Manuel Ojeda Movies

A young soccer player returns to the field one year after his death to reunite his fractured family and lead the team to victory in this supernatural sports comedy starring Hector Bosque and Luis Alberto Romano. Energetic footballer Cesar was in the prime of his life when he was suddenly and inexplicably dealt the red card by death. One year later, his family has fallen apart and his former team, the Jaguares, are floundering. Perhaps with a bit of help from above, Cesar's family can overcome their grief and the Jaguares can pull it together in time to take home the soccer league Gold Cup. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Benjamin Cann's epic telenovela La Otra observes the schemes and manipulations at the heart of a wealthy family. Carlota is the bastard daughter of filthy rich Leopoldo and his selfish, evil mistress Bernarda. When Leopoldo dies, he bequeaths his multimillion dollar inheritance to Carlota and half-sister Eugenia; Bernarda absolutely will not hear of this, however, and plots and schemes to keep the girls out of wedlock so that she can keep the money. Defying Carlota's wishes, each of the girls becomes romantically involved with a man - Carlota with physician Alvaro Ibanez, Eugenia with Leopoldo's psychotically depraved son Roman, who gets her unwittingly pregnant. Tragically, Eugenia dies while giving birth, but Bernarda sees her opportunity and ends the Carlota-Alvaro marriage by lying to Alvaro and convincing him that Carlota died. Little can Bernarda foresee, however, the tortuous complications that will arise when Alvaro moves out to a rural location and just happens to meet a young lady identical to Carlota - with designs on Alvaro's wealth. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Luis Estrada directs this groundbreaking and extremely controversial satire about Mexico's long-ruling political party, the PRI. Set in the late 1940s in the remote, thoroughly backwards village of San Pedro de los Saguaros, the film focuses on Vargas (Damian Alcazar), a petty politician who had the dubious honor of being appointed town mayor after his predecessor was decapitated for corruption by an angry mob. At first, he tries to balance the books and to bring the 20th century to the backwaters. When he is visited by slick PRI politico Lopez (Pedro Armendariz), however, he learns the officially sanctioned way of running the town: at gunpoint while pilfering the bank vaults. Soon Vargas becomes a power-mad despot, more than willing to steal or kill to further his goals. Though his PRI bosses try to reign him in, the lynch mob soon appears to be the inevitable end of Vargas' political career. The first film to criticize the PRI by name, Estrada's bitter farce savages the ruling party, the church and U.S. intervention. Cult director Alex Cox plays a small role as a seedy gringo. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A author preparing to pen her masterwork returns to her small Mexican town in search of inspiration, only to discover just how her secret-shrouded past has molded her into the woman she became in this Spanish-language drama from director Oscar Blancarte. Minerva (Angelica Aragon) has achieved great fame thanks to talented abilities as a writer, but upon stumbling into a series of facts that would have changed her life considerably had she been aware of them as a young child, she soon finds herself questioning everything, and everyone, she ever knew. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A period piece that blends first love, the power of the cinema and the Mexican Revolution, El Cometa is set in 1910, as Medero's factions were organizing against the Profirio Diaz regime. Romualdo (Gabriel Retes) owns a traveling vaudeville show and has just lost his star attraction when his son Victor (Diego Luna) meets Guy (Patrick LeMauff), a French cinematographer who has worked for Lumiere. Victor is fascinated by the possibilities of the movies, and when Guy discovers Romualdo needs a new drawing card, he offers him a deal -- a movie set-up at a bargain price in exchange for helping to hide Valentina (Ana Claudia Talancon), a girl whose father was arrested for working with Medero's rebels. Valentina is also carrying a fortune in gold which she hopes to smuggle to Medero, who is hiding in Texas, but in the meantime she and Victor begin a romance and Valentina becomes the new star of the show while trying to elude the police. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Mexican political thriller follows the feud of a mobster and a noble politician intent on bringing down organized crime. When congressman Jose Ramirez (Hector Bonilla) has Ramon Alvarado (Manuel Ojeda) arrested and jailed, Alvarado retaliates by having Ramirez' brother Julian (Rafael Rojas) kidnapped and killed. Meanwhile, mime Jorge Zepeda (Jose Alonso) is conned into believing that he has leukemia, with only a few months left to live, and will receive money in advance if he kills Ramirez. Shown at the 1998 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

The murder of a taxi dancer and her pimp provide the motivation for this crime melodrama, a remake of Emilio Fernandez's famed Salon Mexico. Set in the '30s, the crime occured in a popular Mexico City dance hall with the bodies being discovered in the dressing room of the dancer, Mercedes. Beside her lay her sleazy lover Paco. Police inspector Castellon is set on the case and begins questioning every one who knew the couple including Paco's other girl friend Almendrita, Mercedes' daughter Laura, her closest friend La Jaibita and the policeman who wanted to marry the dancer. He even talks to composer Aaron Copland who has been frequenting the hall while writing his Salon Mexico Suite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joaquin (Manuel Ojeda) and his beautiful wife Susana (Blanca Guerra) are indeed In the Middle of Nowhere in this crime drama. The couple run a little gas station and store in a sparsely populated and desert-like region of Mexico. When a wounded man (Guillermo Garcia Cantu) arrives at the spot accompanied by his brother (Emilio Cortes) and wife (Gabriela Roel), they probably would have done what they could for them anyway. Instead, since the wounded man is a wanted fugitive, the trio take the couple hostage. This doesn't change much, except that the brother is way more interested in Susana than he would be if he were a decent man. Since the fugitive's wife is a lovely woman, Joaquin gets an eyeful of her while he can. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide