Maya Zapata Movies
The ravishingly beautiful, raven-haired actress Maya Zapata made a series of quick and seemingly effortless back-and-forth transitions between roles in her native Mexico and mainstream Hollywood parts. Though she began with youth roles -- as in the ill-fated 1989 adventure saga The Old Gringo -- in time producers began casting her as sensual, impassioned Hispanic girlfriends or lovers, as in the 2004 drama Caribe. She also accepted bit parts that called for an ethnic typecast, as in Tommy Lee Jones' acclaimed Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada(2005). Zapata landed her first lead opposite Jennifer Lopez in Gregory Nava's harrowing, shocking social-conscience thriller Bordertown (2007) -- as a young factory worker who barely escapes from a rape and strangling and then joins forces with reporter Lopez to bring her aggressors to justice. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Mexican director Issa López's show business-themed comedy drama Casi Divas (Road to Fame) follows the adventures of four aspiring actresses clamoring for a coveted part in a hotshot producer's new movie. The producer in question launches a national talent search to find his dream actress, which pits the quartet of hopefuls in a spate of intense competition against one another -- despite the rumor that the producer's girlfriend will land the part by default. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patricia Llaca, Julio Bracho, (more)
Lust is on the program of events when a family visits an upscale resort in this comedy from Chile. Gonzalo (Jesus Ochoa) is a successful businessman who thinks his family needs to spend some time together away from the stress of the city. Gonzalo books a vacation at a resort in the Yucatan, where melodramatic re-enactments of Mayan rituals are part of the daily entertainment. Gonzolo arrives at the resort with his blasé wife Carmen (Valentina Vargas), rambunctious teenage daughter Camila (Martha Higareda), downcast and newly single twenty-something daughter Maca (Ana Serradilla) and hormonally overdriven teenage son Andres (Jesus Zavala). Nearly everyone in Gonzalo's family is looking for some sort of diversion while away from home, and each of them find it, though the results are not always quite what they expected. All Inclusive was an official entry at the 2008 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jésus Ochoa, Martha Higareda, (more)
The celebrated Latino director Gregory Nava (American Family) helmed, scripted, and co-produced (with star Jennifer Lopez) Bordertown - a suspense thriller with an A-list Hispanic cast. Lopez portrays Lauren Adrian, an American correspondent from a Chicago newspaper, who longs to cover the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Instead, Lauren's mentor at the paper, George Morgan (Martin Sheen) reassigns her to Mexico. She is promptly shuttled off to Juarez, a troubled community on the Texas-Mexico border rattled by a series of brutal, unsolved homicides. The victims - all young women, employed in the maquilla plants that manufacture electrical components for exportation to the U.S. - are uniformly found raped and strangled to death. One of those women, Eva, manages to escape her captors (who believe her dead) and flees not to the corrupt police, but to the local newspaper. There, her life intersects with those of Lauren and Lauren's former boyfriend and lover, the reporter Alfonso Diaz (Antonio Banderas). Suddenly, Lauren foresees, in the prospect of reporting Eva's story, an assignment that could bring her closer to Iraq than she ever dreamed possible. Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Maya Zapata and Juan Diego Botto co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maya Zapata, Jennifer Lopez, (more)
Two strangers' lives intersect in shocking and cataclysmic ways in La Sorpresa, Oscar Gonzalez's explosive tale of infidelity, passion and revenge. The story begins simply, with a man heading home to see his wife after a lengthy trip; he catches a cab, and speaks openly and candidly to the driver about his beloved spouse. Returning the favor, the cab driver then describes his own love, a young woman rebounding from a broken and contrite heart. Lo and behold, the women turn out to be one and the same, which pits both men head-to-head against one another, and sets the stage for virulently ugly conflict. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luis Fernando Peña, Maya Zapata, (more)
- 2007
Director-producer Daniel Gruener's drama Morirse en domingo follows the plight of a family that loses one of its own, Julio Salas, on a Sunday. With no burials performed on Sundays in Mexico, the family must hire the services of a 'zopilote,' (a humble funeral parlor owner) to take care of the situation, but no one can foresee the problems this will cause. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Silverio Palacios, Humberto Busto, (more)
The debut feature from director Patricia Riggen, this drama centers on a young boy's journey across the U.S./Mexico border to be reunited with his mother. Adrian Alonso stars as Carlitos, a Mexican adolescent living with his grandmother while his mother works as a maid in the U.S., hoping someday to send for her child. But when the grandmother dies unexpectedly, Carlitos must sneak across the border and seek out his mother. Featuring a supporting performance by America Ferrera of ABC's Ugly Betty, Under the Same Moon premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adrian Alonso, Kate del Castillo, (more)
- 2005
- R
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Veteran screen star Tommy Lee Jones makes his directorial debut with the fractured tale of murder and injustice on the U.S.-Mexico border scripted by Amores Perros and 21 Grams screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) is a fresh-faced Border Patrol officer in Cibolo County, TX, whose dedication to his new job leaves his lonely wife, Lou Ann (January Jones), with little to do but spend her days at the local diner, where she strikes up a friendship with waitress Rachel (Melissa Leo). Despite her own status as a married woman, Rachel is unfulfilled in her marriage and is intimately involved with both rugged rancher Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and local sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam). Soon after Pete hires Mexican illegal Melquiades Estrada (Julio César Cedillo) as a ranch hand, the growing bond between the pair is suddenly shattered when, in a moment of panic on a routine patrol, Mike hastily guns down the innocent Melquaides. When an enraged Pete learns that Mike has unceremoniously buried the illegal immigrant in an unmarked desert grave and local authorities opt to overlook the case, he kidnaps the crooked lawman and sets out to ensure that justice is served with or without the involvement of the local police force. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, (more)
A secretive street magician finds his life forever changed after being reminded of the past he once walked away from in director Jamie Aparicio's inspirational redemption drama. Tadeo used to be a famous photographer, but these days he earns a living by dazzling people on the city streets. Assisting Tadeo in his popular performances is a blind vagabond who proves the only friend this lonely magician has left. When Tadeo makes the acquaintance of a young neighbor, a life altering revelation gradually pulls the sensitive magician out of isolation. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ernando Gonzalez, Maya Zapata, (more)
Esteban Ramirez's melodrama Caribe stars Jorge Perugorria as Vincente a man who has gotten himself into difficult positions in both his personal life and his financial life. He engages in an affair with his sister-in-law, while also fielding offers from large oil companies to buy his land. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jorge Perugorría, Cuca Escribano, (more)
A young man takes a wrong turn down the lost highway of criminal delinquency in this powerful drama from Mexico. Rufino (Luis Fernando Pena) is a boy in his early teens growing up on the mean streets of Mexico City; his father is missing, and he's being raised by an adoptive mother who has little time for him. Instead, Rufino runs with a gang of youthful delinquents who support themselves with petty crime and seek solace in marijuana and sniffing glue, and while the boy is still an innocent deep inside, his circumstances have left him jaded beyond his years. When his guardian's boyfriend beings home a bag of cocaine one night, Rufino steals the drugs and tries to sell them, hoping to use the money to run away with his girlfriend Xochitl (Maya Zapata) who, even though she's not much older than Rufino, is already the mother of a child. As Rufino and Xochitl search for a better life, he also tries to learn what became of his father; Rufino is convinced he's still alive, even though nearly everyone else is certain he's dead. Luis Fernando Pena's performance in De La Calle earned the young thespian the Best Actor trophy at the 2001 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luis Fernando Peña, Maya Zapata, (more)
- 1994
Cisco and his pal Pancho return in this made-for-cable nostalgic and comical reworking of the once popular western adventure series. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jimmy Smits, Cheech Marin, (more)
In this historical drama based on Carlos Fuentes' novel, Harriet Winslow (Jane Fonda) is a naive woman who, hoping to broaden her horizons, accepts a job as a governess in Mexico in 1913. However, Harriet unknowingly finds herself thrown into the middle of the Mexican revolution, where she attracts the attentions of two very different men: an elderly American gentleman (Gregory Peck) who has come to Mexico to die, and Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits), a general with Pancho Villa's army of rebels who is fighting for the freedom of his people. The American's attraction to Harriet is more intellectual (though he unmistakably finds her attractive), while Arroyo holds a greater romantic allure to Harriet, who is still a stranger to the ways of love. In time, she gains a new sense of freedom and self-knowledge in Mexico, but while the victories of Villa's forces bring out an unseemly arrogance in Arroyo, Harriet makes a surprising discovery about the Old Gringo -- that he is in fact the fabled author Ambrose Bierce, who vanished years before. Old Gringo was the first American film for director Luis Puenzo, and the next-to-last for star Jane Fonda. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, (more)
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