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Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, John Ortiz, Manny Perez, Vincent Laresca ... see more see more... , Federico Castelluccio , Nelson Vasquez , Antone Pagan , Jack Mulcahy , Ismael Miranda , Victor Manuelle , Christopher Becerra , Bernard Hernandez , Jared Everleth , Leon Ichaso , Romi Dias

Pop icon Marc Anthony steps into the role of Salsa superstar Hector Lavoe in this biopic that follows the singer from his early career success as a Puerto Rican teen sensation to his later status as a... read more read more... New York City Latin idol while also documenting his ongoing struggle against drug and alcohol addiction. Actress and pop star Jennifer Lopez co-stars as Puchi; Lavoe's longtime muse and love interest. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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63% liked it

8,951 ratings

Critics

25% liked it

106 critics

R, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Leon Ichaso

Release Date: August 3, 2007

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DVD Release Date: October 30, 2007

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Stats: 1,208 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,208)

  • dunmyer
    August 24, 2007
    dunmyer
    [size=3]"El Cantante," starring [b]Jennifer Lopez[/b] and [b]Marc Anthony[/b], is what I expected it to be: an extremely superficial, television-level biopic with great music and entertaining concert footage.[/size]

    [img]http://cdn.channel.aol.com/pmms/productpagemovies/04/05/21... read more71640[/img]

    [size=3]It has some extra value as one of the rare American films about Latinos, and for this reason I think an effort should be made to see it. We're certainly not going to get better Latino-American movies if we don't support the precious few that do get made. But the shallowness of the film cannot be denied.[/size]

    [size=3]Jennifer Lopez is intriguingly positioned as one of the only Latin pop stars well known in white America. She's as famous as Madonna, which is a stunning achievement on her part. She could substantially broaden the horizons of the white community by in a sense teaching them about Latin culture. That strikes me as a very important cultural enterprise that could also have important socio-political implications.[/size]

    [img]http://www.pastemagazine.com/images/articles/4678_image_1.jpg[/img]

    [size=3]With this film, as superficial as it is, Lopez and husband Marc Anthony have introduced a broader audience to Puerto Rican legend Hector Lavoie, who teamed up with Willie Colon in New York City in the 1970s to create the rhythmic, percussive style that came to be known as salsa.[/size]

    [size=3]As an example of how films like this can expand white horizons, I left "El Cantante" seriously wanting to know more about Lavoie, Colon and the rest of the salsa scene.[/size]

    [img]http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/picturehouse/el_cantante/jennifer_lopez/elcantante1.jpg[/img]

    [size=3]At the start of the movie, Hector is already an adult and already a singer. We meet him in Puerto Rico when he is about to embark on his move to New York. The vast majority of the film takes place in New York, where he meets the woman who will become his wife and lifelong partner. We watch him meet Colon and explode onto the salsa scene. Additionally, we are along for the ride when he discovers heroin, which would be his undoing.[/size]

    [size=3]There are a couple of moments where it's suggested that the couple might have been bisexual, and that perhaps this is how he caught the HIV virus, which killed him in the 1980s. If he was indeed regularly having sex with men, the film certainly blurs that out of the story. But that's really neither here nor there. The important thing to know about Lavoie is that he was a musical genius. And more Americans should know this.[/size]

    [size=3]Kudos to Lopez and Anthony for trying to bring his story to a wider audience.[/size]
  • EbertsLittleApprentice
    July 7, 2009
    EbertsLittleApprentice
    Hector Lavoe? Who is he? A salsa legend? A drug addict? An immigrant from Peurto Rico? Well he was all three.
    Yet, this film isn't just about him, but also his personal and family life, along set with his wife Puchi there to keep him from destroying his own life.
    Either way, t... read morehis film grasped me and made me really realize what Love and pain can do to a person, and Lopez and Anthony have a great chemistry onscreen and set of a blazing fire od charisma and sensational entertainment. For me it was a "Three and a Half out of Four" Stars picture.
    A Slight reccomendation.
  • wbgoose13
    August 8, 2007
    wbgoose13
    About as generic as musician biopics come. Lopez is especially grating.
  • RemiLogan
    August 7, 2009
    RemiLogan
    Very enjoyable, good performances. Most biopics follow the same formula: star starts off poverty-stricken, small fish in a big pond, meets the right people by chance, becomes uber-successful, then the drugs, loose women come along, then tragedy. El Cantante doesn't stray from thi... read mores formula either, but Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's performances were good, very enjoyable, I think they really brought life to the real people they were portraying. Plus it didn't hurt that the salsa music was really infectious. I LOVE Marc Anthony's voice, I think its raw and mature and he was a wise choice for the role of Hector Lavoe.
  • phinomenal
    July 10, 2011
    phinomenal
    Hey, me and the movie critics agree... Just because a movie is about someone famous, and you like him a lot, doesn't mean a movie about him is good... The music is great. However, there's not much to the plot of this movie.
  • PinkMinkPrincess
    June 17, 2011
    PinkMinkPrincess
    Sorry Jen & Marc, Love You Both, but your Pet Project didn't work out.Next time, save your Money & your Passion.
  • ladyred2988
    April 30, 2009
    ladyred2988
    what a fantastic depiction of salsa in the 70s, well done, true to life an the acting was soo impressive im shocked, i love it.. music was awesome soo many memorries,, from 1-10 this gets 10 all the way!!
  • baileencollin
    February 4, 2009
    baileencollin
    This is my baby's BaiLee's favorite movie. This is the movie about the Salsa great Hector Lavoe. "Yo soy el cantante"
  • XxMacheteraxX
    January 22, 2009
    XxMacheteraxX
    I was really interested in seeing this because I love the music of Hector Lavoe.
    The move is a let down. The acting isn't great and a long movie overall.
  • msinteligente
    January 2, 2009
    msinteligente
    This movie was one of the worst movies I have seen in my life! Hector Lavoe made history and yet this movie makes you think otherwise. There were too many drug scenes, the story was true but the title is "El Cantante" not "Hector Lavoe's Life". I was expecting to see how Lavoe ca... read moreme to such a success and yes some of his downfall but this movie was all about his downfall and Jennifer Lopez stole the spotlight. The movie should have been called "Hector Lavoe's Wife." J.Lo's character, Puchi, wasn't even in half the things shown in this movie. This film mopped the floor with Hector Lavoe's image. This film makes me feel ashamed of my people. A pathetic movie.

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Critic Reviews

Geoff Pevere
August 17, 2007
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

This may be one of the very few biopics in which the subject is marginalized to the point of irrelevance. Full Review

Mark Lepage
August 17, 2007
Mark Lepage, Globe and Mail

El Cantante has to legitimize its subject before it can immortalize him; and in the effort, it makes the mistake of letting a star get in the way of the truth. Full Review

Richard Roeper
August 9, 2007
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

I would have liked to have seen a more in-depth look at the salsa movement. Still, we do get a lot of great music, and Anthony is a natural onscreen in a tailor-made role.

J. R. Jones
August 9, 2007
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Marc Anthony plays the smack-addicted singer, who has some dynamite numbers but not much to say for himself. Full Review

Lou Lumenick
August 6, 2007
Lou Lumenick, New York Post

A downer of a musical biopic that leaves no cliché unturned. Full Review

Joey Guerra
August 3, 2007
Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle

The film's first half is an uneven string of scenes that offer little setup and sometimes confuse. Full Review

Terry Lawson
August 3, 2007
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

Lavoe was a gifted and original singer and song interpreter, but this film is unlikely to spread the word. Full Review

Claudia Puig
August 3, 2007
Claudia Puig, USA Today

The music is the uncontested highlight of El Cantante, which tells the story of the tragic life of salsa legend Hector Lavoe. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
August 3, 2007
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

El Cantante never nails the ecstatic moment of musical collaboration we crave from this genre. Where is the scene that gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of salsa's creation? Full Review

Mick LaSalle
August 3, 2007
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Throughout El Cantante, we're told repeatedly that everybody loves Hector, though why they should love him is a mystery. For fully two-thirds of the film, there isn't enough there either to like or di... Full Review

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