try it. You might prove yourself wrong.

Fmovies: Normally, I avoid these kind of films as romantic movies aren't my cup of tea or coffee. However, while i was working, the movie was playing and I was captured by the beauty of Romola Garai. So I decided to watch the film. There were some great foot-tapping songs and the dances were fairly good too. There's nothing like dancing with a beautiful woman (who can dance too). The film itself is quite okay, nothing outstanding. The lead pair Diego Luna and Romola Garai share a nice chemistry. Not only is Garai beautiful but she can act too as she delivers a sincere performance. Diego Luna does his part well although in a few scenes he does seem to have difficulty with some expressions. Sela Ward is alright in a minuscule part. Ditto for Patrick Swayze's cameo.To sum it up, what I liked about it was Romola Garai, the soundtrack and the dances.

We were excited to see this long overdue sequel to the original Dirty Dancing. When we were done, we could not believe how badly it was made. I know it is cheaper to make films out of the United States now as this one was done in Australia. Problem is it looks like it was done by some blokes who didn't care about even trying to make a good movie.

Patrick Swayzee has a very small cameo role which was used to try & sell tickets to this turkey. Once people who saw the original looked at this one, they fled from the theaters. In case there ever is a chance, we should send this movie to someone we don't like.

That's what I'd do with it. It just gets worse by the minute. Makes the original look like a classic film. Watch the first one, skip this movie.

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights fmovies. All good parents tell their children "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all." (Of course, most good parents also warn you about running all over a foreign country at all hours of the night, but I digress!) So....

(INSERT EXTRA LONG PAUSE FILLED WITH TONGUE BITING SILENCE!!)

So, I promise that I won't go on about the injustice done to a modern day classic by slapping it's title on an overly cliched and not well acted (or overly well danced) sloppy second and I won't recount how creepy Patrick Swazye is looking (when exactly did he see her dancing, is the creepy old guy stalking her!?!). Instead, I will say that John Slattery and Sela Ward tried their best with what they were given and the female costumes were stunning (although how she went from a prudish, sweater wearing introvert who had to borrow a "sexy" outfit from the maid to having a zillion low cut, less than demure dresses I'll never know!)

So, now that I've done my best to say a little "something nice" and a whole lot of "anything at all"s, let me finish knowing that although I'll do my best not to take a piece of this movie with me, I think that, unfortunately, a little piece of it will always stay, well not in my heart, but definitely with me!!

My biggest gripe with this movie is that the Latin dancing is not very genuine. My father was living in Havana in the early 1960s, and reports what seems pretty obvious: this film is full of a modern, highly stylized and "hip-hoppified" version of Cuban street dancing.

But, there is a lot of other stuff to gripe about in this film.

Plot: our heroine is an American gringa whose family moves to pre-revolutionary Cuba because her dad's company promoted him to a position there. We don't know anything about our heroine (let's call her "La Gringa Caliente," because she eventually learns to loosen up and let strange men touch her butt), except that she gets good grades. So, she moves to Havana and becomes mesmerized by afro-Cubano dancing. This leads her to fall madly in love with a waiter in her hotel, and enter a dance tournament with him. Her family is scandalized. Then they are not scandalized any more.

The plot is totally predictable, and the acting is downright bad. The love story lacks guts. None of that matters if what you want is to see cool Latin dancing and listen to cool Latin music, which was my goal. But, even that goal is sadly disappointed here. There is some cool music, but most of the music is just hip-hop with a Latin beat. A lot of the dancing is just 2000's club freak-dancing... it looks more like Lambada than Samba.

The three features that pushed me from silent disappointment to derisive laughter were:

(1) They make a big deal about "Old Havana," and show all of these landscape shots to impress the viewer. But the city they are showing is San Juan, Puerto Rico! This might not be so obvious, but they show the most famous landmarks in San Juan, so that you cannot possibly even pretend the setting is Havana. So much for the "Havana Nights."

(2) For some God-awful reason, they throw Patrick Swayze back in! First of all, his character has no role, no background, and no reason to be there. He plays the gringo dance teacher who somehow teaches La Gringa Caliente how to loosen up and let guys touch her butt (he has a great line: "It can be very scary when someone touches that part of your body." who wrote this?). They dance around ballroom style. Second, the guy has had a really bad face-lift or something. He was only 52 when this film came out, but he looks 65. I was worried that his hairpiece was going to come flying off during some of the spins.

(3) The pathetically weak attempt to illustrate the social pressures that led to the Cuban revolution left in me stitches.

Conclusion: stink bomb. If you want a movie with cool Cuban music, rent Buena Vista Social Club. If you want to watch cool Latin dancing, rent the 1980s Robby Rosa film "Salsa!" If you have a desperate need to get rid of four dollars and be bored for 90 minutes, rent "Dirty Dancing Havana Nights."

I rented this movie the other day simply because I wanted to see how they could possibly do a sequel to the first Dirty Dancing. However, I don't think I would have otherwise. BUT I am really glad that I did. I loved this movie! I really liked the story line and it also gave me a brief glimpse of the history of Cuba. That in itself made it one of my new favorite movies. Combine this with the music and the awesome dancing and it becomes a fantastic movie. I am not going to compare it to the first DD movie. It deserves to be set out on it's own. It is definitely worthy. The young actors do an awesome job of portraying the characters in this movie. This is a movie that I would like to own and I don't feel that way about a lot of movies. Congratulations to the producers, directors and all of those involved, I will be recommending this one to friends and family.