Los Escorpiones Vs. Leviatan

 I once danced to Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” with a girl I met at an 80’s themed nightclub, but I ended up completely embarrassing myself because I actually couldn’t dance for shit and the girl just ended up dancing with someone else instead. In Policia Judicial Federal (released in Germany as "Scorpio Force - Das Kommando), young nightclub goers also dance to Sussudio, but end up succumbing to poisoned ice cubes inside their drinks. The poison was provided by one of the most vile villains in 1980’s Mexican genre cinema. God, I wish that were me. Not the villain, but one of the poisoned victims because the embarrassment I’d done to myself while dancing to Sussudio was just too unbearable to deal with.

Los Escorpiones are a police squadron with high-level skills in apprehending many dangerous criminals in Mexico. Apparently they’re so good at what they do that they’re being heavily funded to keep on going. Los Escorpiones seem unstoppable up until they meet the most vile, dangerous criminal that has ever walked on this planet! And who may this person be? He’s called Leviatan—also known as “El Angel De La Muerte” (The Angel of death). Leviatan was once part of a terrorist group with Nazi roots, but ended up abandoning them in order to complete a sole mission, which is to terminate the entire human race. Leviatan starts out with a craving to destroy an entire city first, which just happens to be Mexico City! After aggressively acquiring the highly-toxic product he needs for this plan— Los Escorpiones try to apprehend Leviatan, but of course he’s way ahead of them and manages to poison an entire nightclub where everyone inside dies, proceeds to kill several members of Los Escorpiones, and then manages to hack into the main water dam where for sure he could kill everyone in the city!  

I went into Policia Judicial Federal with little to no expectations on being anything special, but sure enough I was quite surprised by it considering it has a very evil antagonist portrayed by the ever so wonderful Hugo Stiglitz. Hugo can literally play anything, but his bad guy roles are the most memorable ones and here he does the role of Leviatan excellent. Leviatan is a very evil character with a mission to destroy mankind and Hugo plays this out perfectly with all the mannerisms of one evil son of a bitch. The rest of the cast play their roles excellent as well, especially Jorge Reynoso whom is the main hero of the movie and of course always proving what a badass he can be with guns & his fists. Jorge Reynoso by the way also wrote the screenplay for Policia Judicial Federal and it definitely shows since he’s the main hero & all. Duh. 

Along with the intriguing characters, Policia Judicial Federal is a total grand watch with its gun-firing action, fast car chases & various explosions. Now the most memorable scene of the movie is set in a nightclub where Leviatan & a lady acquaintance of his hang out at and then proceed to poison the entire ice cube supply which leaves every single nightclub goer that had drinks dead & gone. At least they got to dance to Teena Marie’s “14K” and Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” beforehand. That scene left me in awe in a morbid kind of way because this was a completely vile act. Leviatan truly proved he’s a very serious evil fuck with a mission! He is not playing around at all! 

During the 1980’s, Mexican movie producer Rogelio Agrasanchez & his son David and director Gilberto de Anda made some amazing action flicks together, but for some reason Policia Judicial Federal seems to have fallen off a lot of radars since it’s the one not mentioned a lot of nor praised as the others have and I think that’s totally ridiculous because Policia Judicial Federal is a solid title worth watching and for sure one that’ll entertain you all the way through. Policia Judicial Federal has all the action you could want and as mentioned before, it has one of the most vile villains in 1980’s Mexican genre cinema. I mean don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of other cool bad guys in these kinds of movies, but Leviatan takes it to another level. This is a true villain right here.

Policia Judicial Federal deserves to be watched and appreciated more, so don’t skip it or let it out of your radar. Readily available on DVD if I recall and frequently airs on the Ultra tv channels via Olympusat. 

My Ghost & Me.

A writer (Rodolfo de Anda) has purchased a spooky old house as a way to get inspiration for his latest horror novel and it’s quite the prefect place for that considering an actual ghost lurks in the house. After living several different kinds of lives as a human, a ghost (Arturo Martinez) has settled in this particular house and the currency to pay to live there is to scare people. As you can imagine, it has not been going well for the ghost since the house has been long abandoned and no one dares to enter it, but not because it's scary, but because it is uninteresting to the locals nearby. Once the writer & his family moves in, the ghost tries to scare the family, but fails to do so and the one person he’s for sure to scare—a young boy named Carlitos (Cesar Velasco), ultimately becomes his friend instead. After Carlitos manages to help the ghost scare a couple of robbers out of the house—the ghost can now remain inside the house for a while longer and this brings the ghost & Carlitos much closer than ever. Conflicts ensue however when a priest blesses the home and the ghost’s presence is affected. This also affects Carlitos internally and it’s up to his parents to bring back the ghost to make their son feel better again. 

Mi Fantasma y Yo ("My Ghost & Me") is quite the little epic considering all the big names involved in the movie—in front of the camera & behind the scenes. The movie stars legendary actor/director/producer Arturo Martinez as the ghost and 2 of his sons, Ricardo & Arturo Jr were very much involved in the production of the movie. This goes along with Rodolfo de Anda, who’s brother is director Gilberto de Anda. Next to its heavily family-connected production—the movie stars many familiar names in Mexican cinema and all of them appear in small roles, but very memorable & humorous ones. In particular the scene with Andres Garcia as a buccaneer succumbed by female cannibals and the quirky Wild West scene which has Gilberto De Anda, Carlos East, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Hector Suarez & Manuel Capetillo Jr. 2 legendary comedic actors also appear in memorable roles and that is Mauricio Garces as The Devil and then there’s of course Chabelo with his whiny childish voice coming out unexpectedly despite being a serious psychiatrist. Jorge Reynoso, everyone's favorite action star, stars here as a caveman inventing fire.. Badly. I also can't forget to mention Pedro Infante Jr stars as an Egyptian tomb builder succumbing to his own creation... A Tomb.

With all the connections & big familiar names, does Mi Fantasma y Yo live up to the hype? Of course it does. Mi Fantasma y Yo is a charming, funny flick enjoyable for all. It’s quite obvious this was a movie made specifically for families and it’s fairly interesting considering most Mexican movies coming out during that time were hardly ever family-oriented. Here & there there were maybe some, but a very slim selection and the rest was all stuff for the young adolescent crowd & general mature audiences. So it’s quite the difference to see something like Mi Fantasma y Yo. Horror buffs intrigued by the movie must be aware that this is not a full-on horror comedy because all you’re going to see is a spooky setting & a ghost whom later takes an appearance of a man. This is not going to be some Monster Squad type stuff at all. 

If you got little kids or just in the mood for something not so serious & violent, then for sure check out Mi Fantasma y Yo. It'll definitely brighten your day and to see all these actors & actresses together in one movie is truly something special as well.