One of my all time favorites.

A Masterpiece!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film is kind of a moot for me initially, maybe I don't possess the cultural background of Cuban influence and American living experience. I find the film is an oddball with frustration, the narrative itself is featherweight, all the conflicts and explosive set pieces are squandered, the character moulding process is also bumpy and cursory, all the time what we saw are alternative quarreling between the brothers, sometimes trivial, sometimes sentimental (on the grounds of an appealing Antonio Banderas at his prime youth), otherwise too showy indeed, maybe the whole milieu has some exotic appeal to some people, with regard to me, the effect is a regretful null. The only saving grace of the film is its Oscar-nominated theme song, the ever famous BEAUTIFUL MARIA OF MY SOUL (could be better interpreted by another singer than Armand Assante), in my opinion the original score by Carlos Franzetti and Robert Kraft contains much more vibrant and soulful vibes. The two co-leaders Assante and Banderas are uncannily overblown and understated respectively, the bittersweet brotherhood lachrymosity is too gusty to digest. And the counter- part female characters (a chimney-voice Cathy Moriarty and a stolid Maruschka Detmers) all fail to catch their own shining moments. A rather spirit-lifting Celia Cruz is my desperate guilty pleasure (I love her performance during the end-credits). The scheme of the tragic accident is lousy and abrupt, which furthermore reflects the pompousness and self-consciousness of the ending. The film itself is just another Hollywood throwaway, kitschy and insincere, what a pity, it has Antonio Banderas in his heyday.

I tried watching this movie several times. I really did. I heard a lot of hype about it. The characters in this movie are stereotypes of cubans and other Latin Americans. This was very annoying. They seemed more like cartoons than anything else. The music was great. Great performance by Tito Puentes. Celia Cruz'performance in English seemed forced and un-natural. Armand Assante's Spanish was atrocious! It sounded no where near anything close to Spanish. The movie was also very predictable. So much hype about this movie as usual coming from Hollywood. This is why I'm not going to see the Da Vinci Code. Too much Hype.

The first time I saw this movie, I cried. It brought out emotions I did not know I had. The performances were phenomenal. I knew Antonio could sing but Armand Assante was a huge surprise! The late, great Celia Cruz acts as sort of a every woman musically narrating the story. Another musical genius, that has since left this world, is Tito Puente. His performance sets up the audience for the electricity that follows. This movie portrayed every form of love know to humans-between family, man and woman and everyone's love of music. The passions that this movie ignites, well, I haven't felt since. I can't wait till it comes out on DVD because my VHS is a little worn. When they start to count down the greatest movies of all time I hope The Mambo Kings is in the top ten!

What can I say about this gem? I cry every emotion each time I see it. Assante is compelling and heart-wrenching as the ambitious and devoted older brother, Banderas rounds the two out with innocence and struggle for independence. Also a most moving story of unrequited love.