CinemaNow - Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ would appear to facing little significant competition this weekend from new wide releases, all of which have been generally pummeled by the critics. Roger Ebert gives Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights two stars (he gave the original only one), implying that he was being generous because of the pretty pictures on the screen. Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times is not nearly so charitable. This reimagining of the recklessly melodramatic 1987 original is packed with flashy, taffeta silliness and a desperation for a sweaty PG-13 sexiness so laughable that the cast deserves Oscar nominations for getting through the picture without cracking up, he writes. To Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution even the term reimagining is off-base. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights has so little to do with the 1987 hit Dirty Dancing, she writes, that they could've just as well called it The Matrix: Havana Nights. To Peter Howell in the Toronto Star, the movie is charmless, clumsy and culturally offensive all at the same time. But Kevin Thomas writes his usual antipodal review in the Los Angeles Times, referring to the film as original and engaging. The attractive leads ... the steamy sensuality of their dancing, the splendid period costumes and settings will appeal specially to women of several generations, he concludes.