Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing is among the all-time favorite “dance movies”, no doubt in part to Patrick Swayze’s smooth moves. In many ways, this movie was about the maturing of the younger generation and the older generation coming to terms with it. The topics of abortion, dancing and pre-marital sex earned Dirty Dancing many reproving comments from the religious community. As with all things frowned upon by our elders, this disapproval merely served to further the popularity of the film.
These underlying themes were of less importance for many viewers, when ugly ducklings everywhere identified with Frances (aka ‘Baby’), or secretly pretended to be the suave Johnny Castle. (ok ok, many of the teen & college crowd were just hoping for great sex scenes) The love plot was rather tortured, (but who could forget the water scene?) and much of the dialogue utterly awful. For a touchstone that brings back a lot of memories, however, this movie remains on my Favorite Movies list.
Dirty Dancing – Havana Nights, however, left a lot to be desired. I blame this more on my own age, than on the movie, since honestly, the movie isn’t that bad. I just would prefer the lead male character to be, er, more mature. Like Patrick Swayze! Who only makes a couple of cameo appearances in the film. Havana Nights attempts to deal with interracial romance and touchy politics, but those plotlines are a bit of a snooze. I’d skip it and just re-watch the original movie.
I came across mention of One Last Dance, which Swayze appears to have a starring role in, and have added it to my must-see movies list. If nothing else, I will enjoy watching the dancing. 
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