Havana nights
The title suggests that this is going to be a film full of long, hot summer nights with people
dancing passionately and probably some love as well. Well... It was. But while the original film
leaves you in the mood to start dancing yourself, this only makes you fall asleep.
Plot
The Miller family moves from America to Cuba in 1958, where the revolution is about to break out.
They live in a high society circle. Although they are not allowed to, 18 year old daughter Katey
befriends Cuban waiter Javier. He dances at night with his friends to release stress. Katey's parents
used to be very succesful ballroom dancers, and she has had lessons as well. She sees Javier dancing and
persuades him to enter a dance competition with her, so he has a chance of getting his family out of debt.
The first prize is 5000 dollar and a trip to America. Of course all the practising has to be done secretly,
because Katey's parents would never approve of them working together. Yes working, it's strictly platonic. Yeah right.
Katey and Javier win the third prize in the semi finals of the competition (no, not the first, that would be
too obvious *rolls eyes*) and shock her parents, but they stop being angry when they realise that she should not
do what they did: give up her passion. Or something. The whole story is set during the outbreak of the revolution and Javier's family is somewhat involved in that.
His father was killed and his brother wants to get revenge for that. Unfortunately, he tries to do this during the
dance finale and the show gets canceled right in the middle of Katey and Javier's performance. The revolution is suddenly
a fact and all Americans are asked to leave the country. Katey is a bit upset, goes over to Javier, tells him he will be in her
heart forever and BANG! end of film! Erm.. hang on, what happened to the dance competition?! And their undying love?
Acting
Luna is a great dancer, but his acting wasn't very convincing. Garai was worse though. It was a weird couple, Garai
is too tall and broadly built and makes a weird match with the slender Luna. As a reference to the first film, Patrick
Swayze had a (very) small part as a dance instructor.
Deja vu?
You get a lot of 'hey, I've seen this before' moments during this film. Quite a lot of scenes and phrases have been
copied straight from the first film. Not very professional. Together with the weird setting and amazingly stupid ending, we can only say one thing:
Verdict: Utter crap!