Reviews

To be honest, I approached this movie with a lot of skepticism. Those of you who are familiar with Lobato's work will probably understand why. Still, I believe that I gave "Valentina's Tango" a fair chance. Undeserved.

The script is too linear and the Greek tragedy concept is poorly mixed into the mafia story line. The "twist", if we can even call it that, is way too predictable and rather uninteresting. Granted, it's a tough combination, but why start something if you don't have what it takes to do it right? Very poor job.

The acting is pathetic. I honestly couldn't single out neither a lead nor a supporting actor/res to praise. Admittedly the dialog itself is very weak, but that's no excuse for an awful and disoriented performance.

And if after reading the above paragraphs you are wondering why I gave "Valentina's Tango" a 3 and not a 1, the answer is simple - the dancing. Even if everything else in this movie sucked, you are still left with a warm feeling. There's so much passion in the tango scenes, so much grace... That's probably the only thing that actually worked for me in the last 100 minutes.

My final advice is - if you are not really crazy about dancing - do NOT waste your time.

-- Blady

First of all, I must admit that "The Cutting Edge" is one of my most favorite movies ever. Therefore, my disappointment of "Going For The Gold" might be a result of too high expectations, but still... I'm not happy with what I just saw. Anyway, first things first.

Perhaps I should start with the performance of the two leading characters. Sadly, Joey Paul has done quite a terrible job with the casting. It was almost a nightmare to watch the uninspired and unconvincing Christy Romano, who played as if she didn't really understand the part. Yes, I do admit that Jackie is a somewhat complicated character but that's no excuse for not even trying to get the job done.

And if there's something more disappointing than Christy's performance that would be the pathetic acting of Ross Thomas. What were they thinking? That guy not only had no understanding of the character he was playing, but his acting skill is also quite questionable after such a poor performance.

Sounds bad, doesn't it? Well, here comes the good news. The script by Dan Berendsen is actually pretty good. There are lots of fresh ideas, directed nicely by Sean McNamara. He didn't really manage to catch the spirit of the big tournament, but this time the script's not all about the Olympics anyway.

The rest of the cast did what they could and really deserve admirations for their effort. Very likable performance by Scott Baker and maybe even Christine Lakin, although her part was too small to actually appreciate the actress' skill.

Well, looking at what I've written so far, I must admit that it sounds much worse than I thought it would. I did enjoy the movie, but I suppose I'm too much of a figure skating fan, so those movies come with some extra magic even if almost everything else goes wrong.

-- Blady