Dirty Dancing (1987)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Like its winsome characters, Dirty Dancing uses impressive choreography and the power of song to surmount a series of formidable obstacles.
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Cast
as Frances
as Johnny
as Jake
as Penny
as Max
as Lisa
as Marjorie
as Neil Kellerman
as Robbie Gould
as Tito Suarez
as Billy Kostecki
as Bus Boy
as Magician
as Stan
as Mrs. Schumacher
as Mr. Schumacher
as Vivian Pressman
as Moe Pressman
as Staff Kid
as Bus Boy
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Dirty Dancer
as Tito's Band
as Tito's Band
as Tito's Band
as Tito's Band
as Tito's Band
as Tito's Band
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Critic Reviews for Dirty Dancing
All Critics (60) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (17) | DVD (12)
I loved this movie. It seems to dream itself, as it tells the story of a young girl who comes alive in the summer of 1963.
The dancing here brings out the sensual dreaminess of the songs. Dirty Dancing -- what a great title! -- is such a bubbleheaded, retro vision of growing up in the sixties (or any other time) that you go out of the theatre giggling happily.
If the ending of Eleanor Bergstein's script is too neat and inspirational, the rough energy of the film's song and dance does carry one along, past the whispered doubts of better judgment.
Although the plot is sometimes implausible, the movie's music, dancing and romantic spirit carry a lot of it. In addition, Dirty Dancing has the virtues of a female main character (a bit unusual in a coming-of-age movie) and an interesting setting.
Smart and funny, touching and unabashedly sensual.
This is a shapely film, considered and concise. And if its rhetorical slickness eventually covers up its emotional core, that slickness has a pleasure of its own.
Audience Reviews for Dirty Dancing
My wife makes me watch DD. Too bad that this was Jennifer Grey's defining role as an actor. It is a movie I don't mind watching over. I like the music, and the story is uplifting. Interesting comment by Mr Kellerman that this style of holidays is losing popularity.
Super Reviewer
Original rating of 2 upped half a star. That still isn't saying much. An average movie for me is usually a 3. Decided I would re watch this movie. I last watched it when I was 13 and that was under duress as my nan and auntie were drooling over Patrick Swayze in a quite disturbing manner. I couldn't see it, and I still can't, really. It's a nice enough little story and the leads are good, although they don't necessarily look good together. The many dance scenes are pretty cheesy. I found most of it pretty embarrassing (for them) in all honesty, rather than hot. Patrick in that black top thing with his hair slicked back. Oh please! Still, it was watchable and my original rating may have been harsh and due to the dubbing of Patrick as "next year's man" (as my 13 year old self was clearly not old enough to appreciate his hotness). No, didn't happen, but I did come to appreciate him as an actor in his later years and he did seem to be a nice person too). Inoffensive quite sweet story that I don't think I will watch a 3rd time.
Super Reviewer
Completely anachronistic boilerplate dance film: young person - man this time, played by Patrick Swayze - of lower social class wins heart of upper-class young person (woman, Jennifer Grey) through the power of dance... or something. What made this movie watchable for me was the particularity of its setting; I don't know of any other films set in the Catskills in the 1960s, and buried within it is a story of (Jewish) identity and coming of age, told nostalgically and enjoyably. The bubble bursts when a 1980s song drives the film's finale - selling the soundtrack more than the story, to say the least - but, (along with Saturday Night Fever), it cast the mold for a certain kind of film: the summer sing-and-dance blockbuster. Essential viewing, unfortunately - even for guys like me who don't want to admit it,
Super Reviewer
Dirty Dancing Quotes
| Johnny Castle: | You wanna hear somethin' crazy? Last night I... I dreamed that we were walkin' along and we met your father. He said, "Come on," and he put his arm around me. Just like he did with Robbie. |
| Johnny Castle: | Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine. You gotta hold the frame. |
| Johnny Castle: | I'll never be sorry. |
| Frances "Baby" Houseman: | Neither will I. |
| Dr. Jake Houseman: | (talking to Baby) I won't tell your mother about this. Right now, I'm goin' to bed. And take that stuff off your face before your mother sees you. |
| Dr. Jake Houseman: | I won't tell your mother about this. Right now, I'm goin' to bed. And take that stuff off your face before your mother sees you. |
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