MovieChat Forums > Salsa (1988) Discussion > This movie SUCKS!!!!! AND this is coming...

This movie SUCKS!!!!! AND this is coming from a Puertorican!!!

posted 19 years ago by missjazzy2145
26 replies | jump to latest

I am so sorry to all who I may offend ...but I was actually embarrased while watching this movie. The actors are horrible! ESPECIALLY uni-brow "Margarita" who looked like she was reading her lines from a que card behind the camara!! Absolutley NO emotion on her face! The dance scenes were awful, I dance better than they did at home! It was AWFUL I can't even describe how bad this movie was. In fact I am laughing my culo off right now thinking about the scene in which Margarita gets into the wreck after running out of the club. She hops into this box car looking Trooper thing and the car gets hits and I swear that the roof comes off the car with the windows still attached to it!!! Puertoricans do not sit around dancing all day and womanizing I can assure you! Robby Rosa was so embarrassing with his Jerry curl and dancing in the shower! I had to apologize profusely to my poor husband who I forced to watch this HORRIBLE movie!!! The only good part in this movie was the split second in which la reina de salsa, Celia Cruz, came on! SPARE Yourself and do NOT watch this TERRIBLE movie or if you need a good laugh watch it!

[–] premont 19 years ago

You were expecting Schindler's List or something? It's a friggen musical. And I doubt you dance better than they do. If you look at some of the club scenes you will see Constance Marie dancing and she's pretty famous.

[–] missjazzy2145 18 years ago

No... I was not expecting anything Oscar-worthy but something somewhat decent.....
This movie also had Celia Cruz in it for about 2 seconds and she is more noteworthy than Constance Marie...

I'm sure I can dance circles around you and those idiots in this HORRIBLE movie!

[–] phuture91 18 years ago

cool so how many muscials have u starred in since ur so talented??

[–] missjazzy2145 17 years ago

If you meant to insult I must say you did a sorry job...because all I can do is laugh. I laughed so hard I was crying when I read this. I was insulting this crappy movie and not YOU!!!

[–] d-rowland54 18 years ago

Other people don't think so!!! I have the movie,and i think it is great. I bet you didn;t like ''Grease neither,am i right??? i am not puertorican.

[–] miriammendez08360 18 years ago

As you can see the movie was made in 1988. You watched it in 2005. Alot has changed in 18 years. I don't know how old you were at that time, but come on when you look back at that kind of stuff you got to laugh and I was only 11 at the time. I will agree with one thing, that accident part with Margarita was silly. But I watch it over and over, me and my friends already have the script down pact! But your opinion is your opinion and we should respect that. You forgot though that THE LEGEND TITO PUENTE was also in the movie! Take care!

[–] missjazzy2145 17 years ago

Yes I enjoyed that part with Tito...But that was it....I vaguely remember was Celia in this movie too?

[–] kapaka 17 years ago

Try watching Salsa (2000) French-Spanish coproduction.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229694/
About Salsa dancing, was nice.

[–] tootster 17 years ago

Sorry to portray defensive, but I think this movie is fabulous. As some of the other threads said if you watched it recently, then you wouldn't get the same appreciation as you did if you were 10 or 12 when it came out in 1988. I watched it at the age of 12. I had a slight crush on Rodney Harvey (Ken) and thought Rico (Robi Rosa) was cool as well.

Yes I agree the acting is pretty lame and very cheesy. No, I don't agree that the dancing is terrible and somewhat poor. I think the choreographed scenes were done very well with the assistance of Ken Ortega. Whom also did the dance scenes in Dirty Dancing. Highly respected choreographers. Just to top it off, I just went through Amazons and bought both the soundtrack and DVD (a combination deal) at a very affordable price. I am watching a copied version at the moment on DVD, recorded from Pay TV. I have the original VHS which I bought in 1994 and I also bought the Salsa Soundtrack in the early 90's. So you can clearly say I am a loyal fan of the film.

Open to your feedback but these are my thoughts. I hope some-day you might turn your thoughts around. Overall I respect your ethnicity, and may find this an insult. So please open your mind if you can.

All the best.

[–] missjazzy2145 17 years ago

I'm just saying, you know? It was embarrasing to watch. Anyway, I ususally have an open mind but I truly detest this movie.

[–] premont 17 years ago

Are you still going on about this? Lol

[–] Robertmauricio 17 years ago

I agree this movie sucks. Dance with me is a better movie that this and Chayanne is there.

[–] premont 17 years ago

I prefer Salsa. The girls are better, the soundtrack is better, Kenny Ortega's choreography, etc.

[–] mofoslo 17 years ago

:)

This is my first post, i watched this movie when i was 12 :)
All the girls ware crazy about it... :)

Backthen everybody liked it :)

But if i watch it NOW :D

[–] Cheeno 17 years ago

I understand why Latinos would be insulted by the weird depictions. I was expecting a Carmen Miranda-type character with a bowl of frutas on her head to pop out and do a cha-cha. Frank Stallone playing the homeless, rum-chugging Latino bum that suddenly bursts out into "Margarita" while Ken and Rita play alley bullfight WITH HER SKIRT AND A MOTORCYLCLE honestly made me realize that this campy movie can't be taken seriously. If you see that it's just Grease with Hispanics you gotta laugh it off and realize that if anyone takes this as a serious view of Latin life they gotta be stupid or something. Did any Australians hate Grease cause of they way they portrayed Sandy? I didn't think so. Just laugh and enjoy.

[–] missjazzy2145 17 years ago

LMAO. That's hilarious.

"mama you quiero, mama yo queiro ...mama yo quiero una chupeta..."

With a bowl of frutas on her head. Love it!

[–] jorgito2001 16 years ago

I wouldn't say this movie SUCKS....the soundtrack is a redeeming feature (at least).

The movie IS pure 80s cheese...and the story & acting pales in comparison to its sister movie, Dirty Dancing.

I've seen the movie a total of 3 times (including a revisit yesterday) & it gets cornier everytime I see it, but I think Robby Rosa did a good acting job...besides the actress playing mom, everybody else was HORRIBLE!

***
Recent:
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[–] dojux 15 years ago

Just watched the movie and I have to agree - it was really a waste of time. Even for a typical 80ies dance film it was very poor quality - the acting, the plot and also the dancing. In comparison to Dirty Dancing-which I have watched many times and can still enjoy-it just lacks a real storyline people can get involved in even though it's cheesy.

I've been involved in the salsa scene for almost 9 years now and besides dancing I also did a lot of research about the history of the music and dancing. So in this respect Celia Cruz and Tito Puente were the only points worth to mention.

Another aspect is also the kind of salsa they dance - Puerto Rican style is supposed to be a mixture of Cuban Style and LA style, but what they showed here was more the latter, which is more a show style and does not evoke any feeling of sensuality and pure eroticism as Cuban style does. So when all the girls fell for Robby Rosa who danced in such a selfpossessed way as if his dance partners were not even there it was just hilarious (but not in a good way).

As someone here mentioned the French movie Salsa & Amor is a bit better in this respect although to this point I'm afraid a really good salsa movie still has to be made.

[–] Lisaluv1 15 years ago

Not sure what a Puertorican is but I'm mixed Puerto Rican and insulted that you would dare try to tie us with your opinion. I personally loved the movie. Sorry but this was not meant to be the next 'Grease' ... it had it's flare for the 80's and gave me (personally) some great music to enjoy.

Poop in his hand ... Poop in his hand

[–] missjazzy2145 15 years ago

Another person who has nothing better to do than go around and troll and find someone to argue with. Get over it. It was meant as funny ha ha... not to be offensive to anyone, esp. my own people. I am a PUERTO RICAN and it was an embarrassing portrayal of our culture, IN MY OPINION. If you don't share it, cool. I mean really a dancing womanizer. Get your underwear out of a wad. You had it right when you said it was my opinion. Go be argumentative with someone that you can do it to their face.

"The man who said, I'd rather be lucky than good, saw deeply into life"

[–] andromache3 10 years ago

Look, this movie is cheesy and campy. What do you expect for a dance movie that came out in the eighties? Check out its predecessors like Grease (which came out in the seventies), Footloose, Breakdance, Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo, (seriously?!?) Lambada and Dirty Dancing. Corny silly movies, with a weak plot, bad acting and endless dance montages. I'd throw in Dance With Me and Strictly Ballroom but they came out in the nineties and at least they made an attempt at a story line.

Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.

[–] saga_heart 12 years ago

M.Jazzy, I saw this pic back in the 80s/early 90s and have not seen it since. I barely recall what it was about. The one thing about that stuck was the Margarita song which has decayed to only a distant memory now, so I decided to look for it now and came across your post.

I thought I'd chime in, just to keep the conversation going since it started in 2005 and it is now 2012.

I remember enjoying the film. I have to admit that if I had not read the information on the IMDB page and in these threads I would not have remembered that the characters were Puerto Rican. Also, I remember enjoying other Golan Globus films of the period. I have seen some of these recently and have had a very different opinion of them. Somehow when watching these movies in the 80s it left a very different sensation. Now that I have seen some of these movies 20 - 30 years later I can see their low production quality. They just look cheesy.

I know that this movie was meant to be a "Latin " version of Dirty Dancing and I remember it not disappointing, but I wonder what opinion I would have of it if I saw it today. I found and saw the You Tube video corresponding to Margarita and as expected the quality seemed low, but I can tolerate this if the movie is engaging. I enjoyed hearing the song again after so long, but did not remember any of the visuals (motorcycle, bums, beer, etc.)

From what I understand, your disgust with the movie is how badly Puerto Rican life was represented. I am not familiar with this culture, so even if I saw the movie now I would not be able to make any criticisms in this regard. I do know that movies tend to exaggerate stereotypes. To me it seems that Golan Globus' priority was getting the movie out without worrying too much about quality, both in production and authenticity (at least what is possible within a fictional work).

I have no idea whether you are still around to read this. Still I just wanted to share my thoughts on this movie which took me back to another era. Regards.

[–] coffeemann 11 years ago

I dont know how old you are girl, but this was the 80's looking back you might think it was cheesy, but to us it was cool! it's how it was.
this movie was in the lines of lambada and other sexy dance movies which were popular, I guess now its the save the last dance , and step up etc.

20 years from now people will be laughing how lame STEP UP was.