Salsa, la película

Hola. I recommend this beautiful movie.Is great.Not only because it talks about Puerto Rico,Is great because the Biggest Cast is our Puertorrican Robi Draco Rosa.So much talent in his past in his present and i hope in his future.And his present wife Angela Alvarado is great they make a team together.As an actor he may be Robby Rosa but in his music he is Robi Draco Rosa.So poetic and so Boricua.Did you see him in the Latin Grammy?.Now that is a actor,singer and a talented person.Puerto Rico loves you Robi Draco Rosa Your The Best. You will always be are Latino,Boricua,Poetic person.

P.Rodz

I do recommend watching this movie with an open mind and not expecting anything but silly fun. It's a guilty pleasure kind of movie.

I love this movie. It came out when i was 8 years old and I've seen it so many times i can actually resite it. Its my sister and mines favorite movie. Robbie Rojas is just the hottest thing under the sun as well as Ken, who i was sad to hear past away a few years back. Still love this movie. The music is great and who ever doesn't like it then, oh well, cry me a river. i was waiting for the movie to come out on DVD and at last it did. I would love it if they showed the movie more on cable or something. I know its and oldy but a goody. I saw it only once on vh1 many years ago, but that was that. The movie shows a lot of truth regarding the Spanish culture and how much we love our music, our people and specially how much we treasure our family and our family values. Great movie.......

Some really dynamic music and surprisingly effective 1989 level teen romance are just some of the enjoyable parts of this awful Golan Globus production from Cannon Films, the LA/ Israeli based exploitation outfit that simply made D grade knock offs of whatever other hit films there were in cinemas the previous year. In this case DIRTY DANCING from 1988.

The roster of SALSA guest artists is surprising and the Salsa numbers quite dynamic in their Latin way. Talented boy-band dude Bobby Rosa clearly was the indecent obsession of someone at Cannon as he is lust-filmed to the point of near nude as often as possible (especially in the opening ten minutes... (I thought I had the wrong DVD playing)..... We even have a garish nightclub with an orchestra - lots of pink neon and glass blocks -and it's a place frequented by Aunties and their husbands, mum and li'l sisters... a real family affair, as is the whole film... even with backyard parties in the afternoon. It offers a real good look at suburban 1989 Los Angeles... which is interesting in itself.

Occasionally Golan Globus accidentally made something that was actually good (eg RUNAWAY TRAIN) ... and I am very sad to say that today in 2007 this film is rendered quite emotional because of the charming and effervescent appearance of talented 20 year old Rodney Harvey in one of his few good roles before his terrible drug death in 1997. I have seen the string of mug shots of Rodney in decline from sparkling teen to gaunt ghost ...they were printed in Premiere magazine years ago in a run of shots 1-10 showing just his arrested image in horrifying shrivel as his heroin addiction rotted his handsome young face. You can also see him in GUN CRAZY and MY PRIVATE IDAHO. Absolutely tragic. His family and friends must just be grief-stricken still if they see his films today.

I was also reminded by SALSA a lot of the Oz film STRICTLY BALLROOM which was made 4 years later. Some sequences from SALSA are clearly reformatted into STRICTLY, especially the billboard dancing scene. Hmmmmmm.

This movie is very Latino (like me), but unfortunately it has little substance in it. The only virtue i find in a movie like this is the (evident) enthusiasm, the lively, energetic approach, the depiction of the youth culture in the late 80s, a reminder of (very probably) happier times than nowadays.

The acting is not that bad; i guess the actors didn't have much to work with...concerning that shallow script. There are, here and there, a few well made romantic, well meaning scenes, but overall the film lacks dramatic weight (and what should i expect from a movie named "Salsa"?) Anyway, it was always nice to see/listen to some salsa stars like Celia Cruz and Willie Colón, plus the good looking ladies and the (most of the time) cheerfulness of it all. On the poignant side, Rodney Harvey also stars here, a promising actor with a sad fate...(4/10)