Based on the harsh reality of Caracas and the '96 medical strikeThe Zero Hour is the story of a hitman who is
forced to hijack a private clinic to save the love of his life. A story
of violence and revenge, love and action...
The Zero Hour is a gritty,
fast-paced heist film. Set in Caracas during the 24 hours of a
controversial medical strike, it follows Parca, a tattooed hit-man, as
he takes an elite hospital hostage in order to save his
girlfriend. What seemed like the perfect plan ends in chaos as Parca’s
forced to come to terms with his past, discovering that his worst
enemies are much closer than he ever imagined. A love story told in the
midst of chaos, The Zero Hour is a timely and universal story about the mythic rise to power and the inevitable fall from grace.
chronicles a thirst for revenge that devastated a country. It tells the
true story of Jose Tomás Boves, a cruel man who became a legend during
the Venezuelan War of Independence, the most violent in the Americas. He
went from seafarer to pirate, horse smuggler to prosperous merchant,
prisoner to military chief.
Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford,
the producing team responsible for the theatrical-movie "sleeper" The
River's Edge, were the mentors of the made-for-TV Seeds of Tragedy.
Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, the story involves a single cache of
cocaine, from creation to consumption. The coca leaves are initially
harvested by poor farmers in the Peruvian Andes. The coca moves forward
to a small-time Amazon trader; then it is powdered under the supervision
of a Colombian gangster, and finally it winds up on the mean streets of
LA. Partially filmed in Mexico with a cast of relative unknowns, Seeds
of Tragedy was an unusually potent entry in the Fox Network's "Monday
Night Movie" series.
Mariana is an 11-year-old girl who has been kidnapped. Her teacher
Brenda is determined to find her, even if she has to work at a table
dance as an exotic dancer to do it. There she will meet other girls,
and will form the "Slut Commando," a group of exotic dancers and martial
arts experts that will not stop at nothing until they save Mariana.
Set on the streets of modern day Venice Beach, CA, "Vicious Circle" is a tragic punk rock Latino love story; a raw, edgy, teenage Romeo and Juliet with a murder mystery twist. We first see 18 year-old RJ (skateboard star, Paul Rodriguez Jr.) running through the streets of LA with a blood stained shirt and a gun in his backpack, leaving us to wonder, "What happened?" An artist and skater with a heart of gold, R.J. dreams of moving to New York City to pursue his dream of to creating comic books. His hand-made sketchbook demonstrates his unique talent and acts as a portal between fantasy and reality. A strong influence of the game of chess from RJ's incarcerated father permeates his art and life; RJ lives by the rules of the game and knows the repercussions of one bad move. Soon, RJ meets Angel (Emily Rios), a rebellious singer in a local teenage punk band. Their unexpected story of true love causes the tides to turn in both lives, and RJ reveals a secret that could cost the life of his new love.
The bloody murder of prostitutas puts to Gumersindo Peña, subinspector of the police, on the track of a powerful band of dealers, bound to high spheres of the power.
Growing up in the Mission district of San Francisco, Che Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) has always had to be tough to survive. He's a powerful man respected throughout the Mission barrio for his masculinity and his strength, as well as for his hobby building beautiful lowrider cars. A reformed inmate and recovering alcoholic, Che has worked hard to redeem his life and do right by his pride and joy: his only son, Jes, whom he has raised on his own after the death of his wife. Che's path to redemption is tested, however, when he discovers Jes is gay. To survive his neighborhood, Che has always lived with his fists. To survive as a complete man, he'll have to embrace a side of himself he's never shown.
The story centers around veteran assassin Mark Shields as he tracks down, Pelon, the elusive head of the Salazar Crime Cartel. Through twists of fate, Shields ends up with a local woman, Olivia who is also fighting her own demons for the sake of her daughter. Set in the rich and atmospheric backdrop of Tijuana, Mexico, La Linea (The Line) is full of action, drama and finds its soul in the plight of the characters that inhabit the most dangerous city in North America.
A 24 hour period in the lives of Fausto and Jesus, two undocumented Mexican day-laborers in L.A. Each day another task, each day the same pressure to find money. They go about their daily routine, standing on the corner at the Home Improvement Store waiting for work to come. Today, the job they are given is well paid compared to their poor usual wages. Today, Jesus carries a shotgun inside his backpack.
The action begins with Mexico City policemen banging on the door of what seems to be an abandoned house. Ulises (Damian Alcazar) and his partner enter the house and find gruesome remnants of animal sacrifices and human remains. The two are ambushed by the occupants and Ulises is forced to watch them torture and mutilate his partner until he is decapitated. Ulises is shot in the leg and is allowed to live to warn other law enforcement officials to stay out of their way.
One year later, Ed (Brian Presley), Henry (Jake Muxworthy) and Phil (Rider Strong), three recent Texas college grads, are enjoying a college beach bonfire in Galveston, Texas. They decide to head down to Mexico for the week to hit up the strip clubs and take advantage of a lack of law enforcement.
Ed meets a bartender named Valeria (Martha Higareda) after being stabbed defending her in a barfight and falls in love with her, while Henry sets Phil up for his first sexual encounter with a prostitute, who is "barely 17". Phil immediately falls in love with the prostitute, who he quickly finds out has a baby. The boys, Valeria and her cousin Lupe (Francesca Guillen) indulge in some hallucinogenic mushrooms before going to a carnival. Phil leaves early to give the prostitute's baby a teddy bear, and as he walks from the carnival alone, Phil reluctantly gets into a car with a couple of men who proceed to abduct him when he tries to leave.
The next morning, Henry and Ed notice that Phil did not come back, and the two begin to investigate, eventually teaming up with Ulises, after Henry gets shot and they find the local authorities and the townspeople utterly terrified of Phil's captors. Phil is revealed to be kept in a shack on a ranch under the watch of a man named Randall (Sean Astin), who wounds Phil after he tries to escape. The captors explain that they follow "some African voodoo" called Palo Myombe and are preparing a human sacrifice (a "gringo", as opposed to the regular Mexican citizens they have been sacrificing) to get the power of Nganga for their drugs to be invisible to the border guards while smuggling them into the US.
Henry is later hacked to death by several men with machetes on the roof of their hotel, and Ed and Valeria decide to go with Ulises to go kill the men who abducted Phil. By then, it is too late to save Phil, however that doesn't stop Ulises from shooting the leader of the cult to death after being shot himself.
Ed, Valeria, and Ulises travel down the road to a house inhabited by an old man, where Ulises bleeds to death. The cult members followed Ed and Valeria to the house, and the two risk their lives to kill the remaining members, eventually deciding to swim across the Rio Grande, two kilometers north of their location.
The movie ends with a caption explaining that several kilos of cocaine were found in containers along with human hair, over fifty bodies were exhumed from a mass grave at the ranch, Ed and Valeria were questioned after being caught swimming across the river, and that several suspects remain at large.
The last hours of the life of Sandro do Nascimento, 22 years old, "the Bus 174 hijacker", were followed by millions of people through TV worldwide. His burial was accompanied by only one person - his adoptive mother.
Enticed by the documentary Bus 174 by José Padilha, director Bruno Barreto built a fictional account to tell the story of meeting a teenage orphan and a woman obsessed by the memory of her son. The meeting of two people adrift, which ended with the death of a young teacher and Sandro, leaving orphaned again that mother of her son.
set in 1997, in Rio de Janeiro, The Elite Squad follows the lives and exploits of a BOPE captain named Nascimento and his two potential heirs-in-command, Neto Gouveia and André Matias, rising from the ranks of general PMERJ (the state military police) to BOPE (later it is revealed that Nascimento wants to leave the force because his wife is pregnant with his first child).
While Neto Gouveia is a quick-tempered, tougher man, André Matias refuses to compromise his ideals of peace and equality. The latter is also a student of Law at a university in Rio, where his upper class friends are unaware of his job as a policeman, and are clearly shown as "spoiled" kids that tend to see the police as a repressive unit.
Preceding the visit of Pope John Paul II to Rio, the plot unfolds and we are introduced to the day-to-day drug busting operations inside Rio's favelas, ruled by well-armed and powerful drug lords, led by the Brazilian elite unit, BOPE, and the corruption that affects part of the PMERJ.
he film shows in parallel two periods in the life of Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel): one showing his successful career as cook, the other as prisoner in a cell with about ten other prisoners. Gradually the film makes clear that the prison period is later.
His period as cook starts with a situation where he arrives by bus in a big city, without a place to sleep and without even money for food. He eats chicken snacks in a cafetaria, and has to wash the dishes to pay for it. He gets a job without getting wages, just food and lodging, even though the snacks he cooks are so good that it attracts more customers. He has free sex with prostitute Íria obsessed with eating, in exchange for food. He is very jealous. In a bar where Íria works as an erotic dancer, after drinking alcohol without being accustomed to that, he starts a fight with a customer, and is thrown out. Íria takes care of him. Nonato gets a better job in an Italian restaurant, where he learns more of cooking from his boss Giovanni. One day he discovers that Giovanni has sex with Íria. He is very upset, first drinks a bottle of wine, then kills both. He cuts off a slice of Íria's behind, and cooks it for his meal.
In the prison cell there is a power hierarchy with Bujiú (Babu Santana) at the top. The food is poor, and Nonato is assigned to cook better food. The inmates are usually quite satisfied with it, and Nonato rises in the hierarchy. However, Bujiú rejects Gorgonzola, raw meat, and cooked ants. Ingredients are usually bought through guards; the ants were collected from the cell. Top-criminal Etcetera (Paulo Miklos) arrives, who is highly esteemed among the inmates, and Bujiú decides that a great meal should be cooked to please him. The main prison kitchen is arranged for the preparation; this is expensive, but according to Bujiú a good investment. Nonato poisons Bujiú and becomes the leader of the cell (Etcetera has his own cell).
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town
Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas has to interrupt his honeymoon on the Mexican-US border when an American building contractor is killed after someone places a bomb in his car. He's killed on the US side of the border but it's clear that the bomb was planted on the Mexican side. As a result, Vargas delays his return to Mexico City where he has been mounting a case against the Grandi family crime and narcotics syndicate. Police Captain Hank Quinlan is in charge on the US side and he soon has a suspect, a Mexican named Manolo Sanchez. Vargas is soon onto Quinlan and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies, when he catches them planting evidence to convict Sanchez. With his new American wife, Susie, safely tucked away in a hotel on the US side of the border - or so he thinks - he starts to review Quinlan's earlier cases. While concentrating on the corrupt policeman however, the Grandis have their own plans for Vargas and they start with his wife Susie.
Six men must complete various tasks before moving up the ladder in the crime world. Each more dangerous than the last.
Johnny is a poker-faced, old world outlaw whose only driving force is money. A professional killer and master of escape, Johnny is soon offered the big cash score that has constantly eluded him. The Catch? He and five other criminals must complete various jobs from an anonymous employer before they get the chance at some serious money. Johnny, who is a gun for hire, soon teams up with the five criminals on different jobs knowing in advance that they are all enemies. Johnny's life is quickly put in danger when two of the criminals find out that he is working for their rival. The result of this leads to numerous set-ups, double crosses and deadly confrontations, where only one fortunate soul will be left standing. Greatness, wealth and power beyond their wildest dreams await these undesirables. The only thing they have to do now... is stay alive long enough to claim it.
It is an excellent movie, well crafted, with great music and outstanding performances. It tells the story of a young man looking for a better life in the cosmopolitan city of Caracas, Venezuela. He found enormous difficulties in coping with the raw realities of a crime-ridden city and his personal ambitions and goals as a hard working, rural man. He made a good friendship with a crook "city man" in whom he trusted and learned the "ins and outs" of Caracas.
Robert Rath (Stallone) is a paid assassin who wants nothing more than to get out of 'the business', haunted by the memory of murdering his own mentor Nicolai years ago. Rath is a quiet, morose professional who is on an assignment to kill someone when someone else gets to the 'mark' (the target) before he does. That person turns out to be Miguel Bain (Banderas), a fellow assassin and a competitive psychopath. Rath then has the trouble of trying to figure out who sent Bain, the contractor offers him one last job that could financially allow him to retire - killing the four Dutch buyers and the computer hacker named Electra (Moore) and retrieve a disk that contains sensitive information. Electra has set up cameras in all the rooms of the apartment block where she lives and watches them like watching television.
The problem is that Bain is assigned to kill Electra as well. Bain kills the four Dutch buyers which turn out to be Interpol agents and Rath comes to kill Electra but for the first time has a change of heart. His pay for the job is given to him in a briefcase in exchange for the disk. The briefcase actually contains a bomb placed by his own contractor in an attempt to kill him. Luckily Electra had swapped the disk, not sure if Rath was coming back or not. Then the contractor hires Bain to terminate him. Now having become a target along with Electra he must try and extract enough money out of his contractor so he can disappear for good, while avoiding the bloodthirsty Bain. Rath's contractor turns out to be none other than Nicolai himself. He hired both Rath and Bain to track down Electra and the disk.
The life of a boy in the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with little crimes, prostitution, etc
Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old transvesite hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape where they make their living by the life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
fter a police round up of street children Pixote is sent to a juvenile reformatory (FEBEM). The prison is a hellish school where Pixote uses glue sniffing as a means of emotional escape from the constant threats of abuse and rape.
It soon becomes clear that the young criminals are only pawns in the criminal, sadistic games of the prison guards and their commander.
When a boy dies of physical abuse by the guards, they frame the lover of the transgendered effeminate boy known as Lilica (Jorge Julião), for the murder. This lover then conveniently also dies, with some help from the guards.
Soon after, Pixote, Lilica and her new lover Dito (Gilberto Moura) find an opportunity to flee from the prison. First they stay at the apartment of Cristal (Tony Tornado), a former lover of Lilica, but when tensions arise they go to Rio for a cocaine drug deal; there, however, they get duped by a showgirl.
After some time bumming around the city, Pixote and his friends go to a club for another drug deal. While there, Pixote finds the showgirl that took their drugs and stabs her.
They become pimps for the prostitute Sueli who is definitely past her prime and is possibly ill from a botched abortion. The group conspires to rob her johns, but when Lilica's lover Dito falls for Sueli, Lillica leaves. The robbery scheme fails when an American john fights back (because he apparently does not understand Portuguese) so they have to shoot him. In the ensuing fight, Pixote accidentally shoots and kills Dito as well.
Pixote tries to gain comfort from Sueli, treating her as a mother figure, but she rejects him. He leaves and is seen walking down a railway line, gun in hand, away from the camera, his figure disappearing in the distance, out of the film's view.
Brazilian drug dealers in the lower east side of Manhattan start a war with a rival gang of Latino drug dealers. Their soldiers are Latino kids all under 17 because, as Rita La Punta says, "They can kill and not go to jail." The war escalates to include their German heroin supplier, his sexy English girl friend, a Puerto Rican ex-cop, and the Japanese police captain.
Rey is a small time drug dealer waiting for a chance to make it in a big way. He is in love with a prostitute, together they share their ups and downs expecting to one day get out of their miserable lives. They continue to struggle until one day they come across an opportunity of a lifetime.
Two street gangs, one white and one Chicano, are on a course for a major clash until a friendly police officer suggests that they have a sit-down dinner together.
Wilson De Leon, Jr. (Rick Gonzalez) is an exceptional college student with an adoring girlfriend, doting mother and a future full of promise. He has never wanted for anything, and he has never been forced to stand his ground. But when ghosts from his mother's past come back to haunt his present, he must defend his family...and quickly turn into the strong man his father prayed he'd become. Nothing could stop Wilson's mother, Millie (Wanda De Jesus), from protecting her two boys. Forced to flee her home after gangsters killed her husband, she made an oath to give her children only the best. But all that changes when an enemy from the past catches up with them. It's finally time to take action--and now, they're done running. Weapons at the ready, Wilson, Jr. and Millie prepare for a final showdown with the murderer who robbed him of a father and her of a husband. Now, in a battle fueled by family ties and blood feuds, it will become very clear what happens when anyone tries to come between this son and his mother.
