The Ministers (2009)

A NYPD detective attempts to avenge the death of her father, but unwittingly becomes involved with one of his killers.

Director:

Franc. Reyes

Writer:

Franc. Reyes

Stars:

John Leguizamo, Harvey Keitel, Florencia Lozano

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Leguizamo	...	Dante / Perfecto
Harvey Keitel	...	Joseph Bruno
Florencia Lozano	...	Celeste Santana
Diane Venora	...	Gina Santana
Wanda De Jesus	...	Captain Diaz
Manny Perez	...	Detective Manso
Saul Stein	...	Detective Demarco
Benny Nieves	...	Alberto Santana
Luis Antonio Ramos	...	Carlos Rojas
Raquel Castro	...	Nereida
Tammy Trull	...	Liz
Raquel Jordan	...	Alma
Alex Luria	...	Dante / Perfecto 23 years old
Gabriella Fanuele	...	Celeste 18 years old (as Gabriella Loren)
Josh Segarra	...	Luis

Storyline

In New York, Detective Alberto Santana comes with his partner Joseph Bruno to meet his wife Gina and his daughter Celeste to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Out of the blue, Alberto is shot in his head on the sidewalk by a man wearing a hood that delivers a religious message from the Lord. Many years later, Celeste is a detective of the New York Police Department and partner of Joe Bruno. When the crooks Alden and Jeff Kane, who had torched their buildings to receive the insurance, are released from prison, they are executed by two criminals in the same modus operandi of detective Santana, and the police department concludes that they are the same killers. Lieutenant Diaz assigns Detective Manso and Detective Demarco from narcotics to investigate the case, for the deception of Celeste. Then the drug dealer Chino and his gang are executed in Manhattan's Lower East Side by the killers Dante and his deformed and deranged twin brother Perfecto, and Lieutenant Diaz teams up Joe and ...

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Plot Keywords:

twin brother | twins | brother brother relationship | religious zealot | corrupt cop | 

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Genres:

Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 October 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

A titkos rend

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,844 (USA) (16 October 2009)

Gross:

$2,844 (USA) (16 October 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alumbra Films, Grow Pictures, Scheherazade

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (FotoKem)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

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Soundtracks

"Fabulous"
Written by George Acogny, Kamil Rustam, Raven Williams
Performed by Raven Williams (as Raven "Majia" Williams)

User Reviews

barrel-scraping psycho-religio thriller

In the flatfooted psycho-religio thriller "The Ministers," John Leguizamo plays Scripture-spouting twin brothers - one with a scarred face for purposes of differentiation - who've made it their life's mission to gun down those responsible for the deaths of their parents and brother, leaving religious tracts with the bodies as calling cards. Florencia Lozano plays a beautiful cop from the Bronx whose father, also a cop, was dispatched by the hood-and-mask-wearing boys years earlier for reasons that aren't entirely revealed till the end.

This Avenging Angel scenario has pretty much been done to death at this point, and "The Ministers" brings nothing new or interesting to the genre. Franc. Reyes is responsible not only for the contrived, melodramatic screenplay and lackluster, pedestrian direction, but also for eliciting some of the worst performances of their careers out of Leguizamo and that crusty, battle-scarred stalwart, Harvey Keitel, as a veteran cop with a secret. After all, with material this lame, it's rather hard to lay too much of the blame at the feet of the actors.