The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
The Forbidden Dance
Romance · Drama · 1990
A princess in the Amazon rain forests tries to fight a conglomerate threatening the forests by going to Los Angeles. There she links up with a rich kid who tells her that she must get on television to succeed with her mission. Quick as a wink, the two come up with the idea of winning a lambada dance contest.
Movie details
The Forbidden Dance
“LAMBADA...If it got any hotter, it wouldn't be dancing!”
1990 Romance · Drama 1h 37m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
3.9 / 10
1.9K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
25 %
Tomatometer
TMDB
6.1 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A princess in the Amazon rain forests tries to fight a conglomerate threatening the forests by going to Los Angeles. There she links up with a rich kid who tells her that she must get on television to succeed with her mission. Quick as a wink, the two come up with the idea of winning a lambada dance contest.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Forbidden Dance?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Greydon Clark
Written by
Roy Langsdon · Menahem Golan · John Platt
Laura Harring
Nisa
J
Jeff James
Jason Anderson
Á
Ángela Moya
Carmen
Sid Haig
Joa
Barbra Brighton
Ashley Wells
Richard Lynch
Benjamin Maxwell
Pilar Del Rey
Queen
Court is in session
Put The Forbidden Dance on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.