recommended

Brilliant and touching

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The movie Selena is "A story of a girl who had the spirit to believe in a dream and the courage to make it come true." Selena Quintanilla was a singer, songwriter, actress, and fashion designer. Her talents touched so many people around the world. Yet all of it ended with one tragic event: one of her dear friends had killed her. Jennifer Lopez, who plays Selena in this film, reminded the world of the loss of a loved hero, friend, and role model, who never forgot her roots. When Selena was young, her father saw a great talent in her. He knew that one day she could make it to the top. And that is just what she did! They started a family band called Selena Y Los Dinos, where Selena was the singer, her brother Abie (Jacob Vargas) was on bass guitar, and her sister Suzette (Jackie Guerra) was on drums. Her father managed and produced for the band. All through their endeavors, he still saw that talent in Selena. He made Selena learn how to sing in Spanish so that she could sing to the Latino communities. Through singing, she learned to speak Spanish fluently. In my opinion, Edward James Olmos portrayed Selena's father perfectly in this film. He portrayed the emotions that a real father might have during a similar situation, really well.Selena was very close to her family, and they supported her through her journey. With her new fame and fortune, she lifted them out of poverty. She never forgot where she came from! This movie captured the essence of family in a way that I have never seen before. It focused not so much on her death, but more on celebrating her life, and how far she came. Since the movie was released soon after Selena died, they decided to honor her music by using the original recordings in this movie. Jennifer Lopez was coached to lip sync the Selena songs. Yolanda Saldivar (Lupe Ontiveros) was a close friend to Selena, and was her fan club president. As time went on, she became more obsessive and close to Selena, Selena was at the peak of her career when she figured out that Yolanda was taking money from her. They portrayed this event really well in the movie, yet there was a lack of detail. Since the movie was focused on celebrating Selena's life, they thinly skimmed over her death. I would've enjoyed the movie even more if they would've added a bit more detail to the event of her death. Selena called Yolanda in and asked her about the situation. Selena knew Yolanda was lying and was going to fire her, when a few days later, Yolanda shot and killed Selena. Latino's and Americans all around the world mourned the loss of Selena. In the end of this movie, they showed actual archived pictures of Selena fans. In these pictures, the fans were holding candles and pictures of Selena. The end of this movie is so special and emotional. It shows how meaningful Selena was to people all around the world. She was an amazing person and a great performer. I hope her charm and talent is ever forgotten! This movie is truly an inspiration to all!

We had to watch this in Spanish class and review it as part of our unit about movies, so it's actually my second review for this. I wasn't expecting that much, and my expectations were pretty much met. I understand that people loved Selena and that she was an icon that defined a lot of people's culture, but that doesn't help me appreciate this adaptation of her life. I've always found that I learn a lot more about life from fiction than from stories about actual events. Plus, I always feel like movies about real people and events are pushing you to take them seriously because they "actually happened", which is annoying because a lot of times those movies are a bit lame. This biopic had a lot of the usual negative symptoms, and there's nothing terribly praiseworthy about it.The story doesn't have a whole lot of structure to it, which is not surprising since most people's lives do not follow dramatic patterns. There are some attempts at cohesive plot threads, but these don't come out great. Part of this is due to the nature of the events they are based off of, and part of it is because of insufficient screen writing. The most prominent of these is Selena's strained relationship with Chris, which I think may have been over- dramatized but I'm ignorant as to how it actually panned out. The final conflict with Yolanda would not have worked at all in a fiction story, but I think they did a decent job introducing Yolanda and her friendship with Selena through the limited time that they were afforded with her character. In some ways, it seems like it would have been a better decision to not end the movie with Selena's death, but I think it was necessary since it was geared toward mourning fans that took Selena's passing as personally as that of a family member.Selena is given personality, but I didn't buy in to all of it. She is shown as having a carefree joy that many female protagonists of the past have had, but I'm not sure I believe this to be accurate given her lifestyle. Abraham was easily the best all around character and probably had the best acting performance from Edward Olmos. Chris felt like a pretty flat character that never really got the right kind of attention on screen, as in maybe getting his own scene.The execution is satisfactory at many points and even a bit noteworthy during the concert montages, but there are a number of problems with it as well. Jennifer Lopez does not exactly give a bad performance, but it definitely could have been better. Selena's younger actress was unimpressive at a few points, particularly in her generic portrayals of different emotions. Yolanda's actress probably gave the worst performance out of anyone, followed by Chris. However, Chris might have been poorly written rather than poorly acted. Some of the dialogue flowed nicely, and I didn't notice any problems with it at most points, but whenever the characters' words discussed some event that had been skipped over, it came off as really forced.If you're a Selena fan, you've probably already seen this and you might like it if you haven't. If you aren't a fan of biopics, this is not one of the stronger products of the genre. There isn't much of a cohesive story, which may be worth knowing for some. I wouldn't say that it's worth spending money on, but it's bound to be pretty cheap anyways. Overall Rating: 6.4/10

The fairy-tale of Mexican-American singer Selena, whose life was cut short by her bookkeeper.There is still another wonderful Edward James Olmos performance as her protective father. As he did as Jaime Escalante, an LA high school math teacher, Olmos commands the screen as the dominant force in his daughter's life. A hard worker who strove for more, the Olmos character did know when it was time to relent.The film is often cliché. Presto, and Selena was a star of great magnitude. While Jennifer Lopez did an admirable job, she is still Jennifer and in some scenes, she sounded as she did up against Ralph Fiennes in "Maid in Manhattan."

I Love this movie and I think it is an appropriate portrait of who Selena really was. I grew up in the poor side of Corpus Christi, TX, where the movie was filmed. Selena brought a bright face to the neighborhood of struggling and lower incomed families. She was always there to provide an uplifting word to people. When I was 6 years old she came running out of her house looking for help to find her two dogs. I was one of 6 children that were more than glad to help her with whatever she needed. She was an inspiration because though she made her money she never left the neighborhood from which she came. She was always true to herself and the fans that loved her. I will always and forever miss her. She passed this world when I was only in the 3rd grade but I can remember every second of the day when her life was taken. I was only 8 years old, I lived my life listening to her music and I only felt it was right to leave flowers at her gate because of the wonderful impact she made on this world. So for those people who say they were truly touched by this movie, they will never know how much this entertainer, a true blessing from heaven, had an impact on the lives of the ones who truly loved her.