Product: Dirty Dancing (1987)
Rating: 5.0
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
As a young child (born in 1980) I loved this movie, though I wasn't allowed to see it in its entirety until I was a young teenager. Filmed in my home state of NC, Dirty Dancing is a splendidly romantic film about a time (the early 1960s) and a place where life was much simpler by today's standards. The music is fantasic (this movie introduced me to Otis Redding), the dancing is even better, and Patrick Swayze absolutely makes the movie! He is not only an incredible dancer, but a fine actor as well. Though he was in his mid-thirties when the movie was made, he convincingly plays the somewhat older, jaded bad boy dance instructor with panache. Jennifer Grey is lithe, talented, and beautiful as Baby, the idealistic rich girl who falls in love with Johnny. Jerry Orbach is great as Baby's dad, and the other, lesser-known actors are great as well. Yes, sometimes the dialogue is corny, and the good-girl-loves-bad-boy plot is both unrealistic and familiar, but it is the way in which the actors portray these characters that they become memorable. This is the perfect girls' sleepover movie; in fact, I like to show a trilogy of romantic "girl" movies at my sleepovers: most notably Dirty Dancing, Shag, and School Ties. Sometimes I show Pretty in Pink, too. Watch this movie one hot summer night with one of your best gal pals!