Eva Longoria Movie:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: Maverick Salesrank: 27385 Released: December 14, 2004
		Our Price: $2.58
		Used Price: $1.58
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Carlita's Secret Reviews:
I bet Eva Longoria wishes this would stay a 'secret'!
2007-10-18 - I bet Eva Longoria wishes this would stay a 'secret'! Sure, the women are hot to look at (which is why I rented the film), but this is like a bad Skinemax film without the nudity. There are steamier scenes on Desperate Housewives. Stay away ... far far away.

Carlita's Secret
2005-02-23 - This was a great low budget movie that takes place in South Florida. I think Eva Longoria was great in what is obviously one of her first staring roles...and the drug dealer that she kills, Miguel Diaz, He is HOT! I would like to see more of him in upcoming features as he stole the scene. I believe we may have found the next Al Pacino.

DVD mars an otherwise okay film.
2005-01-20 - This looks like a shot-on-video low-budget effort. A young woman gets involved with a drug dealer/murderer who's sent to prison. She helped him almost escape, resulting in the death of a cop, so she goes into hiding as a club dancer. Eight years later, her past comes back to haunt her.

The film is decent enough to merit 3 stars, but I'm deducting one because of the dreadful DVD.

What's so bad about it?

I'm truly annoyed by DVDs that keep viewers as a CAPTIVE AUDIENCE, forcing them to sit through production credits or FBI warnings, unable to fast forward. It's an insulting time waster for the audience. But CARLITA'S SECRET takes it to new levels. The DVD opens with about a minute of production credits and FBI Warnings, followed by a 5 1/2 minute promo short that one is FORCED to watch. No fast foward allowed, nor does the Menu button work. Altogether, over 6 minutes of crap that one must sit through before the film.

Then after the film is over, before you can go back to the Menu, you have to sit through the same 5 1/2 promo short YET AGAIN.

Hey Maverick Entertainment, there's a REASON DVD players come with fast forward and Menu buttons. It's so that WE THE VIEWER can decide what portion of a DVD that we PAID FOR we choose to watch, WHEN we choose to watch it. Instead, every time I want to watch this film, I have to sit through your promo crap.

Shame on Maverick Entertainment for stealing the viewer's time like this.

If you get this film, you may want to pop it in the DVD player well before you plan to watch the movie. Pop it in and then get some snacks or whatever so you won't be forced to watch the promo crap. That should be a choice, not something DVD distributors force down on a captive audiece.

A "female" Les Miserables in South Beach
2004-12-18 - For a movie that was apparently made on a very modest budget, the acting by the three main actresses, Eva Longoria, Maria Bravo and Alejandra Gutierrez, is excellent. It's hard to get away with thrillers about drug dealers these days, but the director, George Cotayo, manages to make the story work.

The photography is quite good and the DVD is very pristine. Overall, it's an entertaining, obviously "commercial" movie. It has three weaknesses that are saved by the directing and the acting: some of the dialogue, the editing and the music. A more suspenseful score would have helped dramatically! The producers apparently opted for just background music and some hip-hop-type song/s, which is okay, but doesn't add to the tension.

The South Florida locations are beautiful. It's a very creative film with touches that remind me of David Lynch and Martin Scorsese, although it's no masterpiece. But how many contemporary movies are? I'm surprised it wasn't released theatrically because I have seen worse movies on the big screen. But, it's a pleasure to see Longoria and Bravo, especially. The subtle "lesbian" realtionship between the characters they play (this is not a spoiler) is handled quite tastefully, although the kissing on the lips was VERY SURPRISING!

Carlita's Secret shows that Longoria can definitely carry a picture as well as any star! And the director has a very slick, modern style. For a low budget movie, it's extremely well made. What's also nice is that it's short and sweet: just under 90 minutes, which is refreshing because most movies nowadays are simply too long! This one has just the right length to make it an enjoyable view. The final "shoot out" is extremely (and economically) well done! Bravo to Carlita and company!