Roberto Contreras Movies

Taylor Hackford directed this urgent melodrama about the realities of street crime, gangs, and prison life among the Chicanos of East Los Angeles. Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) are three friends who are living in the East Los Angeles of 1972 as it is torn apart by violence. When the gang violence hits the three friends, they are affected by their participation in the bitter violence in different ways. Cruz, an artist, becomes crippled, and he sinks deeply into drug addiction. Paco, an accessory to murder, joins the military to avoid jail time, leading to a spot on the LAPD. Miklo, the kid with the gun, is sent to jail, where he slowly rises up in the ranks of La Onda, the San Quentin Latino gang. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

When prodigal son Billy Turner (Judd Nelson) returns to his Florida home town, he's caught in a brawl and thrown in jail. He tells the guards to call his father, the mayor, who will have him released; however, he soon discovers his father has been killed. After Turner finally gets out of jail, he starts to hunt down his father's murderer, with the eventual help of Annie Rayford (Ally Sheedy) and her brother Joey (David Caruso). Their nemesis is the nasty crime boss Perry Kerch (Scott Wilson) and his henchmen, though the slow-witted police chief (Paul Winfield) is not much help, either. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, an exiled Cuban criminal who goes to work for Miami drug lord Robert Loggia. Montana rises to the top of Florida's crime chain, appropriating Loggia's cokehead mistress (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the process. Howard Hawks' "X Marks the Spot" motif in depicting the story line's many murders is dispensed with in the 1983 Scarface; instead, we are inundated with blood by the bucketful, especially in the now-infamous buzz saw scene. One carry-over from the original Scarface is Tony Montana's incestuous yearnings for his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The screenplay for the 1983 Scarface was written by Oliver Stone. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this bargain basement sci-fi film Time Warp-The Day Time Ended, a family moves into their state-of-the-art solar-powered home in an isolated part of the desert to start a new peaceful life. Meanwhile, far away in deep space, three stars simultaneously explode, sending disruptive, time-bending shock waves through the cosmic void. These waves hit the house and soon some mighty bizarre things begin to happen, including a sudden resurgence of dinosaurs in their backyard, visitations from diminutive aliens, and a robot from outer space. The film is also titled Time Warp. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Slimy villain Berry Kroeger keeps a harem of lovely young women as his own personal pets. Whenever one of the girls protests against this treatment, Kroeger settles matters with a whip. Eventually the women form a united front against their cruel master. What is most distressing about Pets is the number of talented people involved, including Kroeger, Joan Blackman and K.T. Stevens. Surely they didn't need money that badly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team are assigned to escort Soviet spy Hruska (Diana Hyland) to Mexico to exchange for an American scientist (John Archer) held by the Russians. En route, Ironside and Hruska a kidnapped by a gang of Mexican activists. As Ed (Don Galloway) struggles to stall the Russian officials, Ironside endeavors to formulate a plan of escape--all the while becoming increasingly fond of his beautiful prisoner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Leonard Nimoy joins the Mission:Impossible cast as The Great Paris, master of disguise and jack of all trades, in the series' fourth-season opener, "The Code." The IMF heads to the Latin American democracy of San Cristobal, presently in danger of invasion by dictator Vincente Bravo (Harold Gould). While Phelps and Barney attempt to decipher a vital code message, Paris, posing as a famous guerilla leader, hijacks an airplane. Alexandra Hay also appears as Lynn, an IMF agent who has been planted on the "endangered" plane. Written by Ken Pettus, "The Code" first aired on September 28, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Communist army officer Miguel Torres (Alejandro Rey) hijacks the airliner bearing Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Maria Sandoval (Pilar Seurat), the political defector whom Erskine is escorting to a congressional hearing. The plane crashes somewhere in New Mexico, leaving the survivors at the mercy of Torres, who is determined that Maria won't live to testify. Will Erskine's aide Colby (William Reynolds) be able to come to the rescue in time? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adopting the alias "Tom Barrett", for the second time this season, Kimble journeys to the small Mexican town of Puerta Banales. Here he is blackmailed into acting as assistant for Dr Frederick Howell (Arthur Hill), who with his loyal secretary Reina (Carol Lawrence) is battling an outbreak of meningitis. Meanwhile, local police sergeant Rodriguez (Carlos Romero), certain that he's seen Kimble somewhere before, places Howell's clinic under surveillance. What Rodriguez doesn't realize--but Kimble does, eventually--is that the real villain of the piece is the "humanitarian" Howell, presently conducting an unholy experiment to test out a new serum. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Allegedly based on the 1946 film starring Ray Milland but bearing no real resemblance to it, this is the story of the fight for statehood in California. The Californians want to break from Mexico, but Mexico doesn't want them to. This tale brings to the screen two brothers who are fighting on opposite sides in the battle. Not one of the best of Hollywood's efforts. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

Director Gordon M. Douglas specializes in comedy and action films, and here he puts the two genres together for a generally successful, well-acted chase drama. Two partners, Jim (Clint Walker) and Shawn (Roger Moore) have had the good fortune to find a gold fortune, but just after their strike, they end up in serious trouble. Word of their newfound status gets out to the wrong people, and before they have any time to cash in their chips and retire, they are running like the wind from a variety of money-grubbing marauders whose only goal in life is to return Jim and Shawn to their original impoverished state. As the chase heads toward a climactic moment, everything builds up to a convenient, if unconvincing conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Mr. and Mrs. Avery (Carol Hill and James Gavin) have been threatened with death by Mexican outlaw Manuel Garcia (Peter Coe). Asked to protect the Averys, Paladin (Richard Boone) discovers that they have adopted Garcia's son--and he wants the boy back at any cost. In the climax, the fate of everyone concerned is determined by the child's tormented biological mother Nita (Carol Thurston). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The X-117 satellite is launched to explore an area of deep space more than 200 miles above Earth, which is bounded by what is called "the flame barrier," a deadly zone of heat and radiation that can destroy any object that comes in contact with it. The satellite reaches orbit, but nine days after launch the X-117 suddenly disappears, and is presumed to have been destroyed. Six months later, in a remote part of Mexico, Carol Dahlmann (Kathleen Crowley) arrives to search for her husband, a scientist who believed the X-117 had survived and crashed in the jungle, and who led an expedition in search for the satellite -- he has been missing ever since. She hires two brothers, Dave (Arthur Franz) and Matt Hollister (Robert Brown), to accompany her into one of the most remote parts of the jungle on her search. They find all kinds of ominous signs on their journey, including animals that have died off without explanation, Indians who are in mortal fear of a "fire god," and dying men who turn up with horrible burns on their bodies. And when they finally reach Dahlmann's camp and locate the satellite, they find with it an impending threat to the safety of the entire world. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi