Alma Martinez Movies
Based on a 1940s Los Angeles murder trial, this film follows the case of members of a Mexican-American gang, led by Henry Reyna (Daniel Valdez), as they are tried and sentenced to San Quentin for a murder they may not have committed. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos, (more)
Barbarosa is a western starring the unlikely screen team of Willie Nelson and Gary Busey. Nelson is an outlaw, Busey his country-bumpkin buddy. They decide to ride together, since both are on the run from separate family feuds. Directed by Australian filmmaker Fred Schepisi, the screenplay for Barbarosa was written by William D. Wittliff who would later gain acclaim for his adaptation of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, (more)
This gripping, emotional story of a roving photographer's transformation from a neutral artist with a camera to an involved human rights activist with a camera begins in Chad, travels to Nicaragua in the early 1980s, and ends when the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza takes off for the palm trees and beaches of Florida. Nick Nolte brilliantly interprets his role as the photographer Russell Price, and Joanna Cassidy is Claire, the radio journalist he meets while in Chad, along with her lover, Time Magazine reporter Alex (Gene Hackman), who ends up opting for a plush job as a TV anchorman and a quiet life on Long Island. When Alex leaves, Claire heads off to the next hot spot, Nicaragua, and Russell decides to tag along -- not because he is that interested in Nicaragua, but because he is interested in Claire. Once in the war-torn, Central American country, it does not take Russell long to see the vast difference between the corrupt, U.S.-backed dictatorship and the struggling guerrilla forces who have been fighting for a decade already. As his eyes are opened, he and Claire decide to go along with the rebels and film their fighting behind the lines. During one battle, the much-venerated rebel leader is shot dead, and Russell reluctantly agrees to fake a photo of the man as though he were still living, so as not to demoralize the army that looks up to him for leadership. The photo appears in the news around the world and causes such a furor that Alex shows up to demand an interview with the leader for national American television. It is on the way to this supposed interview that Alex leaves the car for a moment and is senselessly shot and killed by a government soldier, the whole episode filmed for the world by Russell's camera. This outrage (which actually occurred when journalist Bill Stewart was inhumanly shot by a Somoza soldier in full view of the video camera) soon makes global news and helps to hasten the overthrow of the corrupt dictatorship. Meanwhile, Russell has new issues to consider once his camera has become an "active" and not a "passive" observer of political unrest. René Enriquéz who plays the dictator Somoza in this film is a native Nicaraguan, related to a newspaper reporter killed by Somoza's government. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, (more)
- 1986
A made for TV movie which serves as much a condemnation of the military establishment as a murder mystery, this film revolves around an upper classman who is falsely accused of responsibility for the death of a student when he begins to investigate the mysterious demise of the young gay cadet. Part of a two-part series, the crux for the upper classman is whether he is willing to jeopardize the future of his own military career to investigate the death of the freshman cadet at this prestigious military academy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
Richard "Cheech" Marin, of Cheech & Chong fame, directed and starred in Born in East L.A.. Inspired by Marin's music-video parody of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA", the film casts Cheech as an East Los Angeles repairman. While paying a visit to a sweatshop toy factory, Cheech is caught in the middle when the feds raid the place and cart off all the illegal alien workers. Since he's forgotten to bring his own i.d., Cheech is also shipped off to Mexico-where, having next to no knowledge of the Spanish tongue, he's virtually helpless. Desperate, he takes a job with crooked Tijuana saloon owner Daniel Stern-the first of many "make-do" jobs that he assumes to earn enough money to return home. Along the way, he falls in love with El Salvadorian girl Kamala Lopez, whose English is as fractured as Cheech's Spanish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheech Marin, Paul Rodriguez, (more)
- 1991
The Boys is an "a clef" celebration of the famed script writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the creators of Columbo, Murder She Wrote and so many other stellar TV projects. William Link himself wrote this story about two lifelong collaborator/friends named Walter (James Woods) and Artie (John Lithgow). Though Artie is a chain-smoker, it is Walter who contacts terminal lung cancer--the actual fate of the late Richard Levinson. Some observers have suggested that Link penned this tale more out of guilt than friendship; whatever the case, he wisely avoids overloading the material with sentiment, allowing the "boys" to kid around and squabble as much as they ever had. As a bonus, there's a Columbo-style mystery angle in the proceedings to keep the hard-core Levinson/Link fans happy. The Boys was produced for television and originally shown in April of 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
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The fourth of Kenny Rogers' Gambler TV movies, 1991's The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw is regarded by many Western diehards as the best. This time, gambler Brady Hawkes is en route to a high-stakes poker game in San Francisco. His travelling companions are a trouble-prone frontier Romeo (Rick Rossovich) and a feisty ex-saloon gal (Reba McEntire). Never mind that: The real attraction of Luck of the Draw is its enormous guest-star lineup of famous TV cowboy heroes of yore: Gene "Bat Masterson" Barry, Hugh "Wyatt Earp" O'Brien, Brian "The Westerner" Keith, Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors, Jack "Maverick" Kelly, Clint "Cheyenne" Walker, David "Kung Fu" Carradine, and "Virginian" co-stars James Drury and Doug McClure. The first portion of this two-part movie concentrates on setting up the plot; Part two is the card game itself, preceded by a boxing match refereed by Bat Masterson (Gene Barry). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, (more)
An ancient evil escapes its captivity in a Mayan temple in Mexico, kills the archaeologists who unearth it, and heads straight for a toy factory, which is eventually taken over by a new American owner (Sam Bottoms) and refurbished. When the owner's daughter (Candy Houston) discovers one of the previous owner's doll creations and brings it home, she soon develops a strangely intense attachment to her new toy. The family's superstitious housekeeper begins to suspect demonic work afoot... and is promptly dispatched by the doll. Another archaeologist (Rip Torn) attempts to further his predecessor's research into the demon's origins and finds that the evil force was conjured centuries ago by a black-magic cult, whose members aspired to breed a hybrid of man and demon. The little girl's parents refuse to accept this theory... until they come face-to-face with an army of the malevolent dolls, all of which are under the man-beast's control. A decent but obvious riff on Child's Play, this also makes a few chilling nods to Trilogy of Terror's rampaging Zuni doll segment, and the dollies are suitably spooky. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denise Crosby, Samuel Bottoms, (more)
- 1992
Done in a documentary form, this is really a biography of Maria Serrano, one of the guerrilla forces in the civil strife in El Salvador. Opening in 1988, this film follows Maria; her husband, Jose; and their family and comrades through the horror that has become a way of life to them -- living and dying together in the belief that their cause is worth any sacrifice. Although she only started out as the guide for the filmmakers in their effort to portray the strife in war-torn El Salvadore, her sacrifices and hardships so inspired them that they made their movie into her story, feeling that she embodied the spirit and belief system they were trying to capture with their film. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1992
In this made-for-TV drama, a teenage girl named Sarah (Kathleen Robertson) is flying home to see her parents when she falls ill. While Sarah is convinced that she has simply come down with a bad cold, when she keels over and dies while crossing a street, an autopsy reveals that Sarah had in fact contracted the pneumonic plague. Dr. Nora Hart (Kate Jackson), the hospital's authority on epidemics and highly contagious diseases, now must track down as many people as possible who came in contact with the girl before the plague begins to spread -- including Calvin Phillips (Howard Hessman), a congressman Sarah met on her flight. Based on the novel The Black Death by Gweneth Cravens and John C. Marr, Quiet Killer also stars Jerry Orbach, Luis Guzman, and Al Waxman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Barbra Trent's Oscar-winning documentary takes a harsh look at a black period in 20th-century democracy, the late '80s and early '90s when during "Operation Just Cause," the U.S. invaded Panama, ostensibly to oust dictator and known arms and drug kingpin General Manuel Noriega, whom the U.S. aided for over a decade. Basing her information on eyewitness accounts, Trent alleges that U.S. troops killed up to 4,000 Panamanian men between the ages of 15 and 55, buried them secretly in mass graves, and then reported back home that only 250 civilians died. She also alleges that the troops destroyed untold amounts of buildings. Shocking photographs back up her stunning allegations. Trent spares neither the U.S. government nor the media -- that blindly accepted and reported anything released by the White House -- from blame in keeping the horror a secret. The film begins with a history of the U.S. relations with Panama, beginning with Panama's fight for independence from Colombia -- something the U.S. backed so it could build the Panama Canal -- to President Carter's 1977 treaty that would give control over the vital shipping lane back to Panama in the year 2000. One of the most shocking aspects of the story is that according to Trent, "Operation Justice" was really launched so that the U.S. could renege on the treaty and retain control. She also suggests the U.S. military used the invasion to test out sophisticated new weapons in preparation for the Gulf War. The photos and violence depicted are not for the squeamish. Elizabeth Montgomery narrated the events. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- R
Unorthodox FBI agent Jack Scalia is assigned to investigate the kidnapping of a prominent clothing manufacturer. It seems to Scalia that the whole event has been staged as part of a large-scale fraud. The principal suspect is onetime fashion model Bo Derek, the victim's much-younger wife. Despite his seen-it-all veneer, Scalia finds it difficult to maintain objectivity when he falls in love with Bo. Made for television, Shattered Image debuted January 21, 1994 on the USA Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
