El padrino

I'm not sure when I last saw a film as spectacularly crap as "El Padrino". I'm also not sure when I last laughed so hard or had so much fun. It's for exactly these reasons that I'm giving this film 10/10. "El Padrino" is bad film-making of the highest order and truly belongs in the crap hall of fame. Damian Chapa - I salute you! It's hard to pinpoint exactly why this film transcends its own pomposity to become a hugely entertaining, so-bad-it's-good masterpiece. But I think most of the credit lies with the casting of Jennifer Tilly as Sebeva. Jennifer Tilly is one of my favourite actresses. This woman has it all: looks, talent and obviously a fantastic sense of humour. That's the only reason I can think of why a classy lady of Asian heritage (one of Jennifer's parents is Chinese) in her 40s would choose the role of a young, drug-running Columbian prostitute.

The character of Sebeva really has to be seen to be believed. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I first saw Jennifer dolled up like a Latina drag queen on crack but Sebeva's wardrobe is nothing in comparison to her appalling dialogue and Jennifer's tremendous over-acting. Just when I thought it couldn't possible get any better, Sebeva would say something like "I may be a whore, but I'm a loyal bitch" or roll around on a table in, what I assume is meant to be, an erotic manner. I also defy anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the Spanish language not to fall on the floor laughing when Sebeva comments en Espagnol, complete with Jennifer Tilly's breathy, American accent.

Apart from Sebeva, this film has a couple of interesting action sequences and a completely ludicrous serial killer subplot to pad out the rather dull father/son drug dealer scenario. After working over the drug cartels with this epic, it seems Damian Chapa's next opus will tackle the IRA. I, for one, can hardly wait!

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")

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.

What is the deal with all these ethnic crime groups copying Italian mafia related movies ? We all know the Godfather as in Don Vito Corleone, now we have this Mexican one which is just a strait out Copy. I cant see why other ethnic groups have to Mimic and imitate Italian mobsters, but it sure makes them look silly. They sure seem to be wanabee Italians. I would much prefer to see Mexicans perform there own ideas and like to see there own culture, and the way they do it, instead of copying ideas from The Godfather trilogy. Apart from that the movie was disappointing, seeing mexicans acting and trying to be Italians is not my thing. After watching this, I'm now going to Watch the "Real" Godfather so this movie can be erased from my memory.

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.