Jorge Rivero Movies

John Steinbeck's fable of how wealth destroys the life of a simple man is given another screen adaptation in this drama. Kino (Lukas Haas) is a diver who scrapes together a meager living off the coast of Mexico. One day, Kino makes an amazing discovery -- he finds a giant pearl whose value could seemingly give his family a new lease on life. But Dr. Karl (Richard Harris), a man who deals the pearls scavenged by the local divers, wants Kino's remarkable find, and will stop at nothing to get it. As Kino struggles to hold on to his treasure, greater misfortune befalls his family, and he soon comes to regret ever pulling the pearl from the sea. The Pearl proved to be one of the last films to star Richard Harris, and the project didn't see release in the United States until three years after his death in the fall of 2002 -- hence the posthumous screen credit. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Don't worry: former porn queen Traci Lords was "of age" when she starred in Ice. Lords and Phillip Troy play a husband-and-wife team of thieves who steal a fortune in diamonds. Problem is, they've stolen it from a mob kingpin. Before the film's halfway point, Lords is going it alone, running helter-skelter across the country from the mob boss' gunmen with the "ice" in tow. Inasmuch as this is a chase film, it's altogether appropriate that the screenwriter of Ice is one Sean Dash. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

George Rivero stars in Fist Fighter as C.J. Thunderbird, a participant in the dangerous, illegal world of bare-knuckle boxing. Working the bare-knuckle circuit in Mexico, Thunderbird forms a business partnership with old buddy Harry "Punchy" Moses (Edward Albert). This angers avaricious promoter Billy Vance (Mike Connors), who'd like to have complete control over Thunderbird. Vance pulls all sorts of dirty tricks to undermine Thunderbird's effectiveness--including having Our Hero thrown into prison on a trumped-up charge, and kidnapping leading lady Ellen (Brenda Bakke)--but the champ gets even during a climactic set-to with goonish Moreno (Simon Andreu). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It's a battle of the sexes as a playboy and a divorcee enter a river race in this video. ~ Rovi

When a man crosses paths with a group of gangsters, they pursue him throughout Mexico City. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Classic comic-book superhero battling evil, done Mexican style. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

With shoddy production values and a plot that seems to be more of an excuse for violence than anything else, this underpar drama focuses on vigilante justice. While trying to cross the border into France, a Spanish truck driver's vehicle is burned by two angry French farmers, killing the driver's wife. Unable to win his case against the men in court, the angry driver vows to avenge the death of his wife by killing the farmers and their sleazy lawyer. It may have helped to know that European farmers were irate at this time about the dumping of their produce. But then, education was not an objective here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Acclaimed horror director Lucio Fulci infuses the sword-and-sorcery genre with gory decapitations, pus-squirting lesions and flesh-eating zombies in this uneven fantasy. The hero of the piece is young Ilias (Andrea Occhipinti), who, along with his bolo-swinging friend Maxz (Jorge Rivero), battles monsters, mutant tribes, and an evil queen (Sabrina Siani) on his journey to manhood. As the evil Ocron, the topless Siani wears a gold mask and bikini bottoms while writhing around on a fur rug covered with live snakes. Siani rules over a risible tribe of people in dog masks who blow narcotics up each others' noses through a straw, and conjures up wolf-warriors from her dreams to shoot poisonous straws at her enemies. The American version is missing much of the gore, but is still far too explicit for the young audiences at whom it is apparently aimed. Terrible special effects, hazy cinematography and inappropriately modernistic music by Claudio Simonetti do not make the film very enjoyable for adults either. Still, it is well-paced and Occhipinti makes a sympathetic lead, making the film worthwhile, if only for genre completists and Fulci devotees. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Victor Manuel Castro's thriller La Pulqueria 2 stars Leticia Perdigon and Maria Luisa Alcala as a pair of women who behind bars after being suspected of a murder they had nothing to do with. In order to guarantee that he stays a free man, the actual murderer (Luis Reynoso) hatches a plot to have the two murdered while in prison. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Treasure hunters from around the world race to Mexico after a Middle Eastern luxury yacht explodes, sending a fortune in gold to the bottom of the ocean. An agent (Chuck Connors) must stop the ruthless fortune hunters. ~ John Bush, Rovi

An unrepentant ladies man begins to experience romantic longings for his psychiatrist as the devil comes to Earth in hopes of experiencing true love in director Victor Manuel Castro's quirky comedy classic. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

American and Venezuelan foreigners try to steal coveted seeds from a rubber-tree plantation in this action-adventure saga. They battle crocodiles, Indian attacks, slave revolts, and a director who insisted on putting disco music to a 19th-century setting. The two heroes are hidden by a concubine who seeks vengeance against her cruel plantation owner. A rape scene appears to have been added merely for exploitation value. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi