Story wasn't super innovative but overall provided an easygoing plot. There were a few character reactions that seemed inconsistent but not overtly so.
Caribe was a movie about an illegal arms trade in Central America that goes bad and leaves a young woman involved named Helen (Kara Glover) and a British Intelligence Agent named Jeff (John Savage) alone to face a gang of pirates, hoodlums, or thieves, whatever they are, after them, intending to kill them. Along the way they meet a violence hating hippie type who dresses like a Native American and can kill with precision and ease named Tommy (Zack Nesis).
Among other mis-wrought contrivances in this horribly-designed film was the mid-script change in the female lead from Rosanna Arquette to Kara Glover (what? you didn't notice that?
Prepare to get tangled in the jungles of Belize when an arms smuggler loses her partner in a deadly shootout and finds herself on the run in the tropics of Central America. Helen is an amateur, making her money as an illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists.
This movie was produced by the biggest producer in Costa Rica. Although their authors brag about it as a the biggest movie in Costa Rica ever made and their actors even dare to say that they didn't get an Oscar Nomination due to it's political relevance with oil (-he he, right) ...
I have just seen Caribe a couple of nights ago at the annual Vistas Film Festival held here in Dallas, and I must express my discontent. The opening caption tries to tell us that the film is a portrayal of the current invasion of South American countries (Costa Rica, in this particular case) by North American oil companies, and the negative effects, both economic and environmental, of this invasion.
I saw this film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and it's director Esteban Ramirez introduced the film and took Q&A after. The four lead actors in the roles of Vicente, Abigail, Irene and Jackson are all good but only Cuca Escribano as Abigail stands out as the best of the four.
...or Soap on the Beach.
Esteban Ramírez is the only movie maker from Costa Rica that has achieved some heavy international recognition for his work, being "Caribe" his cornerstone. The movie is based on a short tale that Ramírez and co writer Ana Istarú achieved to transform in a contemporary story with two main axis: a story of love and betrayal on one hand and a subplot that involves the resistance of some groups to explore and exploit oil fields in Costa Rica shores.
