Luis Llosa Movies
- 2006
With his English-language political thriller The Feast of the Goat, action helmer Luis Llosa cinematizes Mario Vargas Llosa's sweeping, epic novel about the myriad of events leading up to the assassination of a real-life tyrannical despot. The story opens in 1992, when a Dominican émigré attorney, Urania Cabral (Isabella Rossellini) leaves her new home in the U.S. and heads back to her native country, for the first occasion in decades. She intends to confront her father, 80-year-old Augustin (Tomas Milian), about his former employment in the government of the supremely corrupt dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (Tomas Milian). The film then flashes back to the events surrounding the assassination of Trujillo on a highway in late May of 1961, by delving into the lives and motives of each of the participants - from Amadito (Juan Diego Botto), whom Trujillo forced to execute his future brother-in-law, to that victim's father (Murphy Guyer), to Antonio (David Zayas), the brother of an incriminating witness whom Trujillo's men executed. One by one, as their stories are disinterred, the assassins gather on a nighttime road, brandishing guns, and prepare to shoot Trujillo and throw his body into the trunk of a car. Paul Freeman, Stephanie Leonidas and Richard Bekins co-star; Llosa co-authored the script with Augusto Cabada and Zachary Sklar. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tomas Milian, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
A group of filmmakers looking for a lost native tribe instead find a man-eating monster in this thriller. Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) is a documentary filmmaker on assignment to make a film about the Shirishama Indians of the Amazon, a mysterious tribe known as "the People of the Mists." As Terri and her crew -- cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube), sound recordist Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson), anthropologist Steve Cale (Eric Stoltz), production manager Denise Kahlberg (Kari Wuhrer), and host Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde) -- head down the river, they discover a man whose boat has sunk and desperately needs rescue. Paul Sarone (Jon Voight), the mysterious stranger that they save from the waters, claims to know something of the Shirishama and says he will take the crew to them. Instead, he guides the group to the hiding place of the fearsome Anaconda, a gigantic snake that swallows a man whole, vomits him up, and eats him again (no small accomplishment, that). The snake is worth a fortune if captured, but can a creature so dangerous be captured at all? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, (more)
This over-the-top star vehicle for box office draws Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone went through a series of directors before landing in the hands of Luis Llosa. Stallone stars as Ray Quick, a former CIA bomb expert now retired in Miami after an operation against a South American drug lord went horribly wrong, resulting in the death of a child. Ray is coaxed out of retirement by May Munro (Stone) to help her get revenge on the powerful organized crime family -- headed up by Joe Leon (Rod Steiger) and his son Tomas (Eric Roberts) -- that killed her parents years before. In the meantime, Ray's former partner Ned Trent (James Woods) is on the Leon family payroll and is seeking his own kind of revenge on Ray. As Ray executes Leon's soldiers one by one, his attraction to May boils over into a steamy encounter in the shower, a prelude to an explosive finale. Although director Llosa wisely kept his camera focused on his buff, semi-clad stars and the film's spectacular effects, the somewhat silly and incoherent plot resulted in a poor box office performance for The Specialist, the third disappointment in a row for Stone. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, (more)
- 1993
In this jungle adventure, based on a Jules Verne novel, Spunky Minha, was born and raised in the Amazon jungle on her father's hemp plantation. After she agrees to marry Dr. Manuel Valdez, they decide to hold the wedding in Brazil so his sickly mother can be there. Unfortunately, the girl's father hestitates to make the long, dangerous journey downstream because years before he was convicted for a crime and was sentenced to die. Though innocent, he does not want to face Brazilian justice and so changed his name and created his own jungle world on the plantation. Despite all this, he decides he will be there at the wedding. They set off on a great raft and during the journey face many dangers including deadly natives, snakes, piranhas, gators, fierce storms and a greedy bounty hunter who wants to blackmail Juan. The extortionist knows that Juan is innocent and carries with him proof, but this does not stop him from demanding that Juan pay him a fortune and hand over his lovely daughter. When Juan refuses, the bounty hunter makes good his threat, leaving his daughter and the doctor to somehow prove her father's innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daphne Zuniga, Barry Bostwick, (more)
Two Americans abroad discover how high the price of activism can be in this drama. When a well-known environmental researcher is murdered in the Amazon jungle, an arrogant photojournalist (Craig Sheffer) joins forces with a beautiful young activist (Sandra Bullock) to find out who is responsible. Along they way, they fall in love as they discover the men responsible for the killing would be more than willing to murder again if it will keep them quiet. Fire on the Amazon was filmed in 1990, but it wasn't released until 1993, when Sandra Bullock's appearances in The Thing Called Love and Demolition Man made her a star on the rise. Legend has it that she also used gaffer's tape to insure that her breasts would not be fully exposed during the film's love scenes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Craig Sheffer, (more)
In this fast-paced military thriller, Tom Berenger is Thomas Beckett, a tough, grizzled, U.S. Marine Corps veteran sharpshooter who goes through target-spotter partners faster than bullets on his ultra-dangerous missions. The National Security Council secretly assigns Beckett to assassinate a Panamanian rebel bankrolled by a drug cartel in his bid for the presidency. The NSC also gives Beckett a sidekick: raw recruit Richard Miller (Billy Zane), a former Olympic marksman who's never killed anybody. Miller technically outranks the more experienced Beckett, a source of friction between the men as they make their way through the jungle to find their prey. Once they locate their target, Beckett and Miller not only have to pull off a complex shooting but also must avoid a covert shooter who's been trained by Beckett and is now gunning for them. A Panama native, director ($Luis Llosa later repeated the trick of crafting a visually exciting genre film out of thin material with Anaconda (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, (more)
- 1992
- R
This sci-fi actioner is set in a post-WW III world where mutants walk the radioactive planet and battle with the few remaining healthy humans who struggle to save their dying planet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dack Rambo, Clare Beresford, (more)
- 1990
- PG
In this action film, when Panama is threatened by an invasion of U. S. Troops, a group of radical Panamanians capture a nuclear sub from the Russians and station themselves outside of Houston, threatening to blow the city up unless the Americans meet their demands. It is up to American submarine commander McKenzie (Michael Moriarty) to stop the Panamanians and save Houston from annihilation. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Maria Rangel, (more)
- 1988
- R
Bone (Peter Nelson) and Helen (Sherilyn Fenn) are rebels who long to escape from the oppressive, futuristic society that keeps them down in this sci-fi actioner. Bone has been fired for being disgruntled, and Helen is a state-paid prostitute in a world where many things, even sex between consenting adults, is taboo. (David Carradine) is the big shot government agent who promises the duo they can move to the planet Froidan if they manage to steal a coveted computer disc in this feature bogged down by side plots and too much dialogue at times. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Peter Nelson, (more)
- 1986
- R
Former Green Beret Martin Fierro (Erik Estrada) is hired to kill the president of a mythical South American country in this thrilling political feature. The president was responsible for the death of Martin's father, the publisher of a left-wing newspaper. Sam Merrick (Robert Vaughn) is the CIA agent out to stop the killing to avoid further political chaos. Requisite car chases and gunplay are included, and the production quality along with Vaughn's performance help to overcome a thin storyline. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erik Estrada, Robert Vaughn, (more)
