Sal Lopez Movies
This epic western starring Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, Linda Cardellini, and Rachel Griffiths was adapted from Larry McMurtry's sprawling novel of the same name, and actually constitutes a prequel to Lonesome Dove. Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Agustus McCrae may be getting up there in years, but their determination to capture Comanche war chief Buffalo Hunt, Comanche horse thief Kicking Wolf, and an elusive Mexican bandit king certainly hasn't faded with age. Now, as Gus attempts to resolve his personal issues with longtime love Clara Forsythe and Call comes to terms with his feelings for local prostitute Maggie Tilton, fellow Texas Rangers Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker do their best to safeguard the advancing western frontier from the legions of Comanches who have vowed to defend their land to the death. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, (more)

- 2004
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Kilo was born into a life of crime. By the time he was an adult, he was a full-time dealer, and when he meets Sabeva, the daughter of a Colombian drug kingpin, he reaches the upper levels of drug trafficking. It is a dangerous business, however, and eventually Kilo ends up in prison. Still running his operation from inside of a cell, he is eventually offered a shady deal: his sentence will be suspended if he will murder a convicted child-killer. Now Kilo stands at a crossroads, unsure which actions will clear his conscience, end his sentence, or end his life. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) investigates when the production of a "faked" snuff film results in the far-from-fake stabbing death of a young woman. Or did a murder actually occur? Clues are either vague or nonexistent, and Catherine finds herself running down a multitude of blind alleys. Meanwhile, Grissom (William L. Petersen) pieces together the evidence when an abandoned aluminum toolbox yields a human skeleton -- infested with imported fire ants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Nicholas Gilbert (Kevin Vincent O'Connor) the deranged homeless man who witnessed the murder of a man named Jefe in the previous episode (and who was, surprisingly, the scion of a wealthy family), turns up dead after being prematurely released from lockup. Outraged, Danny (Rick Schroder) reams out the desk sergeant who let Nicholas go -- thereby leading to another black mark on Danny's record. Realizing that his partner is rapidly becoming his own worst enemy, Andy (Dennis Franz) extends a helping hand to Danny. Elsewhere, Diane (Kim Delaney) investigates a murder-suicide which may be linked with her elusive enemy Denby (Andy Cohen), who, despite the fact that no one can find him, continues to wreak havoc in the 15th precinct. On another front, Baldwin (Henry Simmons) has an unpleasant run-in with the owner of a diner -- and also wrestles with the notion of asking Valerie (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon) out on a date. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
After Danny (Rick Schroder) and Diane (Kim Delaney) decide to amicably break off their relationship, Diane joins Baldwin (Henry Simmons) and Greg (Gordon Clapp) in their investigation of a strangling. The victim is a 15-year-old girl who left behind a school essay which might contain a clue as to her killer. In another unrelated strangling case, the only witness is an apparently unhinged homeless man named Nicholas (Kevin Vincent O'Connor). And back on the domestic front, Andy (Dennis Franz) again goes out with Cynthia (Juliana Donald), the niece of his old friend Gibson (John F. O'Donohue). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on Atticus, a novel by Ron Hansen, this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation stars James Coburn as widowed Colorado rancher Atticus Cody. In the months since Atticus' wife was killed in a car accident caused by his artist son Scott (Paul Kersey), the boy has ached for his father's forgiveness. Alas, though he still loves his son, Atticus is by nature taciturn and distant, and is unable to reach out to the grieving Scott. Upon discovering that his father has kept the wreckage of the "death car" on his ranch, the confused Scott decides that no closure is possible, whereupon he returns to the dusty Mexican village that has long been his home. Later, Atticus receives word that Scott has committed suicide--and upon arriving in Mexico, it is his turn to suffer the pangs of guilt, thanks to the relentless remonstrations of Scott's girlfriend Renata (Lisa Zane). But nothing is quite what Renata makes it out to be, as Atticus discovers to his astonishment upon hearing a cache of "audio letters" recorded by Scott just before his death. A delicate blend of domestic drama and "whodunit", Missing Pieces debuted February 6, 2000, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Returning from maternity leave, Carol (Julianna Margulies) has problems getting back with the program. Greene (Anthony Edwards) tries to nullify the abusive relationship between a gay couple. Carter (Noah Wyle) and Chen (Ming-Na) launch into another argument, this one over admitting an elderly woman (Peg Phillips) into the ER (Diane Baker guest-stars as the woman's apparently long-suffering daughter). Complications arise during a heart transplant for Lucy's (Kellie Martin) patient Valerie (Myndy Crist). Luka (Goran Visnjic) treats a group of truly colorful patients. Malucci (Erik Palladino) launches a one-man crusade against an illegal pharmacy. And two of the series' main characters may be on the verge of a warm relationship. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Professional nurse Rebecca Dubrovich (Shannen Doherty) is swept off her feet by charming millionaire Dick Strang (Tim Matheson), and the two begin a passionate romance. Only when it is too late does Rebecca discover that Strang has, to put it mildly, a dark side: He's a bigamist, a control freak, a pathological liar, and a vicious sadist. Breaking off the relationship, Rebecca is subsequently stalked by the obsessive Strang, who ultimately injures her so severely that she is confined to a wheelchair. During her painful recovery period, Rebecca falls in love with orthopedic surgeon Jerrold Petrofsky (David Bowe), and ultimately dedicates her life to helping other victims of abusive relationships. Based on a true story previously dramatized on the television anthology Unsolved Mysteries and then released in book form, the made-for-TV Sleeping with the Devil originally aired April 22, 1997 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This fact-based TV movie stars JoBeth Williams as Pam Willis, a case worker for the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women. In the course of a standard investigation, Pam comes upon Laura Keyes (Kellie Martin), a 14-year-old deafmute girl who has been locked up since childhood and never taught sign language. Even worse, Laura has endured a lifetime of unspeakable abuse at the hands of her father. Taking Laura under her wing, Pam endeavors to teach the terrified girl how to communicate and function in the "outside" world--and in the process, awakens the soul that has been so long buried within Laura's battered consciousness. This mission turns out to be a desperate race against time when Laura's bestial father begins scouring the slums in search of his "runaway" daughter. Breaking Through debuted December 30, 1996 on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kellie Martin, JoBeth Williams, (more)

- 1994
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This landmark of Chicano cinema is an adaptation of Tomas Rivera's 1971 novel of the same title. Told from the perspective of Marcos, the 12-year-old son of migrant Mexican-American farm workers, the film follows their travels over the course of a year, each of its 12 sections linked to a month of the calendar. The family starts off in Texas at the beginning of harvest season. Their hardscrabble journey takes them across the length and breadth of the Midwest. Along the way, Marcos and his family encounter a rich, difficult, and, at times, pathetic cast of characters including other migrant workers, a shoe salesman, and, in the most startling part of the film, white Americans. Through these encounters, Marcos comes to understand his place in the order of things, namely, near the bottom, discovers the power of familial bonds to comfort and overcome hardship, and uncovers in himself a desire to learn and educate. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Alcala, Daniel Valdez, (more)
This ecological drama, set in 2017, presents a world where pollution has generated ever more unpredictable weather and rendered large chunks of the planet into disaster zones. After a hurricane destroys everything they've built for themselves, Louisiana shrimp fisherman Drew Morgan (Craig T. Nelson) and his family, including wife Suzanne (Bonnie Bedelia), flee through a series of refugee camps to upstate New York, where Drew's estranged former business partner Larry Richter (Jurgen Prochnow) -- who has designs on Suzanne -- lives in comfort and affluence. Along the way, Drew loses his daughter, Linnie (Ashley Jones), to an agrarian doomsday cult; watches his elderly father (Richard Farnsworth) suffer a stroke; and almost drives away his confused oldest son, Paul (Justin Whalin). When Larry offers to shelter Drew's family if Drew himself will leave, Suzanne and the kids rally behind him. Things go awry, however, when an attempt to smuggle themselves across the border ends with Craig washed up on Canadian shores and the rest of the family stranded and penniless back in America. Originally presented as a two-part miniseries, The Fire Next Time premiered on CBS on April 18 and 20, 1993. The movie has no connection to the James Baldwin book of the same name. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, (more)
Edward J. Olmos made his directorial bow with the powerhouse crime saga American Me. Olmos stars as street-gang leader Santana, who during his 18 years in Folsom Prison rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits. The omniprescene of the "Mexican Mafia" in the southwest is sufficient to make this film a daunting, demoralizing experience. Upon its release, American Me received a lot of press play due to the fact that Olmos shot his Folsom sequences on location, using actual prisoners as extras and bit players. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward James Olmos, William Forsythe, (more)
This made-for-TV cop drama is deliberately reminiscent of Joseph Wambaugh's previous video success Police Story. LA Law star John Spencer plays a big-city cop with deep and serious emotional problems. His inner turmoil is exacerbated when he plunges into a troublesome murder case. Among the many personal demons with which the cop is wrestling is the memory of how a brief act of impulsiveness in his past led to tragedy. From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: Jury of One debuted November 29, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Spencer, Eddie Velez, (more)
Hypnotic regression prompts a pair of sisters to recognize that they've been abducted by aliens. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Crenna, Mare Winningham, (more)
In the made-for-cable El Diablo, Anthony Edwards plays a bespectacled Eastern schoolteacher who is bullied and cowed by the wild westerners all around him. Soon, however, he is forced to summon up his courage to expedite the rescue of his prettiest female student (M.C. Gainey), who has been kidnapped by the notorious bandit leader El Diablo (Robert Beltran). Louis Gossett Jr. is on hand as the down-to-earth gunslinger who teaches Edwards the rudiments of frontier survival. Coproduced and cowritten by John Carpenter, El Diablo debuted July 22, 1990, over the HBO pay-cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Season three of Hunter starts with a bang--actually several bangs--as police detective Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) manages to shoot down one of two escaping murderers. Alas, the other killer gets away thanks to the interference of "gonzo" TV reporter Raoul Mercado (a thinly disguised "Geraldo" type played by Michael Wren). After Hunter has Mercado arrested, the reporter launches a personal vendetta against the detective, publicly raking him over the coals for his violent arrest record. Thus it is that when Mercado is killed by a car bomb, Hunter is Suspect Number One. With this episode, Captain Wyler (Bruce Davidson) is promoted to Deputy Chief; and Garret Morris becomes a regular in the formerly recurring role of street hustler Sporty James. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Produced for HBO, The Glitter Dome is based on the crime novel by Joseph Wambaugh. Manhattan detectives Al Mackey (James Garner) is forced to wade his way through the glamorous cesspool known as Hollywood. Mackey's quarry is the unknown person who brutally murdered studio mogul Malcolm Sinclair (Alistair MacDuff). Providing a brief diversion for the diligent Mackey is Margot Kidder as eccentric young actress Willie. Also on hand is James Garner's Rockford Files cohort Stuart Margolin, who, in addition to directing the film, plays the murder victim's smarmy nephew. When first telecast on November 11, 1984, The Glitter Dome was criticized for a brief bondage sequence involving Margot Kidder: in retrospect, however, the scene serves to affirm the integrity and decency of the character played by Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

- 2005
- R
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An illegal day Mexican laborer and a club-hopping Los Angeles hipster form an unusual connection that leads the lives of both down paths neither could have ever anticipated. Bolivar de la Cruz (Kuno Becker) had just made the arduous journey from Mexico to Los Angeles when the wagon that was transporting him collided with a car driven by restless California club girl Lola Sara (Danielle Camatra). A hard partying twenty two year-old who is struggling to balance her frivolous existence against the stern expectations of her old world mother Consuelo (Maria Conshito Alonso), Lola longs to break away from tradition and wander her own path in life. Now, as Bolivar goes to work as a male stripper and begins living the high life, Lola discovers that she is pregnant and reaches out to her newfound friend for emotional support. Perhaps if these two lost souls from different sides of the same culture can find a common ground, they can finally defeat the demons that threaten to consume them body and soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kuno Becker, Danielle Camastra, (more)
Celebrated writer and director John Sayles turns his eye to politics in America in this drama. The son of respected Colorado politician Senator Jud Pilager (Michael Murphy), Dicky Pilager (Chris Cooper) is a charming but half-bright man with a bad habit of mangling the English language and a decided lack of political correctness. Dicky is also in the midst of a hard-fought campaign to become governor of Colorado. Dicky's campaign manager, Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), is a ruthless sort who will leave no stone unturned to see that his candidate wins, so when Dicky snags a dead body while fishing during the shooting of a campaign commercial, Raven is determined to find out if his man has been set up. Raven hires Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), a former journalist turned private investigator, to find out who the dead man is and if he might be connected to Pilager's enemies. But the deeper O'Brien digs into the matter, the more he finds out about the candidate and his family -- and very little of it is flattering. John Sayles assembled a typically impressive cast for Silver City, with the supporting cast highlighted by Tim Roth, Kris Kristofferson, Maria Bello, Thora Birch, Daryl Hannah, Billy Zane, and Mary Kay Place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Huston, Maria Bello, (more)
A man thinks he's found the woman of his dreams until he discovers someone else already had the same idea in this romantic comedy-drama with a primarily Hispanic cast. Mike (Jaime P. Gomez) is employed at a psychiatric hospital in California, where he meets Gabriela (Seidy Lopez), a young woman who is also working there while she completes her degree. Mike finds Gabriela to be sweet, charming, intelligent, and very beautiful, but there's a problem -- Gabriela has a fiancé, Pat (Zach Galligan). While Pat and Gabriela's relationship is hardly perfect -- she's very busy with work and school, and he's very devoted to his career -- Gabriela takes it very seriously, and Mike tries to resign himself to the fact that he and Gabriela are never going to be anything more than friends. But as they spend more time together, sparks begin to fly between Mike and Gabriela, forcing her to choose one man over the other. Completed in 2000, Gabriela found a distributor in 2001, when it was picked up by the independent distribution firm Power Point Films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaime Gomez, Seidy Lopez, (more)
Billed as a Latina Waiting to Exhale, this film details the life and loves of four Hispanic women: Sofia, a therapist; Andrea, a divorced lawyer; Irene, a flashy clothes designer; and Lilly, an artist. The women gather every week at the nightspot Luminarias to discuss jobs, family, love, and sex. Sofia, who dates white men in the hope of fitting into Anglo culture, becomes smitten with an amorous Mexican waiter. On the other hand, Andrea, who believes that white guys are only interested in Hispanic woman as exotic love toys, finds herself falling for a Jewish lawyer. While Lilly deals with racism from her Korean-American boyfriend's family, sexpot Irene has her own conflicted feelings toward her transvestite brother. Luminarias was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelina Fernandez, Scott Bakula, (more)
Similar to the premise of American Graffiti, this film centers on eight California high school students whose lives intersect over two nights in the hot summer of 1965. As the Watts riots begin, the young people make decisions that will impact their entire lives. Writer-director Floyd Mutrux examines at the graduating class of 1965 of Westwood High School in Los Angeles, which was featured on the cover of Look magazine in 1961. The story is narrated by the class valedictorian, Mary Beth (Lucy Deakins). Kelli Williams plays Sunshine, a prototypical flower child. Characters played by Dermot Mulroney and Rick Schroder and others struggle with decisions about the Vietnam war, aspire to be rock musicians, and take divergent paths on politics while navigating various romantic entanglements. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Rick Schroder, (more)
In this crime thriller, a hit man with the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) is in the midst of a public execution of the leader of a rival group when a woman named Gena Hayes (Virginia Madsen) happens by with her son. The child is killed in the crossfire, and Gena is determined to get revenge. About all she can remember about the killer is he had a blue tattoo of a tiger; after she asks several tattoo artists about it, she's unable to track down the shooter simply on the basis of his body art, but she ends up getting a similar tattoo herself. She gets a job as a cocktail waitress at a bar favored by members of the yakuza, and her tattoo catches the attention of Seiji (Toru Nakamura), a handsome gangster. Gena is interested in him as well, and a torrid romance develops, but she doesn't realize that her new lover is the same man who killed her son. Virginia Madsen's brother Michael Madsen makes a cameo appearance as a gun salesman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Madsen, Toru Nakamura, (more)
The title character, a manic depressive prone to very irrational behavior (Richard Gere), is hospitalized for treatment. While there, the psychiatrist responsible for his rehabilitation (Lena Olin) becomes involved with him and cannot stand to allow his check-out. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Lena Olin, (more)
























