Carlos East Movies

When an ambitious gang of international terrorists target the Pope for assassination, it's up to one lone cop to ensure the safety of the revered Catholic icon hit in director Avinadain Bautista's explosive action thriller. The Pope is all set to visit Mexico, but this fateful trip abroad may be his last. When a top Mexican cop catches wind of a complex assassination plot, he leaps into action in hopes of saving the high profile holy man from a most violent fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Julio Ruiz Llaneza helms the gritty, western-tinged, Spanish-language thriller Muertes Anunciadas. The saga begins with a devastating crisis: in 1970, four men brutally extinguish the lives of an entire family and seize its land. Now, 18 years later, ominous events begin to transpire: one of the men receives a letter predicting the exact day of his death, and is promptly killed with a car bomb; one by one, similar letters begin to crop up at the home of each of the remaining culprits, and the men band together to pinpoint the murderer. Yet only one suspect exists - the new ranch hand, Antonio, and he passionately insists on his own innocence, searching in desperation for evidence to prove his case. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cabalgando Con La Muerte concerns a lone-wolf cowboy named Candido. His sense of personal honor puts him in a situation where he enters in a land war against the ruthless Sebastian, a greedy unethical man aiming to control vast sections of land. To that end Sebastian has sent his henchmen to terrorize the farmers of the area. Only one of the farmers, Isidro, has the resolve to stand up to Sebastian. Isidro and Candido combine their talents to make a final stand. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

While he may not be a super-hero with magical powers, Valente has a way with arrows, knives, darts, pistols and various other mayhem-inducing hardware, as he secretly pursues (and kills) a variety of bad guys while protecting his reporter girlfriend in Los Angeles, California. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Central America, the peasants are nearly all "Indios," or people whose cultural values are those of indigenous people (rather than European or Spanish). Since the landowning and propertied classes abuse them horribly, these same ruling-class types live in perpetual fear of a bloody uprising. As a result, they suppress and abuse the peasants even more. Ironically, for the most part these peaceable people only want to be left alone. Those who do want to foment revolution have virtually no weapons and few allies to help them. In this action/adventure movie, based on a true incident, a group of Guatemalan peasants who have sought refuge in Mexico are sought out by Guatemalan death squads, and those who aren't tortured and killed are taken away in captivity. The hero in the story is a Mexican hunter whose family is mistakenly included in the raid and who teams up with a few of the survivors to win his family back and take revenge. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This action film is about drug dealers whose personalities are not that different than the police officers and narcotics agents out to get them. Yet the message, delivered repeatedly, is that drugs are bad and dealing in drugs is worse. Chief drug boss Ernesto Castro (Sergio Goyri) and his minions are the objects of one car chase after another, alternating with shoot-outs on a regular basis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Faye Dunaway portrays the Argentinian title character in this four-hour TV biopic. The story traces Evita's rise to power from humble origins; she establishes herself as a radio and film actress, then meets and marries powerful politico Juan Peron (played by James Farentino, a last minute replacement for Robert Mitchum). Peron's iron-fisted rule of Argentina allows Evita to become a political power in her own right. At first she is widely beloved as a "woman of the people", but gradually many of her followers are disillusioned by her use -- and misuse -- of her authority and her influence over Peron. After Evita dies, she is all but canonized by the Faithful, and it becomes more difficult than ever to separate fact from legend. Evita Peron was clearly produced to capitalize on the Broadway musical hit Evita, though the script takes great pains not to copy its theatrical inspiration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"Names have been changed to protect the innocent" in this infamous fictionalization of the tragic mass suicide of 914 followers of Jim Jones' "People's Temple" in Guyana in the fall of 1978. Rev. James Johnson (Stuart Whitman) is a charismatic but deeply paranoid man of the cloth who moves his flock from Northern California to a settlement in Guyana, where he intends to create an interracial socialist utopia. Addicted to prescription drugs and convinced he is surrounded by enemies, Johnson rules his colony, "Johnsontown," with an iron fist, torturing anyone who violates his rule, seducing both women and men from his congregation, confiscating money and property from his followers, and forcing them to work long hours in the fields for meager rations. Lee O'Brien (Gene Barry), a California congressman who represents the district Johnson and his followers once called home, has received complaints from friends and relatives of the Johnsontown settlers, convinced something is wrong. O'Brien and a team of reporters fly to Guyana to find out the truth about what is happening; Johnson is convinced O'Brien has seen too much, and armed gunmen ambush his party before they can return to the United States (with a number of Johnsontown residents who wish to leave). After a failed attempt to arrange exile in the Soviet Union, Johnson convinced his followers to perform a "final revolutionary act" before authorities arrive. This oddball blend of fact and fiction also features Joseph Cotten and John Ireland as Johnson's lawyers, Yvonne de Carlo as Johnsontown's press officer, and Bradford Dillman as the doctor who mixes the punch for Johnson's final gathering. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This 1978 horror-lite opus was the work of René Cardona Jr., who was a creative force behind other tabloid-inspired efforts like Survive! and Guyana, Cult of the Damned. This less-exploitative entry in his filmography utilizes the infamous legends revolving around the many disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle as the backdrop for a fictional horror tale. The Bermuda Triangle tells the tale of a family scuba expedition, led by patriarch Edward (John Huston). Things take a turn for the bizarre when Edward's daughter finds a mysterious doll. The little girl claims the doll is telling her of their impending doom as strange things begin to happen to the cast and crew. The resulting film was more restrained than the likes of Survive!, going for more a Twilight Zone-style creepiness. Like much of Cardona Jr.'s work, it boasted an international cast that included Huston, Italian starlet Gloria Guida, Claudine Auger, and Cardona Jr. regular Hugo Stiglitz. The Bermuda Triangle found little favor with the critics but has earned a small cult following amongst people who have encountered it on late-night television. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

The inhabitants of a small, remote island have been practicing voodoo rites and worshipping an evil priest named Damballah for years, but the local law officials generally turn a blind eye to this death cult's bizarre activities. Captain Labesch (Rafael Bertrand) arrives from the mainland, determined to crack down on the island's lawlessness and clean up the ineffectual, hard-drinking police force. He appeals for assistance from wealthy plantation tycoon Carl Van Molder (Boris Karloff), who owns nearly half of the island and wields a great deal of influence over the population. Van Molder has made the study of parapsychology his life's work and believes in the secret powers of the mind. He warns Labesch not to interfere with this forgotten island's ancient ways. Also visiting is Van Molder's niece, Annabella (Julissa), a temperance crusader who wants her uncle to help fund the International Anti-Saloon League. She falls in love with handsome police lieutenant Andrew Wilhelm (Carlos East), despite his fondness for rum. Meanwhile, beautiful native girls are being transformed into zombies, and a sinister snake dancer named Kalea (Tongolele) leads them to attack and devour any meddling policemen who get too close to their unholy rituals. When Annabella is kidnapped and prepared to be the cult's latest human sacrifice, Labesch and Wilhelm have to infiltrate their ranks to save her, and they finally learn the secret identity of the all-powerful Damballah. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi

When a wealthy man dies, everyone seems to be out to steal his money from the woman chosen as heiress. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

La Hermana Trinquete concerns a professional thief who mares a living ripping off the guests who stay at a five-star hotel in Acapulco. It takes a smart secret agent to figure out that that her persona of being a nun is nothing but a ruse to allow her access to her booty. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi