the audience applauded

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good concept, poorly executed.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Now that I have seen the movie I would really like to learn something about Hector Lavoe's life. The funny thing is that I thought the movie would provide that kind of information. But I only learned this: He used a lot of drugs, he was a good singer, he didn't feel appreciated by his dad and his wife had to struggle a lot with him. What I did not learn: Who were the other people in the movie? Besides his wife and his son nobody is properly introduced. Maybe people who know a lot about him recognize the other characters. I know only two of his songs and his name. For me big parts of this movie were a mystery.Some bearded guys were discussing how talented he is, then later on the bearded guys were discussing how broken down he is. I guess that one of them was his producer, one or two might have been songwriters or musicians. I don't know. There is a scene where Ruben Blades goes on stage and performs the song "El Cantante". A song that should become a very big hit for Lavoe. But hadn't I had seen a documentary on Latin music a few day earlier again I wouldn't have known who the question that was. The guy goes on stage like it is amateur night and he is lucky that Hector is there to listen to the song. My sister was watching the movie with me, and I had to tell her "hey that guy was huge too." OK, I get it. This movie is showing Hector's life from the perspective of his wife. But she either didn't care much about his origins, his musical connections, the people he worked with, his influence on music or the musics influence on him, or she didn't know. If you don't know much about Hector Lavoe and you hope to learn about his life this is not the movie for you. On the other hand: Marc Anthony does a great job in this movie. I wouldn't have expected that. But after a few minutes i forgot it was him and had to remind myself it was not actually Lavoe. Well done. J-Lo is very annoying. But maybe this woman was too. If so, well done too.

Do you like music? Do you like the sound of the conga and the timbale? Go see this film. I don't know if it accurately portrayed Hector and his wife as they were, but I do know the music rocked! Can it be true that this music is rooted in the Puerto Rican experience in America? An amalgamation of styles – the sounds of America? Is America the sounding board for the music that makes the world dance? I was dancing in the isles while the movie was playing – the sound was fantastic (props to the sound engineers) and Marc Anthony rocked the house. Yes, the story was everything you'd expect from a life in the fast lane, but the music rose above it, as it should, and framed the story with it's sublime poetry. I left dancing, happy to have seen this musical slice of life in New York, U.S.A. Keep on dancing! There is also fun in the U.S. of A!

I must admit that I had my doubts about this film, but after I watched it I wanted to watch it again. The movie is about the life of Hector Lavoe (Mark Antony) from the point of view of his wife Puchi (Jennifer Lopez). I shows his personal life in those areas that affected her the most. While some people don't think much of the way the movie is presented I think is very realistic and well acted. For those of us who remember when Hector Lavoe was the main voice of the Salsa music this movie brings back lots of memories. As far as the acting go Jennifer actually becomes Puchi and Mark does very well as Hector. I give it an A-

First, I have been an Hector Lavoe fan since early 70's and as a puertorican I agree with a lot of our artists that this movie is simply awful. The acting is subpar, the editing worse and the story was a bit biased. We all thought that this production was going to do justice to the life and achievements of Lavoe. Instead it is an embarrassing account of the negative aspect of Hector's life. Yes he did drugs, yes he had many trying times, but he also left a musical legacy that many of today's Salsa singers (Marc Anthony included) can't and never will achieve. This was a chance to celebrate the artist and his contributions along with Willie Colon to our popular music. Instead we have all the dark aspects that clouded his life and show old Salsa artists to be a bunch of "junkies" and bums. Also, you can clearly notice that this is a "Jennifer Lopez production" since a lot of the "actors" in the movie are blood relatives of J-Lo. This is a low blow for these artists and I can believe Jenny to ride Marc's fame as much as she can since she can't sell a movie by herself, much less a singing career. I was very disappointed in Marc and as a puertorican I can say that ever since he got together with J-Lo he has lost a lot of ground with us puertoricans and this travesty of a movie clearly shows it. You really need to know the real story here if you want to comment on this "movie". All I saw was J-Lo's face and big "rump" more times than the actual main character of the movie. I counted about forty-something appearances from Marc and over 200 by J-Lo. Way to go girl, keep riding the bronco until it drops.