Danny Trejo Movies

When a weary detective on the verge of retirement begins receiving ominous messages from a sadistic serial killer determined to stir up the past, the stage is set for a deadly confrontation in an all-star crime drama featuring Michael Madsen, Gary Busey, Meat Loaf, and Michael Rooker. Years on the job have shown Detective Harrison (Michael Madsen) more horror than most normal folks would experience in two lifetimes. As Detective Harrison prepares to pass the baton on to the up-and-coming rookie poised to take his place in the police force, the murder of numerous underworld heavies leave the befuddled veteran and his younger protégé grasping for clues. When the killer begins taunting Detective Harrison with a variety of stealthy clues and grisly photographs left behind at the crime scenes, an unsolved case from the past threatens to bring the sins of the past out of the shadows and into the light of the present. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The vengeful curse of a 19th Century Mexican land baron reaches through time to place the grip of death on a contemporary college student in director Rich Ragsdale's tale of a love most gruesome. It was a long time ago that wealthy land baron El Charro lusted after the most beautiful woman in the land, but his motives were impure and the woman's firm rejection is simply more than his fragile psyche can take. Driven to psychosis by his unrequited love, the unhinged baron embarks on a brutal killing spree before placing a curse on the unattainable beauty's entire bloodline. Flash forward to modern times, and a young college girl begins to experience terrifying dreams of death. When she and her hard partying group of friends hit the road for a wild trip down to Mexico for a much-needed vacation, the discovery of El Charro's reanimated corpse leads the nightmare-plagued college student to realize that she is a direct descendent of the beauty who once spurned the determined land baron. Now the baron is back to claim the one love who refused to take his hand in life, and he isn't above dispatching a few of her closest friends in order to accomplish his nefarious goal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A man in the middle of nowhere finds his past catching up with him in this independent thriller. Jeremy Stanton (Dean Cain) is a businessman who is driving from Santa Barbara, CA, to his new home in a small town in Nevada. However, as Stanton makes his way through the desert, he loses his bearings, and before long, thanks to a few road closings, detours, out-of-date map listings, and faulty directions from an auto-club operator, he hasn't the foggiest notion of where he is. But when an angry man with a gun begins pursuing Stanton, it becomes evident that there's more to his story than just a few wrong turns. Also featuring Danny Trejo and Ashley Scott, Lost marked the directorial debut of screenwriter Darren Lemke. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A guy looking for easy money gets a lot more than he bargained for in this noir-flavored independent comedy. John Person (Jon Favreau) is a struggling actor living in Los Angeles who is starting to buckle under the pressure of his own failures. With no acting jobs coming in and a massive credit card debt to pay off, John works part-time as a courier but needs a big payday if he's ever going to get back on his feet. Out of the blue, a strange man in the neighborhood makes John an offer that seems too good to be true -- in exchange for delivering a suitcase to a man in Baker, CA (midway between L.A. and Las Vegas), John will receive $27,000 in cash. John's first tip off that something odd is going on comes when, along with the suitcase, he's given a loaded gun and instructions to defend the package with his life if necessary, but he's just desperate enough to go along. However, things become more complicated when John misses his connection in Baker; he's suddenly followed by a number of threatening eccentrics, is informed by an FBI agent that his benefactor in L.A. has become the victim of a grisly murder, and incurs the wrath of Cowboy (Sean Bean), the ominous trucker who was supposed to pick up the suitcase. The Big Empty features a stellar supporting cast, including Kelsey Grammer, Melora Walters, Daryl Hannah, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rachael Leigh Cook. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Marshall (Kevin Weisman) explains the full significance of the Rambaldi manuscripts, thereby revealing a 500-year-old prophecy of the Apocalypse. To prevent this, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) and Dixon (Carl Lumbly) must track down a Panamanian named Di Regno (James Carraway) -- but Dixon, determined to avenge the murder of his wife, Diane, at the hands of Sloane (Ron Rifkin), may not be up to this crucial assignment. The outcome of the story -- and the fate of the world -- may hinge upon a startling confession made to Sloane by a repentant monk named Conrad (David Carradine). And in a less somber development, new NSA special ops agent Carrie Bowman (Amanda Foreman) develops a crush on Marshall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The feature film debut of producer and TV director D.J. Caruso, this pulpy noir mystery is a dark tale of redemption set among southern California crystal methamphetamine "tweakers." Val Kilmer stars as Danny Parker, a former trumpet player who has become a tattooed speed freak living in a cesspool of murderous dealers and hardcore addicts near the desert lake of the title. Danny's fall from grace is the result of a hidden agenda, however -- he's seeking answers about the murder of his beloved wife. He's also working undercover for a pair of brutal narcotics cops (Anthony Lapaglia and Doug Hutchison), while trying to rescue his beautiful neighbor Colette (Deborah Kara Unger) from an abusive situation and her own demons. As he and his slacker buddy Jimmy the Fin (Peter Sarsgaard) are antagonized by the sadistic, noseless dealer Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio) and his henchman, Danny draws closer to the truth about his wife's death, but the crime's solution isn't quite what he expected. Produced by Frank Darabont, The Salton Sea co-stars Adam Goldberg, Meat Loaf, Luis Guzman, and Azura Skye. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Richard Ramirez was a deeply disturbed Californian who worshiped Satan, believed he was in direct contact with demons, and was fascinated with the darker undercurrents of heavy metal music. Ramirez was also a serial killer; known as "The Night Stalker," Ramirez killed 19 people in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1984 and 1985, putting both cities in the grip of fear until he was captured by authorities and eventually sentenced to life in prison. Director and screenwriter Chris Fisher made his feature debut with this dramatized account of Ramirez (played by Bret Roberts) and his crimes, as well as the detective who finally brings him to justice. As Ramirez stalks his prey under cover of darkness, Gabriella Martinez (Roselyn Sanchez), a female Los Angeles Police Department officer who has just been promoted to detective, is put on the case, and as she gets closer and closer to uncovering the identity of the killer, she runs a greater risk of becoming his next victim. Nightstalker was produced in part by character actor Danny Trejo, who also appears as Martinez's former partner on the LAPD. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jake Gyllenhaal, the young star of the critically well-received October Sky (1999), follows up that film with this offbeat comedy. Gyllenhaal stars as Jimmy Livingston, a teenager with an immune system deficiency who has spent his entire life living in a plastic bubble under the doting, overprotective care of his mother (Swoosie Kurtz). Jimmy is in love with his next-door neighbor Chloe (Marley Shelton), so when he learns that she has left for Niagara Falls in order to be married, he's devastated. He quickly assembles a portable "bubble suit" and sets out on a 2,755.8-mile odyssey in order to stop her and proclaim his affection. Along the way, Jimmy experiences a number of adventures, including encounters with freaks, bikers, rock stars, and a cult. Bubble Boy is a comic riff on the classic TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), which starred a young John Travolta. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Actor-turned-director Steve Buscemi follows up on his restrained 1996 directorial debut Trees Lounge (1996) with this gritty, understated prison drama. Twenty-one-year-old suburban kid Ron (Edward Furlong) got busted for dealing drugs and slapped with an especially severe jail sentence. Though he tries to keep a low profile at prison, he soon attracts unsavory attention of various sex-starved goons. Fearing rape, he appeals directly to Earl (Willem Dafoe), a fellow prisoner who runs the place like it was his own fiefdom. Though Ron's request is strictly against this rarified culture's baroque rules, Earl takes him under his wing, and soon he is a part of Earl's inner circle. Slowly Ron learns the breadth of Earl's power, ranging from the easy procurement of drugs to the violent dispatching of a prisoner who gets out of line. As Ron grows increasingly indebted to Earl, he wonders how he is expected to repay him. Yet Earl, who shows his fondness for the lad with fatherly tenderness counterbalanced with repressed yearning, never pushes his advantage. Other members of the cast include Tom Arnold as a salivating hill-billy and an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as a cross-dressing prison queen. This film was highly praised at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Music video and TV commercials director Antoine Fuqua made his feature directorial debut with this action thriller starring Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat. Chinese immigrant John Lee (Yun-Fat) has a violent past as a professional killer. It brings him only remorse, but it makes him the ideal assassin. In exchange for his family's safety, Lee is forced to take a job with a powerful underworld figure, Asian crime kingpin Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang), who wants Lee to settle a deadly vendetta against police detective Stan Zedlov (Michael Rooker) by killing Zedlov's seven-year-old son. At the last minute, with the boy in his sights, Lee chooses to face Wei's vengeance rather than go through with the killing. In addition to making Lee a target, the decision also endangers his mother and sister back in Shanghai. Planning a return to China, he visits document forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to get a phony passport, but they are interrupted by Wei's army of killers, and a lengthy chase and gun battle is set in motion.

Director Fuqua stressed to his team that the aim was to design a "Taxi Driver for the 1990s," with production beginning February 10, 1997 in downtown Los Angeles, and the first shoot at the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished into the trendy nightclub for the film's stylish opening scene with hundreds of extras carousing while Lee guns down Romero (Carlos Leon) at close range. The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the heart of L.A. served as locations for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office, and a chaotic gunfight was filmed amid the spray, brushes, and hoses of Joe's Car Wash in LA. The art department transformed one area into a Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys, and blinking red neon lights, site of a night filming where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds with two guns, one in each hand, while the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking. More gunplay was at a video arcade replicated at the original Lawry's center just north of downtown L.A., and Lee's tranquil Buddhist temple was fashioned under this same roof. In addition to physical training, Mira Sorvino, who had never handled a gun prior to this film, took weapons training to prepare for her role. Sorvino majored in Asian studies at Harvard, speaks Mandarin, and lived for eight months (1988-89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and saw Chinese films, including Hong Kong action films. She felt The Replacement Killers brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) is edgier than usual as his ailing partner, Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits), goes in for more medical tests. Back on the job, the squad investigates the murder of a Pakistani in Central Park. The sole eyewitness is distressingly inconsistent in her testimony -- not because she herself is guilty, but because she fears reprisals from the well-connected killer. Later, as his wife, Diane (Kim Delaney), waits nervously, Bobby is told that he needs a heart transplant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steven Widi Ho directed this drama about sound mixer Igby Walters (Wayne Pere), who's working on a western-style Hamlet titled Dead Cowboys. After Igby encounters young violinist Juliet (Eliane Chappuis), he attempts to score with a promise of film score work. Can he deliver on this promise? Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide