Max Berliner Movies
A mismatched couple discovers that whatever can go wrong will go wrong during a family visit in this comedy. Leni (Marian Aguilera) is a television reporter from a Jewish family in Spain. One weekend, Leni drops by her family's home for a visit, with her new boyfriend, college professor Rafi (Guillermo Toledo), in tow. Rafi is more than a bit nervous about meeting Leni's family -- chronically nervous mother Gloria (Norma Aleandro), blustery father Ernesto (Mario Martin), dance-student sister Tania (María Botto), straight-laced bother David (Fernando Ramallo), and addled grandfather Dudu (Max Berliner). But Leni quickly makes matters worse when she announces to her family, who are waiting for Ernesto to return from work, that Rafi just happens to be Palestinian. Matters become a bit tense after that, and while joking with Leni with a block of frozen soup in the kitchen, Rafi accidentally drops the package out the window -- hitting a man on the head who might be Ernesto. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Aleandro, Guillermo Toledo, (more)
At the end of Highlander, Juan Ramirez (Sean Connery) died and Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) was rendered mortal. "Highlander 2: The Quickening begins in 1999 when Connor solves the problem of an ever-depleting ozone layer on the earth by devising a giant shield around the entire planet. The earth is saved, except for the fact that it is now a continual 99 degrees, and the earth is plunged into 24 hours of darkness. 40 years later, Connor is an elderly man with liver spots, heading out for the opera. Then there is a flashback of Connor recalling his halcyon days on the planet Zeist hundreds of years earlier. Back on Zeist, Connor and Ramirez led a futile coup against the ruling dictator, Katana (Michael Ironside), that caused them to be banished to Earth. Back in the future, Katana sends a pair of wacky goons to kill Connor. When Connor lops off their heads, he is now young again...and immortal. Just the right time to meet the attractive scientist Louise Marcus (Virginia Madsen), who has discovered that the shield around the earth is no longer needed since the ozone layer has repaired itself. But, unfortunately, the shield is in the clutches of an evil cartel who wants to control the earth's resources. Connor and Louise team up to battle the cartel while Katana sends out more emissaries to get Connor. Ramirez, although supposedly dead, also makes an appearance in the 21st century -- garbed in full Scottish regalia. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, (more)
- 1989
In this political satire and mystery, a group of journalists have uncovered a conspiracy against the current democratic government of Argentina. They track the conspiracy down to its lair in dim recesses of the National Library, and discover that it is being run and coordinated by the ghosts of dictatorships past, from conquistadors to newly dead military men. This "Patriotic Spirits Club" is, even by ghostly standards, a pretty odd bunch, including a couple of former plantation owners who travel around with a ghostly cow in order to always have fresh ghostly milk. They have one living assistant, a crooked politician. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Zanca, Mauricio Dayub, (more)
A withdrawn Beunos Aries movie buff develops an unusually charged relationship with his new roommate in this off-beat psychological thriller. Reclusive and demanding, movie theater owner Adrian LeDuc is none too happy when circumstances force him to share his apartment. His outlook begins to shift, however, when he meets Jack Carney, a confident charmer with movie star looks. Adrian is both strangely attracted to and resentful of Jack, and the two form a sometimes awkward, often unspoken bond. This connection is challenged, however, when it is revealed that Jack may be hiding a horrible secret in regards to his enigmatic past. While it always remains grounded in the dynamics of the roommate's relationship, the film expands to encompass much more, from an implicit critique of obsessive movie fandom to a look at the bloody politics of the Argentinean military regime. Ultimately, however, the film is primarily concerned with creating a mood of slowly building suspense mixed with a streak of black humor, which becomes more pronounced as the film approaches its violent climax. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Firth, Hart Bochner, (more)
- 1984
When the military junta that ruled Argentina was in power, from 1976 to 1983, Oso was in power with them, as a military thug and torturer. People feared him and shied away from him on the streets. He liked that. Now he is an extremely unpopular man in Buenos Aires, and he goes back home to his mother's house in the provinces far away from there. At his old home, he finds that he cannot make connections with people -- it's been too long since he visited last, and even his former lover wants nothing to do with him. He returns to the city, only to be hounded by the father of one of the desapericidos, the men he kidnapped and murdered. He tries to find the remnants of his old military organization, but there is no one who will stand with him. Everyone of them is in hiding in one way or another. This doesn't sit well with him, and his thoughts begin to take a decidedly vengeful tone. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodolfo Ranni, Julio de Grazia, (more)
- 1983
In this uneven -- and at points, less-than-credible -- story, the two leads still give excellent portrayals of the tortured souls of an emotionally beleaguered son and his domineering, obsessive mother. The two could be seen as metaphors of elements in a much larger social and political reality, or just as somewhat twisted characters. The son has been bullied throughout his life and sapped of self-confidence, something that shows up fairly quickly as he flubs a small part in a film. His mother sees him as a wimp, and when she loses what little rationality she has over a young couple who make love where they can clearly be seen from the window of the family's apartment, she pushes her son into committing mayhem and killing off the offensive couple. Whether or not this works will depend on how deeply disturbed the son may actually be. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulises Dumont, Nelly Prono, (more)
- 1975
It is not widely known that Argentina, which is thought to have harbored many ex-Nazis (such as Josef Mengele), is also the home of a large and well-established population of Jews who fled the pogroms of Russia near the turn of the century and settled in the Argentine countryside. This film tells the story of those early settlers, many of them new to farm work and all of them new to the horse-riding traditions of the region's cowboys ("gauchos"). Based on the book by Alberto Gerchunoff who was one of these immigrants. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pepe Soriano, Luis Politti, (more)
