Carlita's Secret

There is a saying in the motion picture industry that editing can make or brake a movie, it broke Carlita's Secret. The editing and the choosing of rap music in this Latino film killed the movie for me. I have seen other films that the director has made and I can only say for sure that he was not involved in the editing of this movie. The acting was good and it had some good camera work. The quality of the sound was poor, I couldn't understand some of the dialog do to the rap music been to loud. I think the movie should have been scored.

I gave a vote of 7 out of 10 for the good acting and direction. But I give a vote of 1 for awful editing and producing.

How could I give this movie 10 stars?

=)...I WAS IN IT !!, sure thats a lame reason but how many movies have you been in?

In response to some of the comments posted to date-

This movie was shot on a very low budget,less than a quarter of a million dollars, in defense of the prod. co. they did double the budget from their previous effort,SENORITA JUSTICE(which was shot on video for about 100k)and shot CARLITA'S SECRET on film. I thank them for hiring me and for shooting here in Miami/Ft Laud.

We started with a decent script,good casting and a 3 week/18 day shooting schedule.That meant trying to shoot 5 pages of script per day (when most productions shoot 1-3 pages a day)with little room for delay or error...most of what you see in the movie are 1st or 2nd takes,once we got it,we moved on.

I think all 3 female leads were great,especially EVA LONGORIA,who is actually as nice a person as she is talented and beautiful,and the movie is entertaining in a "soap opera on crack" sort of way.All the local actors did great too.(totally my opinion) peace,andy sottilare

Don't get me wrong. I love independent films. But that is not what this was.

This was a travesty of film-making. The director must have quit halfway through the film.

Here's my biggest beef with this "movie". THE MUSIC. Did the producers owe a debt to some local rappers because the soundtrack is so bad that it's actually funny. Whether the scene is sad or serious or funny, it's the same horrible rap music.

The plot is ridiculous, the set design was non-existent, the dialogue was enough to put a baby to sleep. They literally walked out of jail with not so much as a chase scene. Horrible.

If Eva Longoria wasn't in this monstrosity and my curiosity to see her wasn't prickled, they would give copies of this away at the local shooting range for target practice.

Horrible. I gave it a two only because of Eva.

It might interest you to know that we're privy to the filmmakers who created this piece:

First of all their composer--if you can call him that--wrote the music under the influence of drugs, so that's why you hear the same loop--which is what the producers wanted to use. What do you expect of penny-pinching white trash from Miami? These jokers get into the business to make a buck on you using canned stories and cheap sweatshop labor. They don't care about the quality at all--it's all about the bottom line.

We happen to know from some LA sources that the reason this movie was botched from the beginning is 1) they had no money to pay professionals properly, 2) the had no idea how to make a movie in post. The director was hampered from the beginning by scenes that had to be cut because execs at the company were flying around the country taking 5-martini lunches.

Secondly, the director shot only 60 pages of a 90 page script, but the producers wanted to the project to exceed 90 minutes. It came up short at 71 minutes--so the editors had to find all kinds of doubled up shots from other noble films like Miami Tail and Race Exploitation Whatnot to extend this wondrous vehicle for Eva Longoria.

I saw the movie and spoke to one of the cast members here in LA.

It could have been a five star movie if the producer and executive producers would have allowed the director to fully shoot and edit the film as he had envisioned it.

The original script was very week when it was given to the director. But the director made it work even though the producers forced him to cut pages and shoot important scenes under an hour. I think all cast members including the director did an outstanding job under the strenuous environment that all had to go through.

I was informed by a cast member that the director also functioned as the director of photography for the first week of production and did all the hand-held camera work for the entire film and there is evidence to prove it and yet the producers neglected to give the director co-DP and/or camera operator credit on the final release film. This cast member also told me that the director was willing to edit the film at no cost to the production company but the producers denied him the privilege to edit his film.

Also, the use of fowl language gangster rap music in a Latino film especially over well acted dialogue scenes between Eva Longoria and Maria Bravo is of poor taste from the producers and this definitely killed the movie for me. Carlita's Secret was fun to watch and it showed talent in the director and actors. Can't wait to see the director's next movie.