A CHARTER MEMBER OF MY TOP TEN WORST MOVIES LIST!!
I know that I'll take some heat on this one because it's been a commercial success and has found a second life and legions of new fans from frequent showings on TV. The ballroom dancing scenes are graceful and elegant; the dirty dancing scenes are hot and sexy. My favorite scene is the introduction of Johnny (Patrick Swayze). Along with Penny (Cynthia Rhodes), they cut a mean slice of rug with a breathtaking mambo. Rhodes can kick the lights out and must be double-jointed to fold over backwards the way she does it!
However, the script is so terribly bad that it seems to have been thrown together in an afternoon by amateurs. The story overcomes these shortcomings up to a point, but when Johnny and Baby (Jennifer Grey) develop a romance, the story can no longer carry the cheesey dialogue. These are just a few of the more memorable lines (believe me, for every one I list here, I'm omitting an additional five!):
Neil (Lonny Price): "I'm sorry you had to see that Baby. Sometimes in this world, you see things you don't want to see."
Baby: "You won't show me lifts. I'm not sure of turns. I'm doing all of this to SAVE YOUR ASS! What I really want to do is drop you on it!"
Johnny: "I mean, the reason why people treat me like I'm nothing is because I'm nothing."
Baby: "That's not true. You...you're everything."
Johnny: "I mean, (Johnny starts many lines with "I mean") you are not scared of anything."
Baby: "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw. I'm scared of what I did-of who I am. And...most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my WHOLE LIFE...the way I feel when I'm with you."
This list would not be complete without, perhaps, the worst one-liner from a serious movie (I'm still not sure if he meant this literally or if there was some deeper metaphor he was referencing):
Johnny: "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." |
