Day 220: American Me

Directed By- Edward James Olmos

Written By- Floyd Mutrux, Desmond, Nakano

Starring- Edward James Olmos, William Forsythe, Pepe Serna, Danny De Le Paz, Jacob Vargas

Critics Review- "worth seeing for Olmos' performance alone."- Scott Weinberg "eFilmCritic.com_

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 75% Audience- 90%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 4 1/2 stars

My Review-

Edward James Olmos pulls double duty in this film; as director and actor, and he does it well it which is possibly one of the more violent films I have seen in a while, and what makes it more freighting then anything else is this actually happens. In the beginning of the film it states that it is inspired by a True Story, but things like that happen everyday, and from what was depicted it does seem like a really horrible place. The thing is this whole movie rest solely on Olmos' shoulders and he helps the movie move together since it is a story on his life and he narrates the film every now and then. Even though every actor contributed to the film in their own way, Olmos' was the one to watch as the young boy who rose to be a gang leader within the prison system and somewhat outside. In the film it shows that this was the only type of lifestyle that was waiting for them when they were growing up and would lead them along throughout their lives living on the streets of East L.A., another thing that was depicted really well was the prison life and what you have to do to survive will being their. What shocked me was that this was the meanest role I have ever seen Olmos' in, I have always seem him as the good friend, a father or a supporting role that helps a character move along, never in a role where he was calling the shots to get rid of someone. This movie is one of those types that need to be seen, and should be on your list of movies to see, and it should be like Weinberg said its worth it just for the performance from Edward James Olmos. He is also not a bad direct for his debut, I would like to see more from him or if he was directed other movies I would like to watch them and see how well he did with those films as well.