Stars: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Cynthia Rhodes, Jerry Orbach, Wayne Knight, Jack Weston, Kelly Bishop, Max Cantor, Miranda Garrison, Garry Goodrow, Neal Jones, Lonny Price

Director: Emile Ardolino

Summary: It's summer, 1963. Frances, seventeen and innocent, is on holiday with her parents in the Catskills. She meets Johnny--the hotel dance instructor--and is mesmerised by him and his dance style. She soon becomes Johnny's prize pupil, in dance and in love.

Headstrong 17-year-old Baby Houseman hardly expects her family's usual summer vacation in the Catskills to be momentous. But then Baby spies Johnny Castle, the resort's dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks. Johnny's facing a crisis: his dance partner and friend Penny is pregnant and has reluctantly decided to get an abortion. This leaves Johnny a solo act--until Baby agrees to take Penny's place. She has to learn how to dance first, however, and as Johnny teaches her the choreography's sexy, seductive moves, the two fall in love. But Baby's father believes that Johnny is the creep who got Penny pregnant, and he furiously orders Baby to end the relationship. Baby knows that Johnny's innocent--and with her feisty idealism and his dance talent, the two will prove to Baby's father that their love is worth fighting for.

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It's inspired a hit musical. The soundtrack has sold in its millions. And it's still, arguably, the most popular film on Patrick Swayze's curriculum vitae. Most worrying of all, perhaps, is that Dirty Dancingis now more than twenty years old. Now that'sscary.

Still, it does offer the excuse for a special anniversary release, and that's exactly what we have here. And, to be fair, the film has never looked better. The story is still as straightforward and simple as it always was, baked just to the point where it can support the aforementioned Swayze and Jennifer Grey strutting their stuff. But Dirty Dancingnonetheless continues to work well to this day, with its rarely-rivalled, sizzling mix of romance, energy and music.

Of course, it's an easy film to pick holes in, should you be inclined to do so. After all, at heart it's a well packaged piece of hokum, that's never likely to contend in a Top 100 movies poll. But to pick holes would be churlish, and perhaps to miss the point. Because Dirty Dancing's mantra is to entertain, and it delivers on that promise with some conviction. The late Emile Ardolino wisely keeps his direction zippy, and the two leads really do look like they're having the time of their life.

Granted, this latest re-release isn't going to convert sceptics to the ways of Dirty Dancing, and the unfortunate, unwelcome sequel will remain a blot on its copybook. But this original is hard to beat, and it's still a hard dish to resist. --Jon Foster

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1987
Release Date:	August 21, 2006
Runtime:	100 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	9383001000
Keywords:	Dirty, General, Dancing, Wide, Screen, Romantic, Drama
Genre:	Drama