You have to love censoring in the 21st century. Not only are we missing the plot line of abortion and the older-man-with-the-younger-woman theme, but we are also missing the intensely sexual nature that the original Dirty Dancing is known for. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights is the dance movie made so that 13-year-olds who are waiting to go through puberty can experience sensual Latino dancing such as a mambo or samba. Sure, the dancing is fantastic, key cameos bring applause to the hands of the audience in the middle of the movie, (yes, Patrick Swayze does his complete put your hand on my chest, feel the beat and hold your frame deal) and the costumes are great but this movie is seriously lacking the chutzpah that was so evident in the original.

Set in Havana in 1958, during the Batista-Castro struggle, the story traces the path of a nave 18-year-old girl named Katey Miller (Romola Garai, Nicholas Nickleby) and her ascent from a young, ready-to-attend-Radcliff girl who hasn't yet experienced real life, to a fabulous salsa dancer who falls in love with a Cuban boy, Javier Suarez (Diego Luna, Y Tu Mama Tambien). But here, the 18-year-old ingnue has a chance to experience cultural, political and sexual awakenings simultaneously, which makes for an impressive angle in the coming-of-age department. "Baby" certainly never dealt with Castro.

Katey plays the obedient daughter, following her family to Cuba where her father Bert (John Slattery, Traffic) has taken a new job with Ford. The boss' son James Phelps (Jonathon Jackson, Tuck Everlasting) plays a sly kid who gets everything he wants and tries to take advantage of Katey outside of the famed club, La Rosa Negro. Katey, having taken a liking to Javier, runs back to the club and to Javier, leaving James to find his own way home.

Javier walks Katey back to the hotel where her family is staying and her sister Suzie (Mika Boorem, Blue Crush) sees her and tells their father. Javier gets fired from his job at the hotel for this, so Katey decides to help him earn some money for him and his family. Since there is-conveniently-a Latin dance contest taking place that pays $500 for the semi-finals and $5,000 and a trip to America for the winners, Katey asks Javier to be her partner.

For some background information, Katey's parents, Bert and Jeannie (Sela Ward, Runaway Bride), were once renowned professional ballroom dancers themselves. This is why Katey knows ballroom dancing, but does not really dance, or at least she doesn't know how to dance the way Javier can. Lies, lessons, practices and a brief dancing encounter with Swayze follow the decision to dance in the contest. Because of what he did to her, James is pulled in by Katey to help the lies along by saying she is with him while she is practicing with Javier.

The script was not well written. Garai's lines are very choppy and her emotions feel as if they are acted, not real. Luna probably gives the only good performance, playing the poor waiter who lost his father to the evil, controlling government while he helps support his large family by working at the hotel. He just happens to be a great dancer as well. He has a real fire about him that helps bring out the good bits of Garai's performance, but usually that only happens when they are dancing. Garai doesn't seem to feel comfortable in her role and that adds to the overall blah of the movie. The parents are almost as bad, seeing as they play corny, 50s parents, but in a much more melodramatic way. R&B singer Mya makes a cameo appearance as a, you guessed it, singer for the contest but nothing more than that.

The movie itself actually is not that bad until about two-thirds of the way through, when it becomes a little ridiculous. It was sad that scenes which were supposed to be passionate and romantic were ruined by bad lines, although the packed audience loved it, laughing hysterically during the "morning after" scene between Katey and Javier and the awkward interactions Katey and her mom had throughout the movie. Everyone loved it when Swayze came into the picture with the same music from the original movie when we first saw him then. And, I must admit, I enjoyed sitting through the credits at the end listening to a Latin version of "I Had the Time of My Life" and watching people try to sing along.
While the dancing is hot, the acting is not, and you just can't dance for an hour-and-a-half straight so it is understandable that some lines had to be put into the movie. Too bad they weren't better. Dirty Dancing fans are certainly not going to have the time of their life with this version of the movie. Scriptwriters should have let the Dirty Dancing craze stay where it was-with the original.