Wow! Such a good movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

First, I am a professional drummer whose interest in this film was only ignited by with the knowledge that the genius Tito Puente makes an appearance, and even better, shares a solo with the star. That aside, the rest of the movie is a favorite of mine, especially the fantastic, contagious personality of Cesar, superbly played by Assante...you grow to love this rogue of a man almost instantly. His constant laughter is just a hint of how rascally a businessman/band leader and devoted brother he is. The music is no less contagious, and I find myself interested in Salsa and Mambo music all the more because of this entertaining film. My one complaint is that the above-mentioned solo between Puente and Assante is interrupted by gangland violence, just at the moment when everyone is getting into the spirit! Other than that, it was brilliantly casted and acted. A great look at the way of the entertainment business in the early 1950's, especially for hopeful immigrants like the Castillo Brothers. Excellent!

I tried watching this movie several times. I really did. I heard a lot of hype about it. The characters in this movie are stereotypes of cubans and other Latin Americans. This was very annoying. They seemed more like cartoons than anything else. The music was great. Great performance by Tito Puentes. Celia Cruz'performance in English seemed forced and un-natural. Armand Assante's Spanish was atrocious! It sounded no where near anything close to Spanish. The movie was also very predictable. So much hype about this movie as usual coming from Hollywood. This is why I'm not going to see the Da Vinci Code. Too much Hype.

This movie was not nearly as good as I had heard. Being a musician myself, some of the references made sense. But as usual, Hollywood took over and it became the normal melodrama. Musically, the movie was magnificent. Whether you are a fan of Cuban music or not, it is sure to pull you in.Antonio Banderas was very believable, but Armand made me want to turn the channel. This is very much of a disappointment for me since I have enjoyed Assantes work in many other films. Kudos to Talisa Soto, we need to hear and see much more of her. She was very much underused. She can be seen (but not enough) in the Bond flick "License to Kill".

In the beginning this film was very promising. I think the start was good, but in the end I had lost all my enthusiasm. The film is about two brothers who come to America from Cuba. They are Mambo musicians,and they want to make it in New York. This was an OK starting point, but the movie faded into a mediocre story of all the hardships the two brothers face.3,5/10