CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

joakimfjellmann I have never had a worse cinematic experience than I had with this movie. You may think I am exaggerating to some degree, but assure you not, I am serious. This is possible one of the most clichéd, worst acted, worst written movies in all of cinematic history. Why this movie was even made is beyond me, but the people who made it deserved to be fired, burned at a stake and to be never let back into movie making. This movie literally caused me pain while I watched it. This can't even be considered a movie. This is a masterpiece. A masterpiece of failure. How do you manage to make something this bad? I sure have no idea.Think about this. This movie got greenlit. Someone pitched this movie to a studio, and they bought it. For real money!I should probably mention the plot of this movie. You can't really call it a plot though. It's more of what happens when literature dies, when all creativity is lost. It is so cliché filled that even a baby could predict the plot. It's about a generic ugly duckling girl who meets the man of her dreams when they move to Cuba during the crisis. Why they decided to place the plot there is beyond me, when this plot would work in literally every setting. Please, don't watch this movie. Save yourself from the pain that it will cause. If you have a copy, burn it.

SnoopyStyle It's 1958, high school senior Katey Miller (Romola Garai) follows her family (John Slattery, Sela Ward, Mika Boorem) to pre-revolutionary Cuba. They're staying in a fancy exclusive hotel. She bumps into local waiter Javier Suarez (Diego Luna) and eventually befriends him.There are great actors at work here. I love the location shoot in Puerto Rico. The story is strictly fantasy cheese. It doesn't have the fun and charm of the original namesake. It's better than expected but not anything great. The one thing that does stand out is that Romola Garai is quite a big tall gal. Diego Luna is barely taller than her, and he's definitely skinnier. It's a different feel to the franchise.

tomb_92 I started to watch this not really knowing what to expect, I thought I'd hate it. I'd never seen the original until recently and now I actually think this is better. It just charmed me from the beginning. So the plot is just a typical Romeo and Julliett- forbidden love type thing, but it works, and because of the setting it's original. It's set at a time in history that I'm really interested in- the fall of the American-backed Batista's Cuba to be replaced by Castro and his revolutionaries. The film is about rebellion, like the original, but in a different way. The rebellion is against society, but the film isn't really overly sympathetic to the rebels either, it just tries to look out for the average Cuban. The two main characters fall in love as a result of the girl needing to find independence of her strict American parents and finding that in the rustic-Cuban dance clubs, and the boy needing a way out of his seemingly crumbling home. It's an emotional tale that made me laugh, cry and even had me on the edge of my seat. And the dancing and music are great too.

life_imitation I stupidly watched this movie as someone interested in Cuban history, rather than dancing. And while the dancing and the music (I actually really love the soundtrack - I even own it and listen to it quite a lot) was good to my untrained eyes, the Cuban history, however, was laughably bad.The directors made a mistake in treating the Cuban Revolution subplot so lightly (i.e. "Batista, that guy's sorta mean; he doesn't let us dance but there's a revolution being led by Fidel Something-or-another! Yay!). I understand perfectly clear that the Cuban Revolution is a tough subject to tackle, especially with a movie marketed toward a predominantly American audience, but again, it was the director's choice to make the movie set during this time and place.Besides the obvious mistreatment of Cuban history, the 180 that the parents do in regard to their daughter dating the Cuban boy is just extremely unbelievable for people of their status and time. I understand that this is a movie and that I should attempt to suspend my disbelief, but this is just obvious to me. Wealthy white 1950s adults would never let their daughter spend nights away with Cubans.Like I said, this movie is mildly entertaining and I was able to somewhat enjoy it for what it was - mindless entertainment. Along with the bad history, the lack of character development was stunning as well - I wanted to hear more about the other snobby American expatriate kids (particularly Jonathan Jackson and January Jones' characters) and the parents. And hearing more about other characters would have made for a longer (I thought the film was too short as well) and better movie.And the voice-overs at the beginning and end? Awful. You don't use voice-over unless it's absolutely necessary. And it wasn't in this case.