“The
Barbarian Invasions”
4 reels (out of four)
(See review)
“Dirty Dancing:
Havana Nights”
Miramax Films
Rated PG-13
(out
of four)
Has the dancing gotten dirtier to catch up with
the times since 1987’s “Dirty Dancing?” Well, “Dirty
Dancing: Havana Nights” is set in the 1950s
shortly before the revolution in Cuba, but it turns
out that Cubans back then did dance in a pretty dirty
fashion.
This movie isn’t so much a sequel as a reworking
of the formula of forbidden love. And the film includes
a cameo from Patrick Swayze as a dance instructor
in Cuba.
Romola Garai plays an American who moves to Havana
when her father gets promoted and meets a dancin’ pool
boy played by Diego Luna, the promising actor who
co-starred in “Y Tu Mama También.”
Some of the dancing is well-executed, but none of
the dialogue is. While there are some nice moments,
including one in which the dirty dancers dance over
a projected film of the girl’s parents, the
film abandons its formula with an odd coitus interruptus
during the climax. If the film worked in any way
other than its dance sequences, director Guy Ferland
might have been able to pull it off. But the film
ends with a series of embarrassingly bad scenes.
I can usually predict negative reviews when I hear
snickering in the critics’ section, but one
line inspired laughing in the entire theater.
“The Passion
of Christ”
3.5 reels (out of four)
(See review)
“Twisted”
Paramount Pictures
Rated R
(Not reviewed)
Almost 14 years ago, Philip (“The Right Stuff”)
Kaufman’s film “Henry & June” marked
the first NC-17 rating. It was intended to open artistically
important films with sex in them not to suffer the
X stigma. We see how well that’s worked, as
the new “The Dreamers” (opening here
next week) is one of few films that has received
a major release with that dreaded rating.
In only Kaufman’s second film since “Henry & June,” Ashley
Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia star in “Twisted.” Judd’s
a police detective investigating a series of murders
in which all her ex-boyfriends are the victims. A
poll shows that 85 percent of single men still want
to date Ashley Judd.
jeremy@red-mag.com
