Rating: 
Summary: Cuba has problems
Review: Cuba is a communist country and the United States doesn't like them at all. Cuba is under communist rule and thats why the US doesn't like them at all. This video trys to force you to like it. But realize it. America is 100% better than stupid cuba.
Rating: 
Summary: Old school Cuban masters.
Review: Think of the contradictions that Cuba embodies. This island, a former tropical "party central" for free-spending Americans, has turned into a Z-rate vacation resort for cash-strapped communists. Poor in natural resources, rich in human talent. Once poised to lob missiles at us, now it only launches raftfuls of immigrants. The restrictions on travel and trade between our two countries, have been nothing short of forbidding. In order for Cuba's cultural treasures to reach our shores, you almost had to hope for a bottle to wash up on our beaches. In practice, we waited for the occasional baseball player or musician to break through the Cigar Curtain. With "Buena Vista Social Club", Ry Cooder and Wim Wenders show us what we've been missing out on. A warm, likeable, down to earth people you want to love. Music so rhythmic and delicious, it makes your soul's tongue hang out. 70 year olds who can sing so richly and eloquently about passion and romance, they put to shame the whole American ethos of youth and sex. The documentary unfolds an unhurried look into a world where life is defined by a direct soulfulness, not by material possessions. The film's audiovisual balance is just perfect: colorful urban textures and wistful tropical landscapes blend with a Grammy-level soundtrack. The music itself is a godsend, cool melodies and sensual hot percussion. Real instruments, no gimmicks. This, my friends, is caliente unplugged. As the camera follow the musicians through the alleys and buildings of Havana, as we listen to their simple heartfelt stories, we learn something priceless. We need these Cuban artists, and they need us. We need their relaxed humanity, their soulful culture to counterbalance our materialism. They need the mass recognition that's been denied during so many years of political embargoes. In the end, the emotional tug of this film and its music may be more powerful than any missile or baseball contract. And to think, if it hadn't been for Cooder and Wenders, we would have lost forever the chance to witness these captivating, old school Cuban masters.
Rating:
Summary: Time traveling
Review: In 1956, the U.S. Navy sent me to Key West, Florida. I'd always been a radio junkie, so it didn't take me long to discover Radio Havana. For a year in Key West, and then for two years in Bermuda, I enjoyed what was to me a new and spectacular music from Havana. And now, 44 years later, Wim Wenders has brought those very same sounds, from the very same people, flooding back to me like a reborn life. Over the years I'd forgotten the authentic sound I'd heard from Radio Havana when in Key West. But from the opening downbeat of the film it was as if I'd been transported back in time, listening and watching the same musicians I'd heard in the Fifties, when they were in their prime and heard regularly on Radio Havana. I've remained a Latin music fan over the years, but the sound you'll hear in this video is different; it's authentic, the real thing, a more romantic approach to what we now call Salsa.The film is a social documentary as well as a musical one, giving us hidden glimpses into life in Cuba. Life there is more than we may have thought. A look into the hearts and lives of these sweet artists offers exceptional and surprising insight into the potential of human nature. "The way of possessions" has been rejected, and has given them the strength of character to "resist the good as well as the bad." If you aren't in tears--with feet tapping--at the triumph of these beautiful people as they are resurrected to thunderous applause at Carnegie Hall, then you simply aren't paying attention.
Rating:
Summary: A Landmark Breakthough in Music and a Postcard of Cuba
Review: Ry Cooder struck gold when he stumbled upon these Cuban musical legends understandably forgotten by the outside world but somehow forgotten in their own country. With instruments and forms of music virtually unaffected by 40 years of pop culture, these superlative musicians will warm you with their humility and their affection for each other and their culture, and then thrill you will their rich music. Cooder, however, did the musicians a disservice by giving himself and his son such a big role in the project. Cooder's electric guitar doesn't work when it is mixed with thick, natural sound of the Cuban musicians. Director Win Wenders shot a brilliant sequence when legendary pianist Ruben Gonzalez is working magic on his piano and Cooder interjects with his electric guitar. Wenders moves the camera amongst the Cuban musicians while Cooder is playing and they all have perplexed looks on their faces. It is a sound that they obviously are not accustomed to and one that clashes with their natural sounds. It's also painful to watch Cooder's son head and shoulder movements while he plays percussion -- it's something straight out of a Wayans brother movie. I don't want to seem ungrateful. Full credit goes to Cooder for what he has done for these performers and the music world. These performers obviously have deep affection for Cooder. Stepping back and the letting the legends go would have been the right thing to do. Instead, he looks like George Plimpton. Awesome music, awesome movie.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Music and Real-Life Stories
Review: It's amazing how little most of us know about Cuba or its people. The news gives us only part of the story, and most films look at either the past or are purely political in nature. Wim Wenders' "The Buena Vista Social Club" provides a wonderful view of not only life in Cuba today, but the glorious musical history of Cuba's past. Forgotten musicians and vocalists are shown at home, in the recording studio, and in concert outside of Cuba, performing music that the people know, but apparently don't (or can't) acknowledge publicly in their own country. This is a wonderful slice of life and culture that most Americans have no idea exists. Credit should go to Ry Cooder and his son, who comment on what the music and experience means to them. An enjoyable documentary.
Rating: 
Summary: Good... not great..
Review: After getting through the "novelty" of being a document about Cuban musicians-- me, being an American, who has been cut off from Cuban culture and music, by the American government's economic and social embargoes, I couldn't help thinking that every single town in the world has a handfull of bands like this-- bands that played in a small neighborhood bar on Saturday night.. Well, bands like those have their time, then they break up, like this band.
Rating: 
Summary: What a treat!
Review: Ry Cooder does the latin music world a great service by visiting and then revisiting in film these great Cuban musicians who would have been all but forgotten in the political struggles of the times. To be sure, the music is excellent (though the recording quality on the DVD is far from concert-quality), played with the passion one expects of artists who know that music is their best form of free expression. But the DVD provides more: the trip to NYC of these gentlemen and the chance to watch them watch us is priceless. They are projected into a time-warp, and find the world they have been told is so corrupt is really a treasure trove of good things, good musicians and good people. This is a wonderful work of art and I will enjoy watching it and listening to it again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Music video or amateur travelogue?
Review: OK .....caveat emptor .....but I did place some reliance on the number of stars in your rating for this CD. Your rating was 5 stars, I gave it one because there was no provision for a zero.
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Summary: WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Ever since I got this I cannot stop watching it!!!! Such beauty and talent is so addicting....The beautiful images of Cuba and the artists making the music with humor and every other emotion. A MUST SEE FOR EVERYONE!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Music.
Review: Enjoy the "just-okay" audio of this DVD, and buy the CD for the better journey through some very moving music. The subtitles are cheap and sometimes difficult to read. The story is engaging. Briefly, this DVD is a gripping documentary of the condition of Cuba. The faded pastels on crumbling buildings...beautiful ocean waves crashing over seawalls...streets with huge potholes filled with water, the skyline obscured with laundry lines. The real story here is what bad shape that country appears to be in....
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