Lupe Ontiveros Movies

Taylor Hackford directed this urgent melodrama about the realities of street crime, gangs, and prison life among the Chicanos of East Los Angeles. Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) are three friends who are living in the East Los Angeles of 1972 as it is torn apart by violence. When the gang violence hits the three friends, they are affected by their participation in the bitter violence in different ways. Cruz, an artist, becomes crippled, and he sinks deeply into drug addiction. Paco, an accessory to murder, joins the military to avoid jail time, leading to a spot on the LAPD. Miklo, the kid with the gun, is sent to jail, where he slowly rises up in the ranks of La Onda, the San Quentin Latino gang. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

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

In this thriller, television reporter Kate Ryan de Melendez (Amy Irving) investigates the death of two radical Puerto Rican activists, whom she begins to believe may have been framed and murdered by undercover American agents. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Jonathan Kellerman's Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning novel When the Bough Breaks was evocatively adapted for the TV screen in 1986. Ted Danson plays a clinical psychologist, brought in to tend to an emotionally withdrawn little girl (Rachel Ticotin). There's a possibility that the child may have witnessed an unsolved double murder. As Danson and the girl draw closer, he becomes enmeshed in a homicidal conspiracy sparked by a clique of wealthy, well-connected men. Ted Danson also coproduced When the Bough Breaks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

El Norte is a realistic picture of both the Guatemalan government's oppression of the Quiche Indians and the hard life of illegal immigrants in the United States. After the Guatemalan army destroys their village of San Pedro, two teenage Quiche Mayan Indian siblings journey north (hence El Norte) through Mexico to the United States to start a new life. The film opens with the destruction of the village and the peasants' pointless appeals to the authorities for justice. Realizing that the government is seizing their land, Enrique and Rosa make the difficult decision to leave their people behind. As they journey through Mexico, the siblings encounter a number of helpful individuals who direct them towards the U.S./Mexican border. There they find a "coyote" (a professional human smuggler) and make the frightening run across border. Once across, Enrique and Rosa are introduced to the impossible realities of life as an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles. Living in constant fear of deportation, they struggle to survive as they are exploited by a series of employers. Eventually, their luck takes a turn for the better when the manager of their motel offers Enrique a job. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

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

Playwright Neil Simon turned to the hotel setting he used so successfully in his stage-play (later a movie) Plaza Suite to explore four more human dramas in his play California Suite, which was adapted into this quite successful movie. In the first episode, the divorced couple of Bill and Hannah Warren (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) have rented a suite in a posh Beverly Hills hotel in order to have a discussion about who will get the custody of their child. In the next episode, Sidney Cochran and Diana Barrie (Michael Caine and Maggie Smith) are a hilarious pair of Hollywood stars who have rented the suite to await their appearance at the Academy Awards: it is a "date of convenience" which enables the sexually adventurous duo to conduct their other, more unconventional alliances out of the public eye. Drs. Willis Panama and Chauncy Gump (Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor) have brought their families to Beverly Hills for a vacation which takes on nightmarish tone. Finally, Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau) tries frantically and unsuccessfully to explain the situation to his wife (Elaine May) when she catches him in flagrante delicto with a hooker. Actress Maggie Smith won an Academy Award as "Best Supporting Actress" for her role in this film, in which she plays the actress waiting to win . . . an Academy Award. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Henry Polic II appears as Walter, who is arguably the most incompetent robber in the his history of crime. Not only does he drop his holdup note on the floor of diner--Alice (Linda Lavin) helpfully retrieves it--but when time comes to claim the dough, the cash register gets jammed. Inevitably, the staff takes pity on the incompetent thief, who despairs that he'll never be able to do anything right...but fate intervenes in the form of an extremely pregnant woman (Lupe Ontiveros) who suddenly goes into labor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide