El padrino

A friend of mine decided to rent this thing, lucky it wasn't my money.. Pretty much wasted my time though. A story that could have been interesting is completely wasted by incredibly bad acting and horrible editing/directing. Maybe it could become a classic because of all the weird over-acting :)(Gary Busey's character for example) All the over-acted characters were actually the only thing that made this movie a little interesting as they grabbed your attention (for all the wrong reasons obviously) where the movie in itself failed miserably. In short: A waste of time and money

2/10

There was a ton of talent in the first film. It will be interesting to see where the sequel takes us. I'm curious to see who is committed for the second movie. Since there are many different perspectives on what a "Godfather" is and does, it will be a pleasure to be connected to this project. Based on the first film, I wonder if they will change locations and directions in an effort to give the "Godfather" legitimacy in the general population. Or, will they seek to take over the global organized crime scene?

Thanks...

Chad

Some weeks ago, at a movie theater, I saw a movie poster of El Padrino (2004) with the tag "The Latin Godfather". How lame have we become, I thought, Latin just because he is a Mexican? Let me remind you that ANYTHING Latin comes from or is related to Latium, Italy, So the original guy in the Godfather movie is more Latin than the Mexican Godfather and this is why: We are called Latin-American people because we speak Spanish, a language based in the Latin language that originated in Rome now Italy. So to place a tag in a movie poster like "The Latin Godfather", is not just ignorant, of course if we are trying to related this movie to the original Godfather, but a desperate and uncreative attempt to get some credit by copying the title of a movie classic. Now about the movie, I just hate overacting so from 1 to 10 I guess is 3 the most.

A great gangster flick, with brilliant performances by well-known actors with great action scenes? Well, not this one.

It's rather amazing to see such a wide cast of well-known actors, that have many good movies in their filmographies in such a movie, without doubt this may be one of the worst they could possibly appear in.

First of all, the plot is as you'd expect it from your average gangster biography, nothing new, nothing fancy in it. The way it is told makes the movie look a LOT longer than it is (when i thought the two hours should be almost over, i was quite surprised that only 45 minutes had passed).

The action scenes look a lot like those from 80ies TV series - the A-Team, for example. It's just that in the 80ies (esp. with the A-Team) those scenes were far more sophisticated than those in "El Padrino". It's especially fun to see the guys point their guns in the air and still hit something (not to talk about people that take cover behind car doors which later look like they've been shot through).

The acting fits quite nicely to the action. Either you get the same reaction to everything that happens (Dolph Lundgren style), or it's so overacted that you may think it's a parody (but unfortunately it's not).

My advise is to stay away from this movie, any other gangster movie is better than this one.

In 1964, in San Francisco Valley, the smalltime drug dealer Manny Vasquez (Ismael 'East' Carlo) leaves his wife with his son Kilo and the boy participates of his illegal activities. Manny is arrested and Kilo returns to the care of his mother. Years later, Kilo Vasquez (Damian Chapa) grows up and begins his own business dealing drugs to high school and college students. Kilo forms a gang, associates to the whore Sabeva (Jennifer Tilly) that has many contacts and becomes a powerful drug lord. His girlfriend Christina (Ileanna Simancas) gets pregnant but Kilo is framed, arrested and sentenced to prison with his two great friends Loco (Sal Lopez) and Rudy (Emilio Rivera). Meanwhile the daughter Molly (Penny Hamond) of Governor Lancaster (Stacy Keach) is found dead in a van and the serial-killer Lars Vincent Truman (Gary Busey) is sentenced to life in the same prison as Kilo. Governor Lancaster proposes a deal to Kilo and his men to kill Lars, and they are released. Kilo becomes more powerful than before and the Governor and the General Attorney Navarro (Faye Dunaway) decide to eliminate the gangster with tragic consequences.

"El Padrino" is a dreadful, lame and cheesy film that tells the saga of the drug pin Kilo, a sort of hero without cause or explanation. The story and the ham acting is absolutely unconvincing and the lead actor and director Damian Chapa is awful. I have never seen or heard anything about Damian Chapa and my impression with his ridiculous work could not be worse. The shootout in the end is hilarious despite the intention of Chapa is to have a dramatic conclusion and not a stupid joke as it actually is. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "O Padrinho" ("The Godfather")