Product: Dirty Dancing (1987)
Rating: 3.0
Not quite a camp classic, not quite a musical, but close enough
When this movie came out it spawned a hype unlike anything I'd seen before or since. Full of notable quotables ("No one puts Baby in a corner"), having not one but two successful soundtracks (one even featuring the one and only published vocal talents of Patrick Swayze the star of the movie!), and a semi camp classic that the famous 80s movies would go down in history for. Looking back brings so many memories, and so much silliness.Jennifer Grey plays Baby, a nice Jewish girl who is vacationing with her family in the Catskill mountains. I can't imagine, even in the times that this movie was set in, that any gal would tolerate being called Baby by her family, let alone be introduced and allow strangers to call her Baby as well, but I guess that was the point. There she falls for Johnny, the sexy swaggering bad boy of the entertainment staff who dances his way into her innocent, sheltered heart. Just a little idealistic, just a little far fetched, but just enough of a fantasy to keep things lite and airy.There werea plethora of subplots (the sister in her own infatuation with the waiter, Johnny's partner needing the abortion, the inevitable confrontation between Baby's father and Johnny, etc.). The song and dance routines were spaced out in between enough dialogue and plot development to make it otherwise a musical, but not quite. It's just cheesy enough to make everyone like it.