Customer Reviews

Salsa [VHS]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

With a title like "Salsa," you can know what to expect from this movie, and this movie does not disappoint. A young love story, a love quadrangle, and a salsa contest are all plot points to get us to the next dance scene. Fortunately we don't have to wait long between drama interludes to get to all the fun and what this movie is all about! Don't buy this movie for the acting; buy it for the dancing!
Of course, this movie was made in the 80's so you'll see all the trappings of this decade woven through the movie. One could watch this movie as an 80's study. This isn't a detractor, however, from this great dance flick. You'll see bits of 80's specific dancing, 80's style salsa, salsa that transcends decades, "New York" style Salsa, "street" salsa, solo dance numbers, group "line" salsa, and multiple partner switching. Lots of the dancing is timeless and stuff you can incorporate today!
One of the features of this movie is the music performances done by multiple artists of the period. The most notable of them being one each from the amazing, late Celia Cruz and the amazing, late Tito Puente. Their music performances are the backdrop for much of the dancing.
As with all forms of dance, there is snobbery as to how to dance "real" salsa. This is even addressed at one point in the movie when Rico, with his more "street" style and the club owner La Luna, with her more polished "New York" style tell each other that they're not sure if what the other is dancing is "real" salsa. Ha ha! The snobbery in dance is ever living!
You will recognise the club owner in the movie as the same actress in the movie Dirty Dancing who tried to steal Patrick Swayzee's character from Jennifer Gray's. She is reprising a similar role here. Once again, though, don't get this movie for the acting/plot/drama; buy it for the dancing!
[Note One] the acting here isn't terrible and is certainly bearable, it's just not as high quality as that in Dirty Dancing which has a better plot and acting but is not as good in the dance scenes.
[Note Two] this movie has minimal Spanish; it is 95% in English. Most of the Spanish words are the basic ones we all learned from Sesame Street when we were kids.

I remember seeing this movie in the theater and I love it now and I loved it back then. It has so many dance moves that look great... There were so many familiar faces in this movie; I can't help but get up and start dancing myself.. I also bought the soundtrack; and when I hear the songs I get up and dance the night away... If you love salsa; you'll appreciate this movie; especially when you can see and hear music from the late Tito Puente!!

When I first saw this movie, I feel in love with it! I used to rent it all the time, but when I first started shopping at Amazon, I found this movie and I was so happy!! The dancing, and the music in this movie is sensational!!! If you love salsa music, this movie is a must!!! Also the soundtrack is even better, so if you get the movie, you will want the soundtrack!!!

This movie is for people who love drama, sex appeal, and dancing. Salsa gave me the urge to want more. Everything from the vindictive women to the fights to the dance moves reminded me of reality. I am Puertorican, and this move seemed very close to home, but I wouldnt recomend this movie to anyone looking to acquire anything other than a couple hours of fun.

I love this movie!! I remember the first time I saw it, I was about 6-7 yrs.old, on a plane & on my way to Puerto Rico. Eighteen (or so) years later, I bought it & watched it with my family, it brought back so many great memories, We loved it all over again. I love the music, the dancing & the actors/actresses, The only reason why I gave it 4 stars is because IT IS AN 80's MOVIE! We all know how 80's dance movies have the bad fame of neing CORNY! I have to admit, it did have some corny and bad acting moments, but all in all, I think this is an amewome movie, I love it & recommend it!

Salsa is a brilliant movie - one of the best movies with no major plot. There is fantastic music and great dancing and a hot guy - what more could you want.
Rico (Robby Rosa and Menudo) wants to win a dance competition that will take him to Puerto Rico. He's also the older and over protective brother to Rita and when she starts dating his best friend Ken, he goes nuts when he finds out (they keep their relationship secret for a while). Will this ruin his chance of winning the dance comp?
As I said earlier, there is fantastic music in this movie. Margarita and Under My Skin are the best. The actual scene when they play Margarita is fantastic. It's a now dated movie, but it is still a favourite of mine that I do watch over and over again still. I love it and any fan of dance movies should love it to - especially if you like that latin flavour.

So I bought this movie because some of the reviews said that the acting was terrible but the dancing was amazing.
Well, anyone who thinks that the salsa dancing in this movie is amazing, awesome, good, or ok, has never actually SEEN salsa dancing!!
I am a salsa dancer, and this movie was HORRIBLE!!! I have seen amazing dancing, and good dancing. This was TERRIBLE dancing! And there was hardly any salsa!
It was 80s dancing to salsa music! That's IT. The only time there was actually salsa dancing was when the main character was training with the club owner. Other than that, it was just 80s dancing to salsa music. That's it.
If you want to see salsa dancing, I DEFINITELY DO NOT recommend this movie.
If you want to see horrible acting, and old 80s dancing, then I recommend this movie...
There was only one thing that I liked about this movie. The appearances made by Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. That was great to see, but not worth buying the movie for....
Oh, and the story line? What was it again????
Yeah...
I love movies, good ones and bad ones.
But this one??? The WORST movie I have seen so far...

To the best of my knowledge, there aren't actually any movies with really good salsa dancing.
Hopefully, someday, there will be.

Personally I think this is the best movie ever made for dancing too. I remember the first time I saw this when I was 7 and me and my sister would try to learn the dance moves. I remember that I watched it so much that one day the tape busted. I was so mad at myself for a long time knowing that they would never play it on tv again. 10 years passed and there was this new thing of searching for videos online and thanks to the internet I was lucky to find a copy of this once in a lifetime movie. The movie is great and the actors are HOT!! Even thought the cutest one Kenny (Rodney Harvey) is dead now its still nice to see how gorgeous he was in the movie. I recommend that whoever wants to go back and listen to some hot music to watch SALSA a so called Dirty Dancing for Hispanics or Latinos!!!

This movie really didn't show me anything exciting in Salsa dance...the only exciting thing was seeing singers performers Willie Colon and Celia Cruz.

The music is great,I really love this movie I even sent my neice in Arizona a copy it was my Mom's favorite she used to tell me about all the danceing and the music. If you are a fan of Salsa then this movie is for you good story line it's about a young Puerto Rican and his dream to go to Puerto Rico and win the Salsa Competion. The music will get to you it's that good you will want to get up and dance. It's an old movie but it is still good. Robby Rosa star's in this movie you will remember him from the Group Menudo, Rodney Harvey from The Outsiders another old movie so if you love music and like to dance get it.