Danny Pino Movies

An expanded version of his 2005 short film of the same name, director Alex Merkin's feature-length noir thriller follows the tense stand-off between a young man, his unfaithful fiancée, and his best friend. Terry's fiancée, June, is having an affair. After following June to a run-down hotel on the far side of town, Terry quietly rents a room across the hall. With a bottle of whiskey and a loaded gun, he calls his best friend, Julian, and spills his guts. Realizing that it's only a matter of time before Terry goes off, Julian begs his friend to remain calm long enough for him to get to the hotel and diffuse the situation. Cloverfield star Mike Vogel appears opposite Brittany Murphy and Danny Pino in a film penned by Merkin and Jesse Mittelstadt -- the same co-writers who collaborated on the original short. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Informed by a Chicago police detective that her sister Diane has recently gone missing in Tijuana, Mexico, successful lawyer Nadine Roberts (Poppy Montgomery) travels south of the border on a desperate mission to locate her lost sibling, and instead finds her sanity slipping amidst an unsetting series of strange circumstances. Immediately after learning that her sister has disappeared, Nadine informs her husband James (Adam Kaufman) that she will be leaving for Mexico, and will not return until she discovers what fate befell Diane. While Tijuana Detective Campos (Jose Yenque) is adamant that Nadine return home immediately and leave the search to the authorities, she outwardly rejects his advice -- instead choosing to navigate the labyrinthine streets with instinct as her only guide. Later, after waking in a strange hotel room, Nadine has a series of bizarre run-ins with such mysterious figures as idiosyncratic hotel clerk Victor (Danny Pino) and enigmatic Old Tijuana matriarch Mrs. Gonzalez (Patricia Reyes Spindola). Driven near the point of insanity due to the indecipherable language spoken by Victor and Mrs. Gonzalez, Nadine is momentarily snapped back to reality due to the surprise appearance of her husband James. But no one can be trusted when the only thing dividing dreams from reality is a single, spare thread, and now Nadine is about to discover what really lies in that mysterious zone between life and death. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The Strike Team rehearses for their planned robbery of the Armenian money train. Ronnie (David Rees Snell) seems particularly worried about being "greenlit" by Armadillo (Danny Pino). Aceveda (Benito Martinez) criticizes Dutch (Jay Karnes) for his handling of a recent case, in which he let Marcy (Melanie Lynskey) and her husband leave the station while a young woman was dying in the trunk of their car. When Dutch asks Marcy how she fooled him, she says, "I just let you fool yourself." Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is forced to deal with a domestic disturbance in the hotel where he's staying. Emma (Marguerite MacIntyre) criticizes his two-fisted technique, but it's clear that she's attracted to him. The Strike Team finds someone to launder their money for them. Tulips (Nichole Hiltz) returns to the station with a hot tip for Shane (Walton Goggins). Shane doesn't want anything to do with her, but Mackey insists that he follow her lead and make an easy bust. Danny (Catherine Dent) gets passed over for promotion because of the bogus complaints against her. Dutch becomes unsure of himself when a woman is found strangled in the park. He defers to Claudette (CCH Pounder) as they interrogate Stu (Mike Bruner), the obese suspect. Julien (Michael Jace) tells Vanessa (Monnae Michaell) that he's in a sexual reorientation program. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Using the 1960 breakup of the marriage between Lucille Ball and her husband/co-star Desi Arnaz, the film covers 40 years in the life of America's favorite redheaded gal, beginning with her early dramatic aspirations as an acting student (one of her fellow aspirants is Bette Davis) and her emergence as a platinum-blonde chorus girl in such film extravaganzas as Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals. Once Hollywood is convinced of Lucy's fierce work ethic, and her willingness to do anything -- even allow herself to be caked in mud -- for the good of the picture, RKO Radio inaugurates a star build-up, though poor Lucy never quite gets beyond the B-list of leading ladies. In 1940, she falls madly in love with Desi Arnaz, a sexy Cuban bandleader and scion of an aristocratic family. Despite Desi's imperious nature, and his self-proclaimed "entitlement" to savor the favors of as many ladies as possible, Lucy and Desi are wed. Moving from RKO Radio to MGM during the war years, Lucy becomes a redhead to take better advantage of the studio's Technicolor cameras, and also learns the rudiments of broad slapstick comedy from such masters as Buster Keaton and Red Skelton. Even so, she is considered washed-up in Hollywood by the end of the 1940s, and her union with the constitutionally faithless Arnaz is on the rocks. Coming to the rescue of both Lucy's career and marriage is a new medium called television: With Desi as her creative Svengali, Lucy scales the heights of superstardom as star of the top-rated weekly sitcom I Love Lucy. Alas, the more popular Lucy becomes, the more her marriage to Desi suffers, and the film is unsparing in showing how fame and fortune can be fatal to domestic happiness. In the title role, musical comedy actress Rachel York doesn't resemble the real Lucy all that much, though she gamely recreates such classic I Love Lucy moments as the "Vitameatavegamin" commercial and the grape-stomping orgy. Far better cast is Danny Pino as Desi Arnaz, depicted as an enigmatic blend of Latin charm, filmmaking genius, and sociopathic serial philandering. While the teleplay is an acceptable overview of the subject's life and career, there is little in the film that is not common knowledge to Lucy buffs, save for a re-enactment of the childhood tragedy which left the heroine a mass of insecurities, and Lucy's morbid fear of birds (yes, birds). The three-hour Lucy first aired on May 4, 2003, telecast by Lucy's old home network, CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi