The movie so nice, they made it twice

What's weirder about Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights? The fact that Lawrence Bender is one of its producers? That it got made at all when the DVD and soundtrack CD from the 1987 original still sell thousands of copies a year (ok, milking the cash cow is a good enough excuse)? Or the fact that Patrick Swayze has a cameo playing Johnny Castle, his character from the original film? This is the most intriguing part of it all to me, since the original DD was set in 1963, but this one's set in 1958. So that means Johnny "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" Castle un-aged about 17 years over the 5 years before he met Jennifer "I carried a watermelon" Grey and lost his gig in the Catskills. Or he's a time-traveler. Yeah, I like that one better.

Now I have memories of slumber parties circa 1988 where all the girls wanted to watch were Dirty Dancing and the beach volleyball scene from Top Gun.

I also have memories of the 10th anniversary re-release of the original in 1997, largely spurred by Conan O'Brien's facetious calls for such an event. Meredith and I went to see it in the theater then and you know, in a weird way, the movie kinda works. I'm sure I'll end up seeing this one too, if for no other reason than to behold the glory that is time-travelin' Patrick Swayze.