Raul Davila Movies
Three Puerto Rican couples living in post-9/11 New York City struggle to find their place in an ethnic melting pot that's been tainted by paranoia and fear. When Millo was just a young boy, his father prevented him from reaching his true potential. Today Milo is a Double AA baseball player married to Luisa. When a talent scout attempts to recruit Millo as a coach instead of an athlete, the frustrated husband's inner rage begins to boil over. Terrified, Luisa escapes to New York City just as the terrorist steer their planes toward the World Trade Center. Later, a married pilot from Puerto Rico begins a homosexual affair with a handsome young flight attendant, and watches his carefully constructed house of lies start to crumble when his flight gets redirected to Bermuda on that fateful September morning. Meanwhile Anhelo, the married mother of the flight attendant involved in the affair, enters into a passionate yet destructive romance with a young photojournalist who's preparing to cover a big conference at the World Trade Center. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 1994
Larry Miller guest stars as Michael Dobson, an abusive comedy-club owner suspected of shooting his wife. According to the D.A.'s office, the victim was poised to get a divorce, something that Dobson could not tolerate. As the woman lies comatose, the lawyers must determine exactly what charges will be levied against the contemptible Dobson. Without revealing the outcome of the story, it can be noted that the sixth-season Law & Order episode "Encore" could be called a sequel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1992
- R
The war for control of a lucrative international drug trade provides the focus of this drama. The trouble begins when a kingpin is released after serving a ten year prison sentence and discovers that his relatives are engaging in a bloody battle for control. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roger Hanin, Richard Berry, (more)
A Cuban woman who escapes to America finds herself in political, financial, and romantic jeopardy in this taut drama. Cuban refugee Isabel (Greta Scacchi) flees her country and makes her way to Miami after her husband, Nestor (Jimmy Smits), a political activist, is sentenced to a long stay in a Cuban jail. In their dangerous voyage to the United States, Isabel and her daughter are rescued by Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio), a fisherman from Miami; Sam helped Isabel find her way in her new home, and a romance blossoms between the two. However, when Nestor is finally released from prison eight years later and escapes to Miami to be with his wife, he discovers that Isabel's affections are now divided between himself and Sam, while his daughter barely remembers or recognizes him. Danger faces all three sides of this romantic triangle; Sam is asked to use his boat to smuggle Cuban dissidents into Miami, Nestor falls in with a radical fringe group hoping to stage an armed invasion of Cuba, and Isabel, who has become involved with a numbers racket, is in deep trouble after several massive payments were made to someone who never placed a bet. Fires Within was also shown under the title Little Havana; it premiered in Miami, appropriately enough, in its short-lived theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Jimmy Smits, (more)
This adaptation of Hemingway's classic story adds a few characters but keeps the basic plotline of an old fisherman's greatest battle intact. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn
- 1988
This docudrama reenacts the famous 1987 trial of New York vigilante Bernhard Goetz who was tried for shooting four young African-American men on a subway train. Though the trial is enacted by actors, the dialogue was taken verbatim from the actual court transcripts. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1987
Though set in Cuba, the made-for-cable Florida Straits was lensed in South Carolina. The film is set twenty years after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Raul Julia, Fred Ward and Daniel Jenkins sneak back into Castroland to search for a fortune in gold that had been buried during the abortive 1961 military action. Their mission is complicated by a woman from Julia's past. Scripted by Roderick Taylor, Florida Straits was first telecast on October 26, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A police psychologist and his school-age son become embroiled in the machinations of a mysterious cult religion in this thriller from director John Schlesinger. After his wife is electrocuted in a freak accident, Dr. Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) and his son, Chris (Harley Cross), move back to Manhattan, where Cal went to school. When not spending time with his son and surrogate extended family -- husband-and-wife anthropologists Kate (Elizabeth Wilson) and Dennis Maslow (Lee Richardson) -- Cal settles into his new job and romances his landlady, Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver). Soon, though, a series of brutal murders of young children begins to take over Cal's life. Through the ravings of policeman Tom Lopez (Jimmy Smits), who believes the killers have supernatural power over him after stealing his badge, Cal learns of Santeria, a voodoo-like Latin American sect that mixes elements of Christianity and pagan mysticism. Although the religion turns out to have ties to some of the richest men in the city and even Cal's well-meaning maid seems to be a practitioner, he can't get any straight answers as to whether the cult is responsible for the murders. But after a sinister African shaman (Malick Bowens) places a curse on Jessica, Cal finally begins to understand the danger that faces him -- and his son. The Believers was very loosely adapted from Nicholas Conde's 1982 novel The Religion. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, (more)
- 1959
Counterplot is a standard murder melodrama in which a man mistakenly believes he has killed someone. Brock (Forrest Tucker) flees to Puerto Rico from New York City, the scene of his supposed crime. A Puerto Rican boy who had befriended Brock years ago turns out to offer him a haven in this aftermath of the presumed murder. As time goes by, it is revealed that the murdered man's business partner was the one responsible for his death. Complicating matters is the fact that the dead man had taken out a hefty life insurance policy before he died. Brock's next challenge then, is to get evidence on the real killer. This was director Kurt Neumann's last film, he died within a year at the age of fifty-two. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Forrest Tucker, Allison Hayes, (more)
