Carlos Sanchez Movies
- 2008
Two young men with more ambition than sense turn to a life of crime in this dark comedy from Colombia. Pepe (Mateo Rudas) and Enrique (Santiago Rudas) are twin brothers who are both in love with the same woman, Rosita ($Manuela Beltran). Hoping to leave their small town behind and bring Rosita along with them, the brothers are looking for a way to get rich quick, and in their neighborhood dealing drugs is the common way to do it. Pepe and Enrique steal some pills from a powerful local dealer, El Sagaz (Javier Gardeazabal); they're caught in the act, but the dealer takes pity on them and gives them some drugs to sell on the street. No long after, El Sagaz succumbs to an overdose, and John MacClane (Manuel Sarmiento) is convinced Pepe and Enrique are somehow responsible; MacClane hires a hit man (Julian Diaz) to track them down and eliminate them, but to his chagrin the hired killer turns out to be too soft hearted to do the job. Taking matters in his own hands, MacClane kidnaps one of the brothers only to discover that he's grabbed the wrong man, who is actually Pepe and Enrique's dad (Gonzalo de Sagarminaga). El Colombian Dream (aka The Colombian Dream) was the first feature film after a fourteen-year layoff from writer and director Felipe Aljure). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mateo Rudas, Santiago Rudas, (more)
- 2005
When the violent actions of Peru's Shining Path guerilla cult prompted a savage response from the country's democratically elected government in 1980, the resulting power play by Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori laid the groundwork for a corrupt political institute that used the threat of terrorism as a means of maintaining absolute power. The resulting cycle of violence proved to many who witnessed the situation firsthand that the situation was only exacerbated by the use of continued force, and that democracy, not more violence, was the most effective means to taking on terrorism. Twenty-five years later, filmmakers Pamela Yates and Peter Kinoy use this Peruvian political nightmare to paint a cautionary picture of the potentially damaging effects of the seemingly unending global war on terror. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Ivan Degregori, Fany Palomino, (more)
This action-adventure, that features a terrorist plot from The Fugitive (1993), saw its October 2001 release date moved back four months as a result of real-life terrorist attacks on the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Gordon Brewer, a Los Angeles firefighter who witnesses the deaths of his wife and child, innocent victims of a terrorist attack on a motorcade carrying Colombian dignitaries. Responsibility for the deadly explosion belongs to Claudio "The Wolf" Perrini (Cliff Curtis), a terrorist and rebel in Colombia's decade-long civil war. When times passes with no suspect being brought to justice, Brewer rejects the advice of FBI agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) and travels to the jungles of Colombia to find and take revenge upon his family's murderer himself. Encountering a complex web of death squads, right-wing military officials, guerrillas, terrorists and drug-lords, Brewer is aided in his dangerous quest by an unlikely ally, the beautiful Selena Perrini (Francesca Neri), his quarry's wife. Collateral Damage (2002) co-stars John Leguizamo and John Turturro. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, (more)
- 1990
When Maria Cano (Maria Eugenia Davila) was recruited into the labor movement in Colombia in 1925, she was prepared for the revolution to come. She worked strenuously to organize workers, and became something of a folk hero. What she was not prepared for, after her five years of imprisonment (beginning 1928), was that the whole movement would lose steam, and that she would have to live the rest of her life with her lost dreams of what might have been. These feelings are very strongly represented in her poetry. This biographical movie shows her life during those years, and considers her bitterness in later life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Eugenia Davila, Frank Ramirez, (more)
- 1987
Happy Sunday is a Venezuelan/Spanish film based on a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Victor Cuica stars as a musician who befriends 10-year-old Anthony Sauce. Cuica is unaware that Sauce is the son of a wealthy family and that he has faked his own kidnapping. The musician is nearly thrown into the hoosegow for life before the boy admits the truth. Happy Sunday was originally released as Un Domingo Feliz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Cuica, Anthony Sauce, (more)
- 1986
Set at the dawn of the 20th century in a small Colombian town, this drama chronicles a short period in the life of Damian (Carlos Jaramillo), a young man who benefits from the support of his fellow villagers and a few kind-hearted people in the city of Medellin. Damian has impressed everyone with his saintliness, and so the villagers scrape together enough money to send him off to be trained as a priest at a Medellin seminary. After arriving in the city, Damian moves into a boardinghouse, where the women take him under their wing. He leads them in nightly prayers and there are many examples of his exemplary spiritual qualities. After two years go by, Damian starts coming home very late at night and the good women at the boardinghouse begin to worry about what might be going on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Jaramillo, Angela Calderon, (more)
- 1986
The title of this Venzuelean political drama translates to Little Revenge. Social upheaval in a tiny South American village is seen through eyes of a 12-year-old. Though the government is ruthless in wiping out resistance, the child remains oblivious to these atrocities until his pet dog is accidentally run over by a tank. The boy becomes thoroughly radicalized when the federal soldiers order the other children in the village to spy on their parents, and when his neighbors begin disappearing. The country represented in Pequena Revancha is unnamed: the viewer is invited to draw his or her own conclusions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eduardo Emiro Garcia, Elisa Escamez, (more)
- 1986
This historical drama is set in the 19th century Colombia and traces the construction of the railroad linking Medellin to the Magdalena River. On the ground, the terrain is a constant challenge as swamps alternate with jungles that seem to grow back as fast as they are cut. Politically, military coups and civil wars constantly threaten the progress of the railway. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Manuel Restrepo, Ana Maria Ochoa, (more)
- 1981
In this dramatized, semi-documentary of battles between guerrilla troops and the Columbian government during the early 1950s, the narrator himself was actually the head of the rebels, called "Canaguaro" as his nom-de-guerre. The film focuses on a long trek the guerrillas made in 1953 to get a stash of arms for a military encounter looming large on the horizon. During that journey, conversations dwell on life and politics as the guerrillas pass the time and prepare for battle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
