Movie confessions
I like certain kinds of really bad movies. Things that have lots of action and explosions and either superheroes, martial arts action, or awesome chase scenes and shootouts? Love them. Heartwarming underdog-triumphs-over-adversity sports/dance/other competition movies? Love them. And, you know, the occasional romantic comedy, though my embarrassment squick prevents me from loving the genre as a whole. But really, I'm infamous among my friends for my poor taste in film. Himself is covered with shame each time someone comes over, examines our DVDs, and asks, "Whose copy of xXx is this?" It's not that I don't know the difference between well-done film and bad, it's that it is not necessarily always directly linked to my enjoyment.
So, though I have watched many good movies since I started breastfeeding/pumping in the middle of the night (Howl's Moving Castle and The Motorcycle Diaries are particularly recommended), what I want to review here is Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.
Are you still reading? Hardy soul!
Well, god bless the fast-forward button, for one thing. I watched about half of this movie, with the plot points about the dippy blonde on fast-forward and the parts where they actually dance on rewind. Yes, rewind. I watched Center Stage twice, so sue me. I actually watch a lot of things on half-forward like this (America's Next Top Model being a stellar example - I watch the photo shoots and the judging and skip all the catfights and Tyra Bank's diva act) - it's like poking all the chocolate in a box to see which ones have the filling you want and leaving the weird goopy ones alone.
The cast: Diego Luna, the main reason I rented this in the first place, shakes his thing admirably, and he can act, so I mostly watched his scenes. The blonde, I suspect, was a dancer first, and an actress a distant third - her "acting" was painful, in the parts I caught. Patrick Swayze makes a cameo, which totally cracked me up, as the dance instructor. Um, and there were some other people. But mostly Diego Luna, really.
The plot: Same as the first movie, more or less - the same class inequality setup, with the same lack of resolution - at least they weren't so cheap as to go the hypergamy route, but it was all a gloss anyway, an excuse for romance. In this case, it was also set, not at a country club, but against the backdrop of the Cuban revolution. Um, what?! That's a lot of politics to stick into a fluff film about dancing, and yeah, it failed miserably. There were also whole scenes in which the actors spoke Spanish - rapid Spanish, which I couldn't follow, despite usually being able to get the gist of movie Spanish. And no subtitles. Who is the audience for this film? I am confused.
And in another WTF moment: At the end of the movie, they have sex. After a "romantic buildup" that I had totally mistaken for just a close dancing partnership, suddenly the two teenies hop in the sack. All I could think was, "I wonder what kind of birth control they had access to?" Answer: none. Gah!
In conclusion, this movie sucked royally. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. And I enjoyed complaining about how bad it was even more. And I am so totally excited to see Take The Lead, though I'll have to wait for the DVD release. Antonio Banderas! Ballroom dancing! It's going to be so awfulesome, I may have to watch it twice.
So, though I have watched many good movies since I started breastfeeding/pumping in the middle of the night (Howl's Moving Castle and The Motorcycle Diaries are particularly recommended), what I want to review here is Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.
Are you still reading? Hardy soul!
Well, god bless the fast-forward button, for one thing. I watched about half of this movie, with the plot points about the dippy blonde on fast-forward and the parts where they actually dance on rewind. Yes, rewind. I watched Center Stage twice, so sue me. I actually watch a lot of things on half-forward like this (America's Next Top Model being a stellar example - I watch the photo shoots and the judging and skip all the catfights and Tyra Bank's diva act) - it's like poking all the chocolate in a box to see which ones have the filling you want and leaving the weird goopy ones alone.
The cast: Diego Luna, the main reason I rented this in the first place, shakes his thing admirably, and he can act, so I mostly watched his scenes. The blonde, I suspect, was a dancer first, and an actress a distant third - her "acting" was painful, in the parts I caught. Patrick Swayze makes a cameo, which totally cracked me up, as the dance instructor. Um, and there were some other people. But mostly Diego Luna, really.
The plot: Same as the first movie, more or less - the same class inequality setup, with the same lack of resolution - at least they weren't so cheap as to go the hypergamy route, but it was all a gloss anyway, an excuse for romance. In this case, it was also set, not at a country club, but against the backdrop of the Cuban revolution. Um, what?! That's a lot of politics to stick into a fluff film about dancing, and yeah, it failed miserably. There were also whole scenes in which the actors spoke Spanish - rapid Spanish, which I couldn't follow, despite usually being able to get the gist of movie Spanish. And no subtitles. Who is the audience for this film? I am confused.
And in another WTF moment: At the end of the movie, they have sex. After a "romantic buildup" that I had totally mistaken for just a close dancing partnership, suddenly the two teenies hop in the sack. All I could think was, "I wonder what kind of birth control they had access to?" Answer: none. Gah!
In conclusion, this movie sucked royally. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. And I enjoyed complaining about how bad it was even more. And I am so totally excited to see Take The Lead, though I'll have to wait for the DVD release. Antonio Banderas! Ballroom dancing! It's going to be so aw
posted by The Stute Fish at 11:06
1 Comments:
If you haven't seen Mad Hot Ballroom, you totally have to rent it. Awesome documentary about a NYC ballroom dancing competition for middle-school public school kids.
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