The Mambo Kings
by Arne Glimcher
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Antonio Banderas, Armand Assante, Cathy Moriarty, Maruschka Detmers, Pablo CalogeroDirector: Arne Glimcher
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Mambo Kings
Movie Review: In The Name Of The Mambo, The Rumba And The Cha-Cha-Cha
Summary: 4 Stars
While the film THE MAMBO KINGS is not as detailed or insightful as Oscar Hijuelos's novel THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE which won the 1990 Pulitzer prize it is still an excellent entertaining film. The most striking feature of the movie is how well it makes 1950's Cuban American life in upper Manhattan live again complete with wonderful mambo and other Latin music of the period and even a visit from Desi Arnaz (played by his son with amazing accuracy).
The two Mambo kings are the Castillo brothers - Cesar and Nestor - musicians who fled Havana after a bloody dispute with a nightclub owner. Cesar is the ambitious older brother played perfectly by Armand Assante. Assante magically captures Cesar's sleazy good looks and coarse confident charisma. As one character in the film says of Cesar "He thinks he is the last Coca Cola in the desert." Nestor is played with surprising sensitivity by Antonio Banderos and he is the song writer and trumpet player for the Mambo Kings. Nestor longs for Cuba and the girl he left there, Maria, though he also rather touchingly constantly reads a book entitled FORWARD AMERICA apparently written by one of the Vanderbilts. Both men find significant others in the US with an American blond bombshell who sells cigarettes in one of the clubs becoming Cesar's best girl while Nestor eventually marries another Cuban immigrant, the shy but beautiful Delores, who aspires to be a teacher.
The boys have some early success in New York but mostly because of Cesar's temper and pride fall on hard times and are reduced to working as butchers by day and playing for Bar Mitzvahs, weddings and strippers by night. Eventually they get a break from Desi Arnaz who lets them play on his hit TV show I LOVE LUCY. In a fun bit Assante, Bandearas and Arnaz Jr. are inter-cut with footage with Lucille Ball from the original classic show. But lasting happiness and success are not in the cards for the brothers.
MAMBO KINGS is an important film as it preserves the dance, music and culture of the Latin communities in NYC in the 50's. Legendary Tito Puente appears as himself and salsa queen Celia Cruz plays an interesting character on the mambo scene and demonstrates her singing and dancing talents and both add to the authenticity of the film. This well made movie will be appreciated be most discriminating film fans.
Summary of The Mambo Kings
In the 1950s, two Cuban brothers come to America to seek fame and fortune as musicians.This period drama is hot, hot, hot. Stylish and sexy, it is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos, the story of two brothers who flee from Cuba in the early 1950s, heading for New York. Hoping to make a name for themselves as famous musicians, the duo face hardships and painful discoveries along the way. Armand Assante is the older of the two, with a smoldering Antonio Banderas as his younger, more impetuous brother. (In his first English-speaking role, Banderas delivered all of his lines phonetically.) The pulsating, sweaty energy of the first half of the film is not sustained throughout. Partly this is because a movie about the rise and fall of minor celebrities has been done to death. Even when the action slows down, however, the story does not bore. There is too much sensuality and vitality exuded by both Assante and Banderas. --Rochelle O'Gorman
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