On 20 August 2024, my evening's double movie-watch was definitely a nostalgia night for me, as the two musical films that I watched first became known to me in the early 1990s, when they were regularly available for hire in big box VHS video format at Blockbusters and the many other video rental shops that abounded in every town here in the UK back then. Both of them had as their at least nominal theme that sultry, sensual Brazilian dance the lambada, famed for the intimacy displayed by its dancing partners, and which became an international craze for a short time between the late 1980s and early 1990s. It even spawned a global hit song, 'Lambada', released by the French/Brazilian pop band Kaoma in January 1989. Not only that, several movies were swiftly produced on the back of this dance, to capitalize upon its popularity while it lasted (which wasn't very long, as it happened).
The most famous of these movies were the two American ones watched by me two evenings ago. However, although I was well aware of them from seeing their boxes on display in the video rental shops, I only ever got around to actually hiring out and watching one of them, Lambada (probably because it centred around a rebel biker character who rode the kind of chrome-gleaming mega-Harley that I, as a young starry-eyed biker newbie back then, could only dream about!). The other movie, The Forbidden Dance, conversely, which centred around an ostensibly feisty Amazonian tribal princess, stayed resolutely upon the rental shops' shelves. Once these shops all closed down, however, I never saw either movie for hire or sale anywhere (I'm not even sure if they were ever released in sell-thru video or DVD format), and eventually I all but forgot about them – until just a fortnight ago when, while idly browsing ex-rental big box videos listed on ebay, I chanced upon a seller who had one of each of these two lambada movies for sale. So, with fond memories of my video rental days duly rekindled, I lost no time in buying both of them straight away, and when they arrived I finally watched The Forbidden Dance after a mere 30+ year delay, and rewatched Lambada after the same length of time since originally watching it. So now, here are my compare & contrast views and reviews of thse films, which, as I subsequently discovered, were involved in as much off-screen trials and tribulations as ever occurred on-screen in either of them!
LAMBADA (aka LAMBADA: SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE)
Directed and co-written by Joel Silberg, and released by Warner Bros on 16 March 1990, Lambada (or Lambada: Set The Night On Fire, to give it the full title by which it is sometimes known in order to distinguish it from The Forbidden Dance aka Lambada: The Forbidden Dance – more about their titular turmoil later), stars J. Eddie Peck as mild-mannered Clark Kent-like maths teacher Kevin Laird at an elite Beverly Hills college by day but who secretly becomes at night a leather-jacketed Harley-riding ex-street gang member named Blade when, while revisiting his teenage downtown LA neighbourhood, he lambadas with the best (and worst!) of them at a barrio night club named No Man's Land. However, just like Superman he does this for all the right reasons, because whilst there he also teaches maths and other school subjects for free in one of the club's back rooms to a group of impoverished but eager-to-learn local youngsters in order to help them pass their School Certificate.
Unfortunately, however, Kevin's double life threatens to come crashing down around his ears when one of his Beverly Hills college students, Sandy (Melora Hardin), happens to pay No Man's Land a visit and spots him there. Worse still, as a result of seeing him in his Blade persona, she develops a serious crush on him, much to Kevin's great concern, because he is a happily-married man who has no romantic interest in her, she is in any case a minor, and her unreliable boyfriend Dean (Ricky Paull Goldin) is insanely jealous about how attracted she is to Kevin (even though it is plainly unrequited) – a highly volatile concoction that could all too readily explode Kevin's teaching career. All sorts of close shaves and comic confusion subsequently arise, but as this is fundamentally a candy-floss feel-good flick, with the kind of wildly implausible, impractical, unfeasible plot that is invariably par for the course in this genre of lightweight movie, everything turns out just fine in the end.
If you are expecting a deep, thought-provoking cinematic experience, Lambada may not be the film for you! What makes it watchable and, indeed, successful by and large as a thoroughly entertaining, enjoyable movie is the undeniable on-screen chemistry between its two leads, Peck and Hardin, plus the sizzling lambada dance scenes featuring a sizeable company of dancers in No Man's Land (there are rumours that these included a very brief appearance by a young Jennifer Lopez, but I didn't spot her). They were choreographed by breakdancer/choreographer Shabba-Doo aka Adolfo Quinones, who also co-stars as Ramon, a troublesome bad boy character within the group of downtown youngsters being surreptitiously taught at the club by Kevin/Blade. Having said that, in view of this movie's title it is surprising how unconnected the lambada dance is to the main plot, featuring in it as little more than an occasional diversion rather than a central, defining aspect of it. Nevertheless, it was good to watch this movie again after more than three decades, and I still found it enjoyable – and yes, despite now having owned two Harleys myself, I still coveted Blade's truly awesome rolling thunder machine! (The closing credits confirm that it had been loaned to Cannon Pictures by Harley-Davidson Motor Co itself, which may explain why it received so much screen time!)
THE FORBIDDEN DANCE (aka LAMBADA: THE FORBIDDEN DANCE)
Now to my first (and currently only) viewing of The Forbidden Dance (according to its storyline, incidentally, the lambada is the forbidden dance because it was banned in Brazil for 50 years – yeah, right!). Directed by Greydon Clark, and released by Columbia Pictures on 16 March 1990 (yes indeed, the very same day as Lambada – more about this non-coincidence later!), The Forbidden Dance (aka Lambada: The Forbidden Dance aka The Forbidden Dance Is Lambada, to give it the two alternative full titles by which it is sometimes known in order to distinguish it from Lambada aka Lambada: Set The Night On Fire) stars former Miss USA Laura Harring in her movie debut as Nisa, the daughter (and hence princess) of the king of a native Brazilian Amazonian rainforest tribe whose jungle home is about to be destroyed by an American petroleum company who has purchased the tribe's land by dubious means and is now demanding their eviction. Nisa and the tribe's shaman, Joa (Sid Hauig), imbued with supernatural powers, travel to Los Angeles hoping to meet the company's chairman and call a halt to its plans for their homeland.
Not surprisingly, Nisa's valiant but naïve plan fails to achieve any success, but after unknowingly (by both parties) being hired as a maid by said chairman at his swish Beverly Hills mansion, she encounters his layabout adult son Jason (Jeff James), whose only passion in life is dancing. When he takes her to one of his elite night clubs and dances the lambada with her, he loses all interest in his fractious, brattish girlfriend Ashley (Barbra Brighton), who is not best pleased about this and plots revenge. Meanwhile, once he learns from Nisa the plight of her people and jungle home, Jason hatch a plan with her to win a dancing contest, whose prize is an appearance on national TV via a dance spot in the televised show of none other than real-life band Kid Creole and the Coconuts, thereby giving them precious screen time in which to inform America's nationwide audience about what is happening to the rainforest.
Like Lambada, therefore, this movie has a highly simplistic, unrealistic storyline, but again like Lambada, it is a very entertaining confection of comedy, confusion, and only relatively mild elements of threat and danger, culminating in the inevitable happy ending, and plenty of dancing – not to mention some priceless scenes featuring the surreal powers of shaman Joa! However, on a more serious level it also does not shy away from exposing the racism and prejudice prevalent at that time between certain segments of American society towards Hispanics. Moreover, whereas in spite of its title Lambada only features the eponymous dance almost in passing, in The Fordbidden Dance it is vey much at the heart of the plot throughout the movie, and actually features Kaoma's hit song (conspicuous by its absence in Lambada) as well as the afore-mentioned Kid Creole and the Coconuts, plus the title song 'The Forbidden Dance' sung by José Feliciano. Last, but by no means least, the movie carries a credit dedicating it to the preservation of the rainforest, which can only be a good thing, seeking to promote this vital ecosystem's conservation. So, well done 21st Century Film Corporation and Columbia Pictures!
RIVALRIES ABOUNDING!
Although Lambada was one of the first lambada-themed films off the mark as far as going into production was concerned, the perceived lucrative movie links with this exotic, erotic dance soon launched others in its wake, including most prominently The Forbidden Dance. I'm not sure how much (if any) of the following is true, but I've read in numerous sources that this latter movie was conceived, written, filmed, and released in a mere matter of weeks, with the original intention of beating Lambada into the cinemas. However, it failed to achieve this goal, though it did succeed in being released on the very same day, 16 March 1990, as Lambada. Making matters even more contentious, The Forbidden Dance was originally entitled Lambada: The Forbidden Dance, but this was deemed one dance step too many as far as the producers of Lambada were concerned, who successfully sued to have the word 'Lambada' removed from their rival film's title, which is why it is now known simply as The Forbidden Dance (though the word 'Lambada' does appear prominently in publicity posters, video covers, etc for it). Moreover, to eliminate any possible additional confusion between the two movies, the phrase 'Set The Night On Fire', which was originally merely a tag-line for Lambada, is often elevated nowadays to the status of official subtitle for it.
One further source of confusion, which I've seen on several websites, is the claim that Lambada is the sequel to The Forbidden Dance, which as shown here is plainly nonsensical, because the two movies were entirely unrelated, and Lambada actually went into production well before The Forbidden Dance. However, what is true is that there were initially plans for a bona fide sequel to The Forbidden Dance, provisionally entitled Naked Lambada! The Forbidden Dance Continues, but disappointing box office returns for The Forbidden Dance caused these plans to be abandoned.
Speaking of box office returns, Lambada proved the more successful of the two films, earning US $4,263,112 against the US $1,823,154 grossed by The Forbidden Dance (though clearly neither of them was a big hit). Lambada's relative success over its rival was possibly because of its more experienced lead cast members, with J. Eddie Peck in particular being at the peak of his film career at that time (he later concentrated on high-profile roles in TV blockbuster soaps, such as Dynasty, Dallas, The Young and the Restless, All My Children, etc). Incidentally, be sure to check out here my review of his previous movie, The Bite, a monster/horror film released in 1989. True, Harring not only was incredibly beautiful in every scene but also radiated charm and appeared thoroughly captivating, and James's character Jason was extremely likeable, but they lacked the overall experience and on-screen chemistry of Peck and Hardin imho. One major plus for both movies, however, is their respective soundtracks, each of them bursting with vibrant songs from its film.
Finally: I mentioned earlier that several lambada-themed movies were released during much the same period of time. Apart from the two reviewed here, others include the 1989 Turkish movie Lambada, the 1990 Brazilian/Italian movie Lambada (aka Rhythm and Passion), and the 1991 Brazilian movie Lambada starring Thiago Justino. There were also various additional lambada-themed movie projects that were planned but never produced, including Blame It On Lambada, Lambada: The Sound of Love, and even a comedy, Lambadamy, as well as the afore-mentioned sequel to The Forbidden Dance, Naked Lambada!
If you feel like engaging in some
vicarious lambada action, be sure to click here to watch on YouTube an official
trailer for Lambada, and click here
to watch on YouTube an official trailer for The
Forbidden Dance. I suppose that some may consider these movies to be guilty pleasuees, but I don't feel remotely guilty about watching them, and neither should you – both are thoroughly entertaining, which is what movie-watching is all about, being entertained!
Also: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
