Release Date: February 27, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sensuality
Directed by: Guy Ferland
Starring: Mika Boorem, Polly Cusumano, Patrick Swayze, Sela Ward, Romola Garai, Diego Luna, January Jones, René Lavan, Jonathan Jackson

Plot:
Havana: November, 1958. Eighteen-year-old Katey Miller brings an innate curiosity--and a smattering of Spanish--to her new life in Cuba’s lush capital, where her father has taken an executive posting at Chrysler. Schooled by her parents in the art of ballroom dancing, Katey is expected to join the smart set of American teenagers who are the Miller’s neighbors at the exclusive Oceana Hotel. But Katey finds herself drawn instead to the proud, purposeful Javier--a waiter who also happens to be brilliant dancer. Determined to learn the slinky, spectacular moves that Javier seems to know in his bones, Katey persuades him to partner with her in a prestigious national dance competition at a grand local nightclub, The Palace. Meeting secretly in an out-of-the-way Havana nightclub, Katey and Javier practice their steps--their bodies aligning in a sensual harmony that mirrors the growing passion between them. As the night of the contest finally arrives, Katey and Javier are ready to take their place as a couple on the dance floor--unaware that the country club, and the streets of Havana itself, are about to erupt in revolutionary violence.

Review:
The sequel to the 1987 Dirty Dancing goes to Cuba this time around. Actors Diego Luna and Romola Garai meet up and have a sudden attraction to one another. This leads to them dancing and training for an upcoming competition. When the word competition is used, there is obviously a prize and in this film its for five thousand dollars.

Diego plays Javier Suarez, a Cuban who has quite a hobby of dancing in clubs and Romola plays Katey Miller, an American who is in Cuba with her family. Javier works hard to earn money for his family. His father passed away and all he has is his mother and brother. Katey lives nicely with both of her parents and younger sister.

Romola seems somewhat of an innocent character in the beginning of the film and then begins to open up and quickly begins to become more popular and happy of what she is accomplishing. She has lived the wealthy and formal life, but was too uncomfortable inside her shell and wanted to break away from it. Javier and his style of dancing was her answer.

In the film, there are even quite a few insults intended for Cubans by the mother of Katey. However, overtime she seems to understand the Cuban life and that they actually are respectful. It can definitely bring a smile to a lot of eyes when different races can get along. This film mixes the themes of peace, love and war and while we understood its intentions, it minorly affected us and not majorly.

In the film you also feel like it tries to give messages with repetitive scenes. If smart enough, you can guess by the first time. It packs in a lot of meanings that it wanted to give, but at the end, there is not enough rhythm and punch to them to make you love the film for those reasons. It could have been done well, but it lacked a bit in that area and instead we received the struggle between the American and the Cuban, but an incomplete history of their backgrounds.

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights is a film that you can rent on video. If you were a fan of the original then you might be quite disappointed with the sequel because it is completely different. However, one can admire the dancing which was pretty good in the film and the fact that the filmmakers attempted to deliver well. They didn't necessarily fail, but they didn't succeed completely either.

When you place all the elements together you have an incomplete message. The film wants to show you the problems in Cuba, but at the same time there is a couple in which are falling in love with their dancing skills. They are too busy caught up in their activities to notice that they can be in danger of the problems going on in Cuba. It seemed quite out of place, but it is part of reality.

Either way, when it comes down to it, it seems a bit late and bland to have released a sequel to Dirty Dancing. Havana Nights has nothing to do with the original and in the year 2004 it seems quite a bit out dated to bring back another edition of this. It seems that the 80's and perhaps early 90's were the years for a film as such, but Hollywood still insists on releasing the sequel as they did. With that said, there are some interesting elements in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, but not enough.

The dancing is really good in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, the story was somewhat ridiculous at times, but tolerable and the acting is average. Either way, Havana Nights was a believable film and quite fun at times, but it fails in a few places. It almost found its place, but not quite, therefore making it a bit of a disappointment. There is fun to have here, but you leave with an empty feeling that more should have been accomplished.