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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
El Cantante
Picturehouse Entertainment
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for drug use, pervasive language and some sexuality
Starring
Jennifer Lopez,
and
Marc Anthony
El Cantante celebrates the life and music of the legendary Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe, a pioneer of the sound and sensibility that redefined Latin music in the 1960s and 1970s. El Cantante portrays an era when a new sense of national identity and pride took root in Puerto Rican communities across the U.S. Hector Lavoe's music was both a soundtrack to and affirmation of that awakening. (Picturehouse)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Darmstaeder (& story)
Todd Bello (& story)
Leon Ichaso
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Leon Ichaso
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 30, 2007
Theatrical: August 3, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
116 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Spanish / English |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Anthony doesn't have a large emotional range as an actor, and neither does Lopez. Still, the musical numbers, which constitute a hefty portion of screen time, are thrilling.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
A special film, one that refuses to package a person's life into a comfortably familiar genre.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
It's a soaring, crashing, blazing affair with pyrotechnic performances by real-life spouses Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez as Lavoe and his wife, Puchi. Like a plane disaster, it holds you in thrall of ¡ay, Dios mio! drama.

70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
A star isn't born in El Cantante as much as it's reconfirmed. She's still here, and she's still got it.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The music is the uncontested highlight of El Cantante.

63
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Biopic cliches hamstring producer-star Jennifer Lopez's pet project.

50
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The awkwardly told story of salsa legend Hector Lavoe, El Cantante doesn't even get the title right: It should have been called "La Esposa," since it's really less about the singer than his wife.

50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A sizzling soundtrack and Jennifer Lopez's best performance since "Out of Sight" go only so far in El Cantante, a downer of a musical biopic that leaves no cliché unturned.

50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
If you're a fan of Hector Lavoe and Latin music, or Lopez and Anthony, you'll want to see El Cantante for what's good in it. Otherwise, you may be disappointed. The director (Leon Ichaso) and his co-writers haven't licked a crucial question: Why do we need to see this movie and not just listen to the music?

50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
"Everybody loved him. One woman understood him," goes the ad line. But the movie makes you wonder how anyone could love this screw-up and why anyone would have a problem understanding him.

50
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Ideally, it would give you a sense of an entire people knocking the planet off its axis with a shake of their hips. If only El Cantante were that movie. Instead, it's a curiously sludgy cross between a Doomed Star biopic and a J. Lo vanity project.

50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
It may be best to approach El Cantante less as a movie than as a two-hour promotional video for a must-have soundtrack album.

50
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Unfortunately, the music is as irresistible as the tired story of a musician succumbing to substance abuse is resistible.

50
Entertainment Weekly
Scott Brown
Anthony, with his famished thousand-yard stare, turns in a delicate -- perhaps too delicate -- performance more informed by the shadow of Lavoe's death than the spark of his art. And his shrill domestic scenes with Lopez feel small and squalid, as we wait restlessly for the band to play us out.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Turns out to be nothing special. Well, the music is. The storytelling is not.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Anthony delivers a respectable performance, but his character never comes into sharp focus. Consequently, Lavoe emerges as a supporting character in his own story.

50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
It's whenever the music stops that the movie runs into trouble.

42
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Lopez can't decide if she's playing Lavoe's victim or enabler -- the movie sort of half blames her -- and neither of her characters is likable. The music's lovely, though.

40
Variety
Robert Koehler
A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, picture suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus

40
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Unfortunately, there's little more than formula in Ichaso's El Cantante.

40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Before long, El Cantante disintegrates into a stylized jumble -- even a straightforward jumble would have been preferable.

38
Premiere
Scott Warren
Ichaso seems far too interested in what led to Lavoe's downfall rather than what made him great.

30
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
Focusing almost solely on Lavoe's addictions (drugs and women, ho and hum), El Cantante is a garish, dispiriting bit of work--a mountain of biopic clichés snorted through the lens of a fidgety camera that never pauses long enough for us to get to like (or even know) the man responsible for making the Nuyorican sound a mainstream American commodity in the 1970s and early '80s.

25
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The film doesn't make a case for Lavoe as an important artist.


The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 57 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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