I watched this movie for the third time last night and once again I really enjoyed it, and I decided to write a review on it, but to my surprize I didn’t find this movie anywhere on MS, so I had to use the Mouth Pad service to have this movie added to the MS products. If you have any taste of watching movies about gangsters, street crimes, prison life, and family ties, then I would Highly Recommend this movie to you. Here goes my review on the movie.
Cast: Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, Benjamin Castillo, Victor Rivers.
Director: Taylor Hackford.
Its a really unknown star cast and honestly I have just copied all the names down from the back of my DVD. I’ll forget these names in the next few seconds but something I’ll never forget is the movie itself and names of the characters of this movie.
Plot
Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Castillo), and Cruzito(Jesse Borrego) are three Latino friends living in the East Los Angeles of 1970’s. They are young, spoiled and they are living in a city where gang violence is a common scene. A fight breaks out between Paco, Miklo, Cruzito and another gang headed by their leader, spider.Cruzito is later attacked by Spider and he is severly injured. Paco and Miklo want to take revenge and they attack the spider gang which results in the murder of the other gang’s leader by Miklo. Miklo also gets shot, police is chasing them and after a lot of struggle Paco and Miklo get arrested.
That’s when the story takes a big twist. Cruzito is in the hospital, Miklo is arrested since he was already on parole and Paco is offered either sentence or recruitment in the Marines. Paco accepts the latter offer and goes on to become a detective later on. The rest of the movie is about the changing lives of these three friends, Miklo finds it really hard to survive in prison in the beginning but later on he joins a gang inside the prison called La Onda and gets adjusted to what could be called a hell. Paco luckily changes his lifestyle and he is committed to get rid of crime from the streets of L.A. and Cruzito is addicted to drugs. What happens next is something you’ll have to watch the movie to find out?
PROS
The prison life shown in this movie will really make you think. Do gangs, actually exist in prison. In the additional feautres of my DVD, I was surprised to learn that the movie is actually shot in a real prison and out of hundred or so prisoners, only 8 are actors. So don’t expect any Major Lathi here.. The screenplay and all technical aspects of this movie are brilliant, and the unknown star cast will stun you with their wonderful performances.
CONS
If you hunt out for this video or DVD try to get it with subtitles beacause even though the movie is in english, all the characters are hispanic and they talk spanglish. Also, I think if I wasn’t living in USA, I’ll find it really difficult to understand the slang. eg ese, homes, puto, vato locos, etc.
NOTE: Please don’t watch this movie with your family because it contains explicit language, voilence, and nudity.
Conclusion: Overall its an excellent movie and I would once again recommend it to everyone out here on MS.
Comments would be highly appreciated and are eagerly awaited.
Happy Viewing
Prince.