Pool Party

In an effort to bring you films from around the world I present to you "Pool Party", a typically, poorly produced effort from Africa. This type of film seem to be churned out at a very fast rate and generally the story lines are poorly scripted and poorly acted. Pool Party is one of the higher budgeted films from this region and is one of the more coherent examples of African film making.

Even so, making sense of the plot isn't easy but does feature two fetching henchwomen but little else.

It is obviously some kind of crime thriller based around a pool party but apart from that I found it difficult to work out the motivations of the various characters and even if they were playing good or evil characters. The lead actor (not shown) is one of the bigger stars in the film though I haven't been able to trace the actresses names and they don't appear to have made too many other films with this kind of elevated budget.

Chicas en Peligro (Girls in Danger)

This film is a welcome relief from the stream of narco peliculas for which Mexican cinema has become famous, or rather infamous. In truth many narco peliculas are cheaply produced and repetitive but are often fairly good source material for bad girls.

Chicas en Peligro features some actors and actresses who have outlived the usual shelf life of many of their contempories. Hugo Stiglitz (Inglorious Basterds) is the biggest name actor in the film and the main female roles fall to Lina Santos, Monica Danieloweichz (the heroines) and Felicia Mercado (the baddie). These days Lina Santos and Felicia Mercado are often seen in various telenovelas, Felicis Mercado still often playing the baddie even now.

 

As to what the film is about I am a bit clueless as my Spanish is pretty rusty. It is obvious that Felicia runs some kind of crime empire and Lina and Monica are on the run from the law when they are framed for a murder they didn't commit.

Nobody is going to win any Oscars but the film itself is one of the better crime films to come out of Mexico - though it is nearly 25 years of age now. Any film featuring a mini skirted gun toting villainess and Lina Santos in a leather dress has to be doing something right.