action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior"

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

Monday, July 2, 2001

Multiethnic Movies Ringing True With Youths

Hollywood: Colorblind audiences flock to films that capture a culture.

By ROBERT W. WELKOS, RICHARD NATALE, Special to The Times

Hollywood was stunned late last month when the youth-oriented action film "The Fast and the Furious" streaked past the competition to become the No. 1 movie, with $40.1 million in ticket sales.
With its relatively unknown cast of whites, Latinos, Asians and African Americans, heavy doses of high-speed chases and a driving hip-hop soundtrack, the movie defied expectations and sent studio executives scrambling to understand why this film about the illegal street-racing subculture had become a summer hit.
But the teen-oriented movie's success isn't so surprising when one glimpses the youthful crowds flocking to theaters such as the Cineplex Odeon at Universal CityWalk. With their ultra-baggy cargo shorts, doo-rags wrapped around their heads, and bodies festooned with tattoos and piercings, the look of these young moviegoers mirrors the multiethnic melange of actors on the screen.
Esteban Mejia, 20, of east Hollywood, who wears long shorts and a diamond stud and hoop "cartilage pierce" in his left ear, said the racial diversity of the movie has a distinct appeal that most mainstream movies don't have. He wouldn't go to primarily white teen movies like "She's All That," Mejia said, because he doesn't relate to white kids trying to act "hard" like their Latino and black peers.
"I don't want to see 'Clueless,' " he said, recalling the 1995 Alicia Silverstone teen comedy set in Beverly Hills. "Did I live a 'Clueless' life? No. Do I live a 'Clueless' life? No. If there's something that I've been through, then, yeah, I'll go."
Hollywood likes to pride itself on being ahead of the cultural curve, but with last summer's sassy white-versus-black cheerleading comedy "Bring It On" grossing $68.4 million domestically and this winter's "Save the Last Dance," with its once-taboo interracial dating, raking in more than $90 million in North America alone, the studios have only begun to catch up with the colorblind nature of today's MTV generation.
Rob Cohen, who directed "The Fast and the Furious," said the film not only reflects today's "multiculti" youth culture without purposely drawing attention to it, but depicts what is really going on.
When the movie opened, it drew a cross-section of races. Cohen said surveys taken at theaters where "The Fast and the Furious" played showed that 50% of moviegoers were white, 24% were Hispanic, 10% were black and 11% were Asian.
"I look at this and go, 'This is exactly what I'm talking about,' " Cohen said. "If that had been 80% ethnic and 20% white, that is not what we wanted. We wanted to affect the whole culture. This picture is not an 'ethnic' movie, it's an everybody movie."
Attracting a young audience across the country--a mainstay of big summer popcorn hits--"The Fast and the Furious" has grossed an estimated $78 million in less than two weeks and is on track to make well over $100 million.
Touchstone Pictures' romantic drama "crazy/beautiful," which opened Friday, deals with a Latino boy from a working-class East L.A. neighborhood who falls for a troubled girl from affluent Pacific Palisades. Mary Jane and Harry J. Ufland, who along with Rachel Pfeffer produced "crazy/beautiful," say that today's youth increasingly see the world as colorblind.
"I think we live in a multiracial world, and we want to make movies everyone identifies with," Mary Jane Ufland said. "When we started off . . . we wanted to tell a good story reflective of teenagers across the country, but also specifically about Los Angeles. We live in Santa Monica next to the Palisades, and we're very aware of Pali High and busing kids in from all over L.A."
Marc Abraham, one of the producers of "Bring It On," noted: "There is a much more interracial aspect [in today's culture] than the way this country used to be. Any movie that reflects that--and it doesn't mean they'll all be hits like 'The Fast and the Furious'--will ring true with the audience."
Over the years, studios have produced a steady diet of "niche" films targeting demographic markets such as African Americans. They know that black-themed movies can readily draw huge crowds from African American communities--"Waiting to Exhale," for example--but these films rarely capture the "crossover" white audience that is crucial in turning a moderately successful film into a blockbuster.
John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood" was able to cross over, but few movies do. Where they do work is in broad comedies where there is an identifiable African American star, such as Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence or Chris Tucker.
Studios realize they can attract a crossover audience if a film realistically portrays the ethnic mix of society, so long as it doesn't appear cynical or calculated.
"[The movie business is] certainly catching up with what's happening in society," said Thomas Carter, who directed "Save the Last Dance." ". . . Youth culture has been shifting a long time, but because of the generation that runs the studios, there's been a certain attitude, and it has taken them a while to catch up. Places like MTV are right on the edge and totally involved in the change. In filmmaking, we lag behind."
If Hollywood made a movie like "Save the Last Dance" 10 years ago, studios would have emphasized the interracial love story. This movie, however, was sold more like "Flashdance" and did not sensationalize the love affair. And Carter noted that in "The Fast and the Furious," little attention was paid to race.
This shift is starkly reflected in recent U.S. census statistics, which show that nearly one in three Americans is a member of a minority group and that 15.4 million people--most of them Latino--said they were "some other race" than white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander or American Indian. The census also found that 6.8 million people identified themselves as belonging to two or more races.
"I think the segregated groupings are breaking down in today's America, and I think today's movie audience is a complex mix," said Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal Pictures, which released "The Fast and the Furious."
But Shmuger warned that if the movie industry starts making multiethnic movies "in a calculating and cynical fashion," the audience will sense that and stay away.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America said that in 1998, 71% of all movie admissions were white, 11% black and 11% Hispanic; all others accounted for 7%. In 1999, the fastest-growing group was Hispanic, which saw its moviegoer percentage climb to 15%.
Just as "The Fast and the Furious" shows young people of all races gathered in large groups unmindful of their racial differences and not hung up on sex, Gary Scott Thompson, one of the film's writers, said today's young movie audiences also are that way.
"It used to be a boy and a girl would go on a date," he said. "Now what's happening is groups of kids who are friends--multiracial boys and girls--all move in date packs together. It's like a date, but they don't consider it dating. They just consider themselves friends. Some of them might neck, some of them might not. None of them think anything much about it. They are much more open when talking about sex, teasing about it, too. They've broken down the cultural barriers."
In Hollywood, where studio executives dine at trendy watering holes and hobnob with people of like lifestyles and social strata, it isn't any wonder that the film business has been slow to pick up on this trend, observers said.
"I think the conservative nature of the movie business comes from the fact that movies cost a considerable amount now," said producer Kevin Misher, former head of production at Universal. "The first instinct is to find the movie star to protect your investment.
"What's begun to evolve, however, is the question of who is a movie star," Misher said. "This youth audience may be embracing a whole new breed of movie star. They are multiethnic and don't necessarily just come from music."
Rob Friedman, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, said the studio began noticing the colorblind nature of young audiences with its 1999 high school pigskin drama "Varsity Blues."
"It's really about their peers, regardless of race, and to a certain extent, gender as well," Friedman said. ". . . When it came to 'Save the Last Dance,' it became more and more apparent young people don't care [whether the relationship is interracial]. The music is great, the story is great."
Director Carter said that since the birth of jazz, music has been colorblind. Destiny's Child and TLC, Janet Jackson, are bought by everyone, he noted. The video for "Moulin Rouge" for example, features Pink, Lil' Kim, Mya, Christina Aguilera. "And you're not thinking who's white, black or Latino. You're thinking those are some hot ladies," he said.
"Ultimately, that's where we want to get," Carter said. "These groups don't lead with race. They lead with a common interest. Kids who like science and computers get together. Kids interested in sports get together. Those were the things that separated them, not race. We're just playing catch-up with that."
For teens like Alvaro Alvarez of Los Angeles, it doesn't matter that "The Fast and the Furious" has no big stars or makes a statement about race. It's "the cars, the action" that draw him.
"I'm just going for the cars," said the 18-year-old. "It doesn't matter who the actors are. It's something that's in style right now."
* * *
Times staff writer Emmanuelle Soichet contributed to this story.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

Monday, July 2, 2001

Multiethnic Movies Ringing True With Youths

Hollywood: Colorblind audiences flock to films that capture a culture.

By ROBERT W. WELKOS, RICHARD NATALE, Special to The Times

Hollywood was stunned late last month when the youth-oriented action film "The Fast and the Furious" streaked past the competition to become the No. 1 movie, with $40.1 million in ticket sales.
With its relatively unknown cast of whites, Latinos, Asians and African Americans, heavy doses of high-speed chases and a driving hip-hop soundtrack, the movie defied expectations and sent studio executives scrambling to understand why this film about the illegal street-racing subculture had become a summer hit.
But the teen-oriented movie's success isn't so surprising when one glimpses the youthful crowds flocking to theaters such as the Cineplex Odeon at Universal CityWalk. With their ultra-baggy cargo shorts, doo-rags wrapped around their heads, and bodies festooned with tattoos and piercings, the look of these young moviegoers mirrors the multiethnic melange of actors on the screen.
Esteban Mejia, 20, of east Hollywood, who wears long shorts and a diamond stud and hoop "cartilage pierce" in his left ear, said the racial diversity of the movie has a distinct appeal that most mainstream movies don't have. He wouldn't go to primarily white teen movies like "She's All That," Mejia said, because he doesn't relate to white kids trying to act "hard" like their Latino and black peers.
"I don't want to see 'Clueless,' " he said, recalling the 1995 Alicia Silverstone teen comedy set in Beverly Hills. "Did I live a 'Clueless' life? No. Do I live a 'Clueless' life? No. If there's something that I've been through, then, yeah, I'll go."
Hollywood likes to pride itself on being ahead of the cultural curve, but with last summer's sassy white-versus-black cheerleading comedy "Bring It On" grossing $68.4 million domestically and this winter's "Save the Last Dance," with its once-taboo interracial dating, raking in more than $90 million in North America alone, the studios have only begun to catch up with the colorblind nature of today's MTV generation.
Rob Cohen, who directed "The Fast and the Furious," said the film not only reflects today's "multiculti" youth culture without purposely drawing attention to it, but depicts what is really going on.
When the movie opened, it drew a cross-section of races. Cohen said surveys taken at theaters where "The Fast and the Furious" played showed that 50% of moviegoers were white, 24% were Hispanic, 10% were black and 11% were Asian.
"I look at this and go, 'This is exactly what I'm talking about,' " Cohen said. "If that had been 80% ethnic and 20% white, that is not what we wanted. We wanted to affect the whole culture. This picture is not an 'ethnic' movie, it's an everybody movie."
Attracting a young audience across the country--a mainstay of big summer popcorn hits--"The Fast and the Furious" has grossed an estimated $78 million in less than two weeks and is on track to make well over $100 million.
Touchstone Pictures' romantic drama "crazy/beautiful," which opened Friday, deals with a Latino boy from a working-class East L.A. neighborhood who falls for a troubled girl from affluent Pacific Palisades. Mary Jane and Harry J. Ufland, who along with Rachel Pfeffer produced "crazy/beautiful," say that today's youth increasingly see the world as colorblind.
"I think we live in a multiracial world, and we want to make movies everyone identifies with," Mary Jane Ufland said. "When we started off . . . we wanted to tell a good story reflective of teenagers across the country, but also specifically about Los Angeles. We live in Santa Monica next to the Palisades, and we're very aware of Pali High and busing kids in from all over L.A."
Marc Abraham, one of the producers of "Bring It On," noted: "There is a much more interracial aspect [in today's culture] than the way this country used to be. Any movie that reflects that--and it doesn't mean they'll all be hits like 'The Fast and the Furious'--will ring true with the audience."
Over the years, studios have produced a steady diet of "niche" films targeting demographic markets such as African Americans. They know that black-themed movies can readily draw huge crowds from African American communities--"Waiting to Exhale," for example--but these films rarely capture the "crossover" white audience that is crucial in turning a moderately successful film into a blockbuster.
John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood" was able to cross over, but few movies do. Where they do work is in broad comedies where there is an identifiable African American star, such as Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence or Chris Tucker.
Studios realize they can attract a crossover audience if a film realistically portrays the ethnic mix of society, so long as it doesn't appear cynical or calculated.
"[The movie business is] certainly catching up with what's happening in society," said Thomas Carter, who directed "Save the Last Dance." ". . . Youth culture has been shifting a long time, but because of the generation that runs the studios, there's been a certain attitude, and it has taken them a while to catch up. Places like MTV are right on the edge and totally involved in the change. In filmmaking, we lag behind."
If Hollywood made a movie like "Save the Last Dance" 10 years ago, studios would have emphasized the interracial love story. This movie, however, was sold more like "Flashdance" and did not sensationalize the love affair. And Carter noted that in "The Fast and the Furious," little attention was paid to race.
This shift is starkly reflected in recent U.S. census statistics, which show that nearly one in three Americans is a member of a minority group and that 15.4 million people--most of them Latino--said they were "some other race" than white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander or American Indian. The census also found that 6.8 million people identified themselves as belonging to two or more races.
"I think the segregated groupings are breaking down in today's America, and I think today's movie audience is a complex mix," said Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal Pictures, which released "The Fast and the Furious."
But Shmuger warned that if the movie industry starts making multiethnic movies "in a calculating and cynical fashion," the audience will sense that and stay away.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America said that in 1998, 71% of all movie admissions were white, 11% black and 11% Hispanic; all others accounted for 7%. In 1999, the fastest-growing group was Hispanic, which saw its moviegoer percentage climb to 15%.
Just as "The Fast and the Furious" shows young people of all races gathered in large groups unmindful of their racial differences and not hung up on sex, Gary Scott Thompson, one of the film's writers, said today's young movie audiences also are that way.
"It used to be a boy and a girl would go on a date," he said. "Now what's happening is groups of kids who are friends--multiracial boys and girls--all move in date packs together. It's like a date, but they don't consider it dating. They just consider themselves friends. Some of them might neck, some of them might not. None of them think anything much about it. They are much more open when talking about sex, teasing about it, too. They've broken down the cultural barriers."
In Hollywood, where studio executives dine at trendy watering holes and hobnob with people of like lifestyles and social strata, it isn't any wonder that the film business has been slow to pick up on this trend, observers said.
"I think the conservative nature of the movie business comes from the fact that movies cost a considerable amount now," said producer Kevin Misher, former head of production at Universal. "The first instinct is to find the movie star to protect your investment.
"What's begun to evolve, however, is the question of who is a movie star," Misher said. "This youth audience may be embracing a whole new breed of movie star. They are multiethnic and don't necessarily just come from music."
Rob Friedman, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, said the studio began noticing the colorblind nature of young audiences with its 1999 high school pigskin drama "Varsity Blues."
"It's really about their peers, regardless of race, and to a certain extent, gender as well," Friedman said. ". . . When it came to 'Save the Last Dance,' it became more and more apparent young people don't care [whether the relationship is interracial]. The music is great, the story is great."
Director Carter said that since the birth of jazz, music has been colorblind. Destiny's Child and TLC, Janet Jackson, are bought by everyone, he noted. The video for "Moulin Rouge" for example, features Pink, Lil' Kim, Mya, Christina Aguilera. "And you're not thinking who's white, black or Latino. You're thinking those are some hot ladies," he said.
"Ultimately, that's where we want to get," Carter said. "These groups don't lead with race. They lead with a common interest. Kids who like science and computers get together. Kids interested in sports get together. Those were the things that separated them, not race. We're just playing catch-up with that."
For teens like Alvaro Alvarez of Los Angeles, it doesn't matter that "The Fast and the Furious" has no big stars or makes a statement about race. It's "the cars, the action" that draw him.
"I'm just going for the cars," said the 18-year-old. "It doesn't matter who the actors are. It's something that's in style right now."
* * *
Times staff writer Emmanuelle Soichet contributed to this story.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fg-felix17aug17,0,1730368.story?coll=la-home-headlines

U.S. Arrests Reputed Chief of Drug Cartel
The youngest Arellano Felix brother is captured while fishing off Baja. His Tijuana family is blamed in the slayings of police, rivals and others.
By Sam Enriquez and Greg Krikorian
Times Staff Writers

August 17, 2006
MEXICO CITY — The alleged leader of a violent Tijuana crime family accused of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard while deep-sea fishing off the southern tip of Baja California, officials said Wednesday.
Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, nicknamed "the Wildcat," was taken into custody aboard a U.S.-registered boat, the Dock Holiday, in international waters about 15 miles off the Baja peninsula, U.S. authorities said. He was traveling under an alias but acknowledged his identity to his captors, officials said.
The arrest was based on a 2003 U.S. indictment that charged him with conspiracy, smuggling and murder. A $5-million bounty had been offered for his capture as the reputed leader of the Arellano Felix organization.
At its height in the late 1990s, the cartel was believed to be responsible for supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the United States.
U.S. and Mexican authorities blame the cartel for at least a score of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
Authorities say the Arellano Felix gang, though weakened by the killing of one brother and the imprisonment of another, remains one of Mexico's largest drug-smuggling organizations since joining forces last year with the Gulf cartel.
Prosecutors say the gang hired assassins to kidnap, torture and kill adversaries in a struggle to dominate lucrative smuggling routes that link Mexico and California.
"The Arellano Felix organization is the largest and most violent drug-trafficking operation in the Tijuana, Baja California, area," U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty said at a Washington news conference where the arrests were announced.
Acting on a tip, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asked Coast Guard officers to board the Dock Holiday on Monday, McNulty said. Seven other adults and three juveniles were also taken into custody, he said.
U.S. authorities had hoped to delay announcement of the arrests until they brought Arellano Felix to San Diego today, but Mexican news reports surfaced Wednesday.
"This was a perfectly planned and perfectly executed operation," said U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam of San Diego, whose office filed the 2003 indictment. Authorities gave no details of how they knew about the fishing trip or what was found aboard the vessel. Mexican government officials declined to comment.
The indictment against Arellano Felix "specifies his role in the enterprise as the one who participated in the most major decisions," McNulty said.
Authorities said Arellano Felix began working for the cartel when he was 22. He faces life in prison if convicted on charges related to the cartel's alleged purchase of tons of cocaine from Colombia that was smuggled into California through Mexico via tunnels, vehicles, aircraft and backpacks beginning in 1986. The cartel is accused of trading money and guns for cocaine from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist rebel group.
Arellano Felix is "one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world," said Michael Braun, the DEA's assistant administrator for operations in Washington. The government is seeking forfeitures from him of nearly $290 million.
Arellano Felix and the cartel are accused of 20 homicides in the U.S. and Mexico, McNulty said, and allegedly "recruited, trained and armed groups of bodyguards and assassins" to carry out their day-to-day work. Francisco J. Ortiz Franco, an editor at Tijuana's crusading weekly newspaper Zeta, was killed two years ago after a series of stories on the cartel.
The Tijuana-based group is accused of smuggling heroin and methamphetamine, and authorities believe it built an elaborate 2,400-foot tunnel that crossed the U.S. border to a San Diego-area warehouse. The tunnel was discovered in January.
With the cartel's power diminished, Mexican officials are bracing for rival organizations to seek a takeover of the Tijuana and Mexicali smuggling corridors.
Hundreds of killings in Mexico in the last year are linked to the war between the Gulf cartel — now allied with Arellano Felix — and a Sinaloa-based group headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
At stake are Mexico's most lucrative trans-border smuggling routes to Texas, California and Arizona.
The country's brutal drug war has increasingly been marked by the use of hand grenades, large-caliber assault weapons and paramilitary-style attacks. Police and prosecutors are not simply killed, they are beheaded and put on public display.
In May, three men with AK-47s walked into the federal attorney general's office in Tijuana, killed an agent and wounded another.
Last year, a police chief in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, was slain hours after he took office.
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon said through a spokesman that the arrest of the youngest Arellano Felix brother was good news but that the city should expect killings to follow.
"Lamentably, when this happens, waves of violence hit the city," the spokesman said.
The cartel began losing its foothold after police killed Ramon Arellano Felix in February 2002.
Weeks later, the family's eldest brother and alleged mastermind, Benjamin, was arrested and sent to the La Palma maximum-security prison.
There, Mexican prosecutors say, Benjamin Arellano Felix formed an alliance with Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf cartel, after a series of key arrests and pressure from U.S. and Mexican law enforcement began to chip away at the Tijuana group.
Drug investigators said Javier didn't enjoy the legendary status of Benjamin and Ramon, who reigned during the peak years. He kept a low profile in Tijuana, where he resided in one of several safe houses.
Unlike other major cartel figures, he rarely appeared in bars or restaurants, and when he did travel in the gritty border city, he was accompanied by heavily armed guards.
Javier Arellano Felix may have presided over a declining empire, but the cartel still enjoyed protection from law enforcement, U.S. authorities and border experts say. Many found it unsurprising that he was arrested outside Tijuana. His brothers also met with trouble after leaving the city — Ramon was slain in Mazatlan and Benjamin was arrested near Mexico City.
"I don't think [Javier] was comfortable outside Tijuana…. He knew he was being hunted," said John Kirby, the former federal prosecutor who co-wrote the 2003 indictment.
Though this latest arrest is significant, its immediate effect on either the cartel or the flow of illegal drugs is unclear.
One brother, Eduardo, remains at large. He, too, has a $5-million bounty on his head.
"Anytime you have arrests like this, it is certainly going to disrupt the organization," said Timothy Coughlin, chief of the U.S. attorney's narcotics unit in San Diego.
"Whether this throws them into chaos, or whether they'll get into a fight with another cartel, those are things we'll know in time."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enriquez reported from Mexico City and Krikorian from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Richard Marosi in Tijuana contributed to this report.




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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Warrior Poster

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Feds Arrest Mexican Drug Tunnel Kingpin
By Jesus Sanchez
Times Staff Writer

2:22 PM PDT, August 16, 2006

Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix — whose Tijuana-based drug ring has been connected with at least 20 murders in Mexico and the United States — was apprehended by U.S. authorities while on a boating trip off the coast of Baja California, officials said today.
Arellano Felix was being transported to San Diego on board a U.S. Coast Guard cutter after being caught Monday morning on board the vessel Doc Holiday about 15 miles off the coast of La Paz, Mexico, said U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul McNulty during a news conference in Washington. In addition to Arellano Felix , 10 other individuals, including juveniles, were taken into custody.
Arellano Felix was one of the people named in a 2003 federal indictment that charged him and others in the Arellano Felix organization with racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Regarded by U.S. and Mexican authorities as one of the most ruthless and powerful of drug traffickers, Arellano Felix was the target of a $5-million reward for his capture.
"This guy happens to be, as the deputy attorney general mentioned, one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world," said Michael Braun, assistant administrator for operations with the Drug Enforcement Agency. "So this is not your average arrest, and Javier is not your average drug trafficker."
The 2003 indictment identifies Arellano Felix as heading the drug cartel's Tijuana and Mexicali operations since May 2000 and participating in most major decision-making.
The Tijuana cartel once controlled a major portion of the cocaine and heroin entering the United States and is thought to be responsible for dozens of killings, including those of two Tijuana police chiefs, several state and federal prosecutors and a host of police officers since taking over the Baja California smuggling corridor in the 1980s.
That control has weakened in recent years as rival gangs encroached on the group's territory, triggering a bloody struggle. The decline has gathered force since Benjamin Arellano Felix, the cartel's alleged capo, was captured in March 2002.
U.S. authorities planned Arellano Felix's capture after learning that he would be taking the Doc Holiday, a 43-foot, U.S.-registered fishing boat, on a trip. The U.S. Coast Cutter Monsoon intercepted the Doc Holiday in international waters 15 miles off the Mexican coast.
After U.S. authorities boarded the fishing boat, they arrested Arellano Felix and others wanted for arrest. Arellano Felix was traveling under an alias but later revealed his identity, McNulty said.
Arellano Felix was expected to be arraigned "in the very near future" on the charges in the federal indictment, McNulty said.
Officials acknowledged that the Arellano Felix organization remains active but said that the arrest of one of its leaders would deal it a severe blow.
The cartel is a "a large organization, and much more remains to be done," McNulty said. "But we think that this, combined with a number of the other efforts that have preceded it, will have a noticeable impact, not just on Mexico but also in the United States, in terms of the ability to bring drugs into the country and the violence that has occurred on this side of the border, in the San Diego area in particular."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Chris Kraul contributed to this story.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
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partners:


see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 for the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico

Warrior Poster

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Warrior Poster

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Action Adventure Fantasy Feature Film "Warrior"

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Government corruption in Mexico ... which infiltrates the wars between Mexican drug cartels ... a setting of the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior"

From the Los Angeles Times

The Bite of Corruption
Kickbacks, embezzlement and bribery are a way of life in Mexico, stunting the economy and poisoning the public trust. Some regions are cleaning up, but the capital remains a quagmire.
By Marla Dickerson
Times Staff Writer

August 6, 2006
Luis Alfonso Sanchez Contreras searched the capital's trendy Condesa neighborhood for two years to find the right spot for a pasta restaurant. So the entrepreneur wasn't about to let a spaghetti-like tangle of red tape come between him and his dream.
He registered his business with tax authorities. He got permits to remodel his restaurant's interior. He asked permission to set up sidewalk tables. He won approval to install a tank of natural gas.
"I wanted to do everything by the book," said Sanchez, a bespectacled 44-year-old former bank manager.
So when local officials solicited an under-the-table payment of $1,350 to speed approval of his business operating license, Sanchez said, he balked. More than five months later, authorities still haven't granted him permission to open. Sanchez's bills are mounting. But he refuses to pony up.
"It just perpetuates this rotten system," said Sanchez, who has sunk $70,000 into the venture. "They are public servants. Their job is to serve the people, not to enrich themselves."
Officials in the permit office of Sanchez's borough of Cuauhtemoc declined several requests for an interview. Nor would they respond to his allegations that they had hit him up for a bribe.
Corruption remains a huge obstacle to Mexico's advancement. It is a hidden tax that stifles job creation, retards economic growth, erodes respect for law and order, and poisons citizens' trust in their institutions.
To be sure, corruption is a global phenomenon plaguing rich nations as well as poor ones. Witness the billions in waste and fraud that have accompanied federal payouts from Hurricane Katrina in the United States.
But in Mexico, it is an ongoing disaster. Mexican officials have estimated that as much as 9% of Mexico's gross domestic product is siphoned off annually to corruption. In 2005 that would have amounted to $69 billion, or more than the nation spends on education and defense combined.
One of President Vicente Fox's first acts upon taking office in late 2000 was to create a Cabinet-level position for an anti-corruption czar. A landmark transparency law was implemented under his watch to give average citizens more access to public records.
Yet election authorities in 2003 slapped nearly $50 million in fines on Fox's Alliance for Change, the political coalition that helped get him elected, for campaign finance violations that included failing to disclose millions in donations and accepting money from prohibited sources. The scandal tarnished his image as the maverick who was going to clean up Mexican politics.
Whoever succeeds him as president this December has his work cut out for him. Corruption in Mexico remains endemic and takes myriad forms, including kickbacks on government contracts, funds looted from social programs and drug money that has compromised courts, cops and political candidates. One out of every 5 businesses in Mexico admits to making "extra-official" payments to win public contracts, speed government paperwork or skirt regulations, according to a 2005 report by the Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector in Mexico City.
The average Mexican's most frequent brush with the system is la mordida, or "the bite." Those are the small bribes, "tips" and other extracurricular handouts that public servants and others squeeze out of the citizenry to perform routine functions.
Last year more than 1 in 10 transactions for basic public services involved an under-the-table payment, according to Transparencia Mexicana, the Mexican chapter of the global anti-corruption group Transparency International.
Trying to keep the city tow-truck driver from hauling your car away? Depending on how affluent the neighborhood, how fancy your wheels and how well you haggle, a quick 20 bucks can get you off the hook in Mexico City. Want your garbage collected? Some municipal sanitation workers won't touch your table scraps without a weekly "tip." Need a copy of that public document quickly? Many reason that it's better to pay up than miss a deadline.
In all, Transparencia Mexicana estimates that Mexicans in 2005 paid out nearly $2 billion to public servants in more than 115 million acts of corruption to settle traffic tickets, obtain driver's licenses, hasten building permits and the like. That's equal to the entire 2006 budget of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the country's largest seat of higher learning.
That $2 billion "could have gone to private investment, opening new businesses and creating new jobs," said Eduardo Bohorquez, director of Transparencia Mexicana. "It creates a barrier to development."
The trend has worsened since 2003, when the nonprofit group calculated that only about 1 in 12 transactions involved such payoffs. In international rankings, businesspeople give communist Cuba better marks than Mexico when it comes to perceived corruption.
Experts point to a variety of factors fueling the system, including low government salaries, a weak justice system and a culture of impunity born of seven decades of one-party rule.
The bite of la mordida is particularly painful for the poor. The average payout is about $16, or more than four times the daily minimum wage. But far from being hapless victims, some Mexicans admit that they sometimes willingly work the system, helping to sustain the very practice that most deplore.
Mexico City resident Omar Vargas Lopez needed an official copy of his birth certificate to renew his passport for a quick business trip to Argentina. Told that it would take 10 days, the computer engineer asked the documents clerk in his borough of Coyoacan whether they could "reach an agreement." Four hours later and his wallet $15 lighter, he had a certified copy of his birth record in hand.
"I know it's bad to do these kinds of things, but in cases of emergency there is no alternative," said Vargas, 27.
The good news, Bohorquez said, is that some regions of Mexico have made dramatic improvements, often with the help of technology.
Five years ago, the central state of Queretaro ranked near the bottom of Transparencia Mexicana's ranking of the nation's 31 states and the federal district in terms of petty corruption. But in 2005, Queretaro topped the agency's list as Mexico's cleanest state, with only 2 out of every 100 basic transactions involving a payout.
Among the changes: Queretaro adopted a transparent, automated system for tracking public works projects and paying suppliers. It also set up an online complaint service for citizens to blow the whistle on government workers who try to tap them for bribes.
The impoverished southern state of Chiapas has made similar strides, vaulting to the No. 2 position last year from the middle of the pack in 2001. It did it by installing public kiosks that allow citizens to renew their driver's licenses, order birth certificates, pay taxes and complete other government paperwork online, eliminating the long lines and opportunistic public servants that come with them.
Corruption "isn't embedded in our genes," Bohorquez said. "Simple changes can have a big impact. People will respond."
But Mexico City, which is an autonomous federal district similar to Washington, remains a quagmire of corruption. One of every 5 transactions for routine public services here involves a payoff, double the national average. The district ranked dead last or next to it in all three studies of petty corruption that Transparencia Mexicana has conducted since 2001.
The metropolis has a legacy of patronage and cronyism that dates back to colonial times. For much of the 20th century, Mexico City voters couldn't even elect their own mayor, having to accept whoever was appointed by the nation's president.
Corruption flourished in this democratic vacuum. Attempts to rein it in have bordered on the comical.
For example, Mexico City residents no longer have to pass a written exam or road test to get a driver's license. The bribing of test officials was so rampant that authorities reasoned that scrapping the exam could eliminate a huge source of chicanery with little effect on the overall quality of the city's maniacal drivers.
Still, the capital's paperwork gantlet remains so daunting that a cottage industry of intermediaries has emerged to act as go-betweens. Would-be restaurant owner Sanchez hired German Guzman to handle some of his red tape. It was Guzman who said he had received the request for the bribe to speed the authorization of Sanchez's operating license from a borough employee he knew only as "Jose."
Guzman said he did most of his work in four of the city's 16 boroughs, each of which has its own miniature city hall for issuing building permits, business licenses and the like. He said the mordida process worked pretty much the same in all of them: A low-level employee checks with higher-ups, then reports back with the cost of the under-the-table payment. Guzman said there was some room for negotiation. But he said public servants higher up the chain of command were careful never to get directly involved.
Guzman said that he respected Sanchez for standing by his principles and that he neither encouraged nor discouraged his clients from paying bribes. Still, he quoted a familiar adage in explaining why so many do.
"El que no transa, no avanza," Guzman said, which means "He who doesn't compromise doesn't get ahead."
Meanwhile, Sanchez's restaurant is shuttered and silent. The cozy tables and chairs he bought are stacked unused in his storefront, along with boxes of imported glass wine carafes and whimsical pasta bowls.
He recently filed a complaint with the internal controller of his borough in charge of investigating malfeasance by public servants. It's a process he has been told could take three years.


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THE ACTION/ADVENTURE FANTASY FILM "WARRIOR"
(ABOUT THE SON OF A DIVINE FORCE) IS A STORY OF A YOUNG MAN'S
QUEST TO FIND HIS TRUE IDENTITY SET AGAINST THE TWIN BACKDROPS
OF NATIVE AMERICAN FOLKLORE AND THE TREACHEROUS MEXICAN
DRUG TRADE AND A PORTRAYAL OF THE CLASSIC CONFRONTATION
BETWEEN "GOOD AND EVIL"



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Mexican drug smugglers operate with a sense of impunity ...



From the Los Angeles Times

BEYOND THE LAW

A 'Black Hole' on a Porous Border
Corrupt police and complicit citizens make Jacume a forbidding redoubt where smugglers of drugs and immigrants operate with a sense of impunity. 'They own the place,' says a Mexican official.
By Robert J. Lopez, Richard Marosi and Rich Connell
Times Staff Writers

May 21, 2006
Perched on a ridge a few hundred yards from the international line, an A-frame house with a wraparound balcony gives smugglers a 180-degree view of U.S. border defenses.

Spotters track the movement of Border Patrol agents with binoculars and use two-way radios to steer drug runners and human traffickers through unguarded areas.

As agents closed in on suspected smugglers last summer, lookouts on the Mexican side bombarded them with rocks and retreated to the A-frame.

"They have the high ground on us," said Sonia Spaulding, the supervising Border Patrol agent during the attack. "They can see our every move."

Jacume is a "black hole," an enclave largely beyond the control of authorities on either side of the border because of its remote location, complicit residents and corrupt Mexican police.

Jacume has flourished as a launch pad for smuggling of drugs and people since U.S. authorities stiffened border defenses near San Diego a decade ago. Traffickers simply moved their operations east, into the forbidding valleys and mountain passes surrounding the village.

As President Bush prepares to use National Guard troops to help seal the border, Jacume and places like it represent a formidable challenge and illustrate why the U.S., as Bush noted, "has not been in complete control of its borders" — and may never be.


... see http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

Checkpoints at the border to stem the flow of drugs from Mexico into the United States

From the Los Angeles Times

Nuevo Leon Governor Seeks Army Checkpoints to Stem Drug Violence
The governor of Nuevo Leon calls for army checkpoints to halt an apparent drug turf war.
From the Associated Press

July 27, 2006
MONTERREY, Mexico — Gov. Jose Natividad Gonzalez of Nuevo Leon state, on the Texas border, asked the army to staff road checkpoints Wednesday after four killings that appeared to be linked to a bloody turf war between rival drug gangs.
Gonzalez's request came hours after at least two assailants shot a man to death in broad daylight at a carwash in Monterrey, the state capital.
On Monday, Monterrey police found two corpses, including one that had been decapitated. On Sunday, at least 15 gunmen fired at the car of federal investigator Veronica Palacios, seriously injuring her and killing a female passenger.
Officials are asking "for reinforcement in some checkpoints, especially those on the highways leading to Coahuila and Tamaulipas and in some other areas in the state," Gonzalez told reporters.
Army checkpoints are already used in several Mexican states, including neighboring Tamaulipas, where there have been more than 100 drug-related killings this year.
Soldiers regularly accompany federal agents in raids against drug traffickers across Mexico.
Investigators say that the Sinaloa cartel is fighting the Gulf cartel for billion-dollar drug smuggling routes into the United States. The battle has led to killings across Mexico. There have been slayings in Nuevo Laredo on an almost daily basis this year.

see http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"Warrior" Press Release

WILL THE MAGIC OF AN ANCIENT CULTURE
TRIUMPH OVER AN EVIL OF MODERN CIVILIZATION!

PALISADES PRODUCTIONS


PRESENTS

"WARRIOR"

March 10, 2002 LOS ANGELES TIMES

THE WORLD
Mexico Captures Tijuana Drug Lord
Narcotics: The arrest, and the recent death of another Arellano Felix leader, could spark a power struggle within and outside the cartel.

By CHRIS KRAUL, TIMES STAFF WRITER

MEXICO CITY -- Declaring one of the world's most powerful drug gangs "dismantled," Mexican authorities announced the capture of Tijuana drug mobster Benjamin Arellano Felix on Saturday while confirming the death of his brother Ramon in a police shootout last month.
The blows to the Tijuana cartel are significant because it is thought to control a quarter of all cocaine entering the United States from Mexico. Both brothers were on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted list and carried $2-million bounties for their arrests.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ..."

... with Mexican drug lord, Carlos Eldoran (Ron Joseph, "Navy Seals", "Barfly", "Scarface", "Born in East L. A.") ruthlessly executing an informer, then bribing the government's new anti-drug czar, General Figueroa (Hector Mercado, "Delta Force 2"), to conspire with him in the perfect partnership ... using the military to establish a drug traffic monopoly by building a secure operation deep in the remote jungles of Costa Azul.

Unknowingly ... the General is about to invade the quiet and peaceful enclave of the Native American Esselen Indian Tribe who are hiding deep in the Mexican jungle ... and meet an opposing force he could never imagine ... the
supernatural son of a divine force with magical powers: Dreadmon (Vincent Klyn, "Cyborg", "Point Break"), who, separated from his biological parents at birth and having discovered that he has been adopted by the Chief of the Tribe, has set off on a quest to find the secrets of his true identity. Dreadmon must use his magical powers only for good or lose his powers and feed the strength of the evil witch Mootin ... the supernatural daughter of the divine force ... if he misuses his powers.

As General Figueroa's soldiers clear the jungle to build their drug manufacturing and distribution center, they invade the tranquil existence of the Esselen. Dreadmon, witnesses the execution of his adoptive father in cold blood and, contrary to the "way" he has been taught, reacts in anger and unleashes a lethal charge of electricity and fire ... driving off the soldiers ... but drawing to him the evil Mootin ... who is re-ignited with the desire to seek him out and destroy him.

After an argument with his "brothers" about whether to flee or fight the soldiers, Dreadmon leaves the exotic jungle behind and enters the concrete jungle of Puerto Vallarta ... to seek help from the local "policia". The local police captain is a cartel puppet who tells Eldoran that Dreadmon is seeking help to defeat the slave raiders who have killed his father. And when Dreadmon is arrested after using his supernatural powers in a bar fight, the cartel's hit man (Matt Gallini, "End of Days," "Crimson Tide", "Rudy") bails him out and takes him to meet Eldoran, who cons Dreadmon into using his powers to destroy competing drug cartels.

To see through Eldoran's deception and become the Warrior he must become to save his adopted homeland, Dreadmon must undergo an agonizing inner battle, which calls forth his own inner spirit in the form of the Midnight Sun (international rap star recording artist "Yukmouth of the Luniz"). Only when Dreadmon surrenders to the truth does he gain the strength he needs to defeat the treacherous Eldoran drug cartel ... and face the dreaded Mootin in spectacular climactic combat.

"Warrior" is a richly photographed action/adventure fantasy, filmed on location in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta, which matches mythological powers against modern day corruption in a unique portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil".

TELEVISION SERIES:

The story of "Warrior" is suitable for the development of an episodic
action/adventure fantasy television series and the Picture … “produced for theatrical, television and home video distributionˇ … could be the "pilot" and catalyst for such a series. The lead character in the story is the chosen son of a divine force and may be portrayed as a "positive role model" (in the "Superman" and "Batman" superhero category) fighting for justice with the magical powers of an "ancient culture" (which Dreadmon uses without killing anyone and which he will lose if he misuses) against the "evils" of modern civilization in the form of the Mexican drug cartels and other forms of modern-day criminal activity which threaten the people around him. As Dreadmon continues in his journey to return to his native homeland and uses his magical powers to combat the "evils" of modern times which confront him along the way, the storyline lends itself to the use of spectacular cial effects amidst car chases, pyrotechnic explosions, romantic and sensual love scenes and "beauty" shots (targeting the fifteen to forty year old male demographic). The series could become the modern day version of David Carradine's "Kung Fu" series (with a black male lead in a positive role model capacity) and fill a void in current television programming and ride the crest of the recent popularity of the "Hercules" and "Xena" syndicated action/adventure television shows.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PALISADES PRODUCTIONS
POST OFFICE BOX 1350
PACIFIC PALISADES, CA 90272
TEL: (310) 459-8997/FAX: (310) 459-4055
EMAIL:brucesingman@earthlink.net

Request the "Warrior" trailer through brucesingman@earthlink.net.

"WARRIOR"

PRODUCER: BRUCE H. SINGMAN
WRITERS: WILLIAM LAWLOR AND WILL HARPER
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: MARIO FRANK
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: DAVID SHOSHAN
DIRECTOR: WILL HARPER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RICK LAMB
EDITOR: ROLLIN OLSON
MUSIC COMPOSER: PETER MEISNER
COSTUME DESIGN: TERESA BRADFORD

CAST: VINCENT KLYN, YUKMOUTH OF THE LUNIZ, HEATHER MARIE WAYNE, RON JOSEPH, BLAIR VALK, JAMIE LUNER, CHRISTIAN GOMEZ, TONEEY ACEVEDO, HECTOR MERCADO, DANNY WAYNE, ZARON BURNETT, MATT GALLINI, MERCEDES COLON, ESTELLE BERMUDEZ

DELIVERY DATE: AVAILABLE

SUGGESTED RELEASE DATE: TO BE DETERMINED

RUNNING TIME: ONE HOUR THIRTY SEVEN MINUTES

PRIMARY LOCATIONS: COSTA AZUL, PUERTO VALLARTA MEXICO

SUMMARY: THE ACTION/ADVENTURE FANTASY FILM "WARRIOR"
(ABOUT THE SON OF A DIVINE FORCE) IS A STORY OF A YOUNG MAN'S
QUEST TO FIND HIS TRUE IDENTITY SET AGAINST THE TWIN BACKDROPS
OF NATIVE AMERICAN FOLKLORE AND THE TREACHEROUS MEXICAN
DRUG TRADE AND A PORTRAYAL OF THE CLASSIC CONFRONTATION
BETWEEN "GOOD AND EVIL"

"WARRIOR"
CAST:
Vince Klyn (Dreadmon) Jamie Luner (Alana Teresa)
Film: Cyborg (star w/ Jean Claude
Van Damme) TV: Profiler
Melrose Place
Point Break (star w/ Patrick Swayze, Savannah
Keanu Reeves)
Red Surf (w/ George Clooney)
TV: Baywatch (guest star)
Danny Wayne (Jericho) Hector Mercado (Figueroa)
Film: Batman and Robin Film: Delta Force II, Hair Power Rangers: The Movie TV: Acapulco Heat
Power Rangers: Turbo NYPD Blue
TV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers MyGyver
(series regular)
Tales From The Crypt
Matt Gallini (Chavez) Blair Valk (Marias)
Film: Crimson Tide International Model
Rudy and The End of Days Film: Alien in L.A.
TV: Melrose Place w/ Steven Baldwin)
NYPD Blue Nemesis
Seinfeld TV: Babylon 5
Young And The Restless Seinfeld
Ron Joseph (Eldoran) Heather Marie Wayne (Mootin)
Film: Navy Seals Film: That Thing You Do
Barfly
Scarface Austin Powers
Born in East L.A. TV: Boston Common
TV: Space: Above and Beyond Life With Roger
Northern Exposure Step By Step
Murder She Wrote California Dreams
Moonlighting Silk Stalkings
Broadway: Sweet Charity

PRODUCER: Bruce H. Singman is a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law. Prior to his association with William Harper and Palisades Productions for the production of “Warrior”, Mr. Singman created, wrote and produced HBO Sports Video Spirit Award and Telly Award winning sports entertainment projects for broadcast television and home video and was engaged in the private practice of law as a securities and entertainment attorney.

DIRECTOR: William H. Harper is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a member of the Director's Guild of America. He has over twenty years of experience in the production and creative development of television properties for studios including Paramount, Universal/MCA, Fox, NBC, ABC and Buena Vista. He won an Emmy Award for creating, directing and producing the kid's show "Superkids". Mr. Harper created and produced the special "The Winans: The Real Meaning of Christmas" and directed and produced "The Making of 'Bird' " with Clint Eastwood.

TV Guide

"WARRIOR"

This chimerical bit of movie exotica combines elements of fantasy films, sarong flicks and action movies into one super-hero package. Three Indian teenagers, Jericho (Kenny Greyson), Dreadmon (Zaron Burnett) and Sonata (Mercedes Colon), spend their adolescence frolicking in a tropical paradise near Mexico's Sierra De Vallejo. Meanwhile, city-based drug dealer Eldoran (Ron Joseph), who's been waging an ongoing war against competing cartels, is looking to relocate his drug laboratory someplace quieter. Spurred on by corrupt anti-drug czar General Emilio Figueroa (Hector Mercado), Eldoran orders his soldiers to open a jungle facility in the teenagers' homeland. Chief Papolli (Toneey Acevedo) is gunned down when he waves an olive branch at the dope manufacturers. Meanwhile, half-breed Dreadmon experiences a revelation as he strives to reach his tribal majority. Born in Vanuatu, Dreadmon (Vincent Klyn), wields such powers as telekinesis and lethal kickboxing. Unaware that drug lords are a far greater threat to his tribesmen than slave traders, the headstrong Dreadmon foolishly wastes his newly discovered powers. His spirit guide warns him about the dark forces of evil personified by trampy vamp Lola (Estelle Bermudez), but she introduces him to the pleasures of the flesh, distracting Dreadmon from his mission to rescue his people and preserve their way of life. Dreadmon travels to the big city and becomes Eldoran's pawn, losing sight of the forces menacing the jungle. Despite Jericho's efforts to wise up his buddy, Eldoran dupes Dreadmon into eliminating the urban competition. Will Dreadmon wake up and smell the coca before his powers dissipate? If he doesn't, the palm trees will soon be replaced by a forest of cocaine labs. Dreadmon is certainly a novel savior, battling inner demons and city slickers armed with little more than a loincloth and his natural assets. Overall, this David vs. Goliath tale is choppy but entertaining. - Robert Pardi

... see http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com