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.

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.

The only positive thing i can say about this movie is that eva longoria is easy on the eyes. I hate to judge without viewing in entirely, but it was very difficult to watch. Scenes were predictable, and acting was bad. Looked like something my college buddies and i filmed on spring break.

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.

Well, I rented this film at Hollywood Video because I recognized Eva Longoria's name from Desperate Houswives. She is much younger in this picture. It is a bit of a action thriller story set in Miami. Wild club scenes with music and that kiss that everybody has heard about. She however remains a true blue female. My boyfriend loved the scenes with the sexy ladies in their sexy outfits. I would say it was a decent film to watch on a rainy afternoon. I liked the Latino flavor. The ending was pretty good with the gun scenes. There are so many films out there that are not big screen titles that I enjoy seeing. Givng the independent producer a chance to have his talent seen. Some other titles I would recommend is 30 Miles. Another thriller with an old TV star.