Crime Connection & Psychothrill.

Sergio Goyri and the late Joaquin Cordero play a couple of cops named Ricardo and "Abuelo" (Grandpa) that are after local drug traffickers. They go around town shooting up drug hitmen & searching various places for drugs. One place where a shootout/drug bust breaks out is at a bowling alley. Cool, huh?

While that happens, we meet a legit looking businessman who has taken an interest in a cabaret dancer named Rita (Patricia Rivera). They share drinks, go out to fancy restaurants, and eventually they marry. Rita believes she's finally living the good life. Too bad for her though because she's actually just been setup by drug traffickers! Rita's 'husband' is going to use her to smuggle cocaine from South America into to their native Mexico. When Rita is caught with the cocaine, she is then incarcerated. Believing her story about getting married & all; Rita's defense lawyer and the cop Ricardo search high & low for evidence to prove Rita's innocence. As they search, a punk-looking hitman (Roberto Flaco Guzman) for the drug traffickers kills anyone that gives information leading to the man that set up Rita.

Conexion Criminal (aka "Crime Connection")? Or Psychothrill? Different titles. Different languages. Same movie! Whatever you want to call it, this movie is straight up good. This is one crime flick that takes itself serious and remains serious until the end. Roberto Flaco Guzman and Patricia Rivera pretty much steal the entire movie. Patricia Rivera's attractive appearance keeps you glued to the tv screen and Flaco's punk look and stabbing scenes keep you in suspense. OOOH YES.

Conexion Criminal, or Psychothrill is definitely worth a look. However, be sure to find the full uncut version of the movie. There's TV cut copies floating around Walmarts & swap meets. If the copy you have is missing the brutal murder scenes (child hanging, man set on fire, stabbing scenes, etc.) and the Patricia Rivera nude scene, then you're stuck with a lame ass cut copy. As far as I know, Any Conexion Criminal VHS releases are uncut, DVD's are cut, and the ultra rare Psychothrill VHS is completely uncut. However, the Psychothrill copy is missing the ending! How that happened is beyond me..

Be sure to check out Conexion Criminal sometime or be sure check out Psychothrill sometime. Either way, you're definitely gonna dig this fucking movie. 7/10.

Clips from the Psychothrill VHS:

Punk Flaco Guzman Music Video:

Drug Traffickers of Michoacan.

*revised on on 11/24/2022*

Directed by Agustin Bernal—Traficantes De Michoacan (aka "Drug Traffickers of Michoacan") tells a story of the 3 Arteaga brothers who are from a small town in the state of Michoacan. We got the eldest Arteaga brother "Ruben" (Mario Almada) who dresses up a priest because his mother really wanted him to be one, but he's actually not really a priest since he is a drug trafficker and just dresses up as a priest as a ruse. 2nd eldest Atreaga is "Jose" (Fernando Almada) who is a police chief fighting against drug traffickers in the surrounding areas of his hometown and the youngest Arteaga brother "Saul" (Agustin Bernal) is also a drug trafficker, but on a different turf from Ruben's. These 3 brothers are obviously different from one another, but they get along just fine when they reunite for parties & such. Jose has no idea that his 2 brothers are involved in drug trafficking as he assumes they do legitimate work, but when their young sister Maria gets kidnapped by a sleazy & rivaling drug boss—Jose finds out that his brothers are drug traffickers. It's disappointing to know this, but it doesn't matter for the time being since Jose teams up with his drug-trafficking brothers to rescue their innocent little sister!

Traficantes De Micoahocan starts off pretty promising with Agustin Bernal shooting down some hitmen and then we see Mario Almada (dressed as a priest) shooting a rival of his down. He even attempts at praying for the dead rival, but decides not to after all because he says: "Let's just go. He's not going to Heaven anyway." Amazing dialogue, right? After that, we see Fernando Almada's character gunning down a bunch of pot-bellied drug traffickers inside a wooden shack. Amazing, right? After the first 15 minutes of action, the movie then gets fairly slow with chatter, a menial music performance & the Arteaga brothers getting drunk together. After that, the movie jumps back to getting interesting again once the brothers band together to save their little sister. More guns firing here of course and then the movie ends rather unusual. I hated it.

Traficantes De Michoacan is a movie that isn’t going to hype you up or a movie that’s going to become a favorite of yours. If anything, it’s the movie you’ll have on whenever you can’t decide on what to actually watch or have it on as background sound while you work on something at home. I will say that the Almada brothers & Agustin Bernal gave it their best here despite a menial production. These 3 legends worked hard no matter what. 

With all due respect, gentlemen!