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DVD The Mambo Kings
This period drama is hot, hot, hot. Stylish and sexy, it is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos, the story of two brothers who flee from Cuba in the early 1950s, heading for New York. Hoping to make a name for themselves as famous musicians, the duo face hardships and painful discoveries along the way. Armand Assante is the older of the two, with a smoldering Antonio Banderas as his younger, more impetuous brother. (In his first English-speaking role, Banderas delivered all of his lines phonetically.) The pulsating, sweaty energy of the first half of the film is not sustained throughout. Partly this is because a movie about the rise and fall of minor celebrities has been done to death. Even when the action slows down, however, the story does not bore. There is too much sensuality and vitality exuded by both Assante and Banderas. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Oscar Hijuelos' great novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love forms the basis for this film although the movie version stops about halfway through Hijuelos' story largely ignoring the tragic second half of Cesar Castillo's life without his brother.
The brothers are played by Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas and both are extraordinarily well cast. Assante conveys the more hedonistic Cesar with greaat intensity and Banderas actually steals the film with a remarkable performance as the more sensitve brother Nestor.
Fine casting, including a fairly strong performance by the late Celia Cruz makes this movie a pleasure to watch. Marusckha Detmers plays Nestor's wife Dolores and while she looks great she poses more effectively than she acts.
Overall this is a fine entertaining film and while the plot is derived from the novel in order to translate it to the screen some obvious liberties were taken with the story that frankly do not detract much from the enjoyment of a film that stands on it's own merit.
The backdrop of 1950's Mambo-crazed NYC is also very cool and well done.
Cool film!
Reportedly,this is Antonio Banderas' first English-speaking film. This film is set in the late 1940's to early 1950's Here,we hear the great sound of Mambo,probably based on the concept of TV's I Love Lucy.
One of the BEST!
I have to say this is one of my favorite all time movies. The soundtrack is amazing. This is a latino's dream come true(I should know, I'm latino!). This movie is not a long concert, as some might think. It has a great story, some funny parts, and an excellent soundtrack (did I say that already?). Every musician is a "mambo king" in his own eyes. The successes and failures that these brothers encounter are very true to life. If you haven't seen this movie, go buy it! You won't regret it.
Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Haggis DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's not exactly Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but this 1998 entry, starring Vanessa Williams and newcomer Chayanne offers its own terpsichorean pleasures. The story centers on Rafael Infante (Chayanne), a Cuban émigré to Texas, where he takes a menial job at a local dance studio run by John Burnett (Kris Kristofferson). There, he falls for Ruby Sinclair (Vanessa Williams), a one-time ballroom championship contender looking for the opportunity to compete for the title once more. The romance seems a foregone conclusion but has some snap thanks to a crisp performance by Williams and a sunny (if limited) one by Chayanne, a singing star in Puerto Rico. Best of all is the dancing itself. In terms of both energy, exuberance, and style, this film's dance sequences rank with the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa L. Williams - Chayanne Director(s): Randa Haines DVD Release Date: Released the 12 January 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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