In 1964, in San Francisco Valley, the smalltime drug dealer Manny Vasquez (Ismael 'East' Carlo) leaves his wife with his son Kilo and the boy participates of his illegal activities. Manny is arrested and Kilo returns to the care of his mother. Years later, Kilo Vasquez (Damian Chapa) grows up and begins his own business dealing drugs to high school and college students. Kilo forms a gang, associates to the whore Sabeva (Jennifer Tilly) that has many contacts and becomes a powerful drug lord. His girlfriend Christina (Ileanna Simancas) gets pregnant but Kilo is framed, arrested and sentenced to prison with his two great friends Loco (Sal Lopez) and Rudy (Emilio Rivera). Meanwhile the daughter Molly (Penny Hamond) of Governor Lancaster (Stacy Keach) is found dead in a van and the serial-killer Lars Vincent Truman (Gary Busey) is sentenced to life in the same prison as Kilo. Governor Lancaster proposes a deal to Kilo and his men to kill Lars, and they are released. Kilo becomes more powerful than before and the Governor and the General Attorney Navarro (Faye Dunaway) decide to eliminate the gangster with tragic consequences. "El Padrino" is a dreadful, lame and cheesy film that tells the saga of the drug pin Kilo, a sort of hero without cause or explanation. The story and the ham acting is absolutely unconvincing and the lead actor and director Damian Chapa is awful. I have never seen or heard anything about Damian Chapa and my impression with his ridiculous work could not be worse. The shootout in the end is hilarious despite the intention of Chapa is to have a dramatic conclusion and not a stupid joke as it actually is. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): "O Padrinho" ("The Godfather")

I'm a sucker for mob/gangland movies, so I rented this movie. This movie is a complete train wreck. With all the big name actors in this film, I can not believe how bad it was. It was so bad, that I began laughing hysterically towards the end of the film. The actor better known as Zues or the big dude from the Ice Cube movie "Friday" does an incredible overacting job throughout the film. First thing I told Blockbuster when I returned the film was to remove this garbage from their shelves. Do not rent this movie, unless you want to waste two hours of your life. If they come out with a sequel, I wonder if it will be twice as bad as the first. I will be more cautious when renting so called 'mob/gangland' movies.

Finally a gangster Movie worth watching!Jennifer Tily should get nominated for her role as tough murdering femme fatal!This Movie flies like a bird , just a fast paced non stop Gangster Mayhem!Jennifer Tily is just so beautiful and bad in this Movie.I was shocked to find Faye Dunaway still lives! The cast in this movie are so fitted to their roles. A real cool soundtrack rides along side and you get swept into the Spanish soul of this film.The story is original deep and poetic.This Flick has a lot of Substance and never rests.The gang of Spanish Fire just set everything on screen alight.Damian Chapa Is a Joy to watch and a Movie Star.Sit back and enjoy the ride.

We just finished screening El Padrino in Australia. A phenomenal piece of film work. We look forward to seeing many more films from Mr. Chapa in the future. It was wonderful to see such a well put together film with such suspense and a story that shall remain an instant classic. Seeing a film with great quality truly outlines Chapa's serious potential and his adept skill as a writer, actor, director, and filmmaker. Chapa has impressed many with his triumphant performance in "blood in and blood out" and now he has proved to all who have see his works his potential to become a critically acclaimed film maker with genuine artistic control. With his lead role Kilo Vasquez being a perfect combination between Milo Velka from "Blood in Blood Out" and Al Pacino from "Scarface" the film will do wonders for us here in Australia.