The Bronx War is a 1991 crime film written, directed by Joseph B. Vasquez who also stars in the film alongside Marlene Forte, and Gene Gabriel.
Tito Sunshine (Vasquez) lives in The Bronx with his girlfriend Maria (Frances Colon), he runs a strip club, and he is also a small time crack dealer in his neighborhood, working alongside his brother Tony (Fabio Urena), and a friend of theirs Raymond aka Crazy (Miguel Sierra), who sometimes complains about not being second in command to Tito.
Rachel (Charmaine Cruz), the troubled sister of Tito's girlfriend, shows up out of nowhere, and asks to movie in with them after she ends up on the street, initially unaware of her situation, they take her in, but later discovering that Rachel was working for Caesar (Andre Brown) a rival drug dealer just to make quick money, and was ripping him off before hiding in Brooklyn with her boyfriend.
Tito confronts her, but she denies it, saying that her boyfriend was taking the drugs knowing the outcome, though he later finds out that she did take the drugs after escaping a home invasion that saw everyone including her boyfriend getting killed.
Caesar contacts Tito, claiming that Rachel was responsible for stealing $40,000 worth of heroin, and demands that he turns both the drugs and Rachel over to him.
Instead, he reluctantly chooses to protect Rachel from Caesar, and lies to his gang about the real reason, only telling them to watch their backs.
After a shooting at a restaurant, Caesar calls Tito and declares war on him and his gang, Caesar has corrupt cops kill everyone at one of their crack spots, including a kid that just started working for them. Tito gets angry, then arranges to have those same cops killed. Leading into an all-out gang war that leads to violence, betrayal, and a lot of dead bodies.
There are also three minor subplots in the film, with Tony becoming romantically involved with one of the dancers from the club, Rachel trying to get back on good terms with her mother (Ivonne Fidias), with whom she is estranged from, and Crazy being frustrated with Tito's decisions, ultimately turning on him, and aligning himself with Caesar's gang.
This was the second film written and directed by Vasquez prior to him making "Hangin' with the Homeboys", you can see his skills as a writer & director improve, the film is gritty and low budget, but I think that is what makes it great.
That opening scene, which showed a gang killing off an entire family was pretty violent, but then again a lot of the scenes in this film are violent.
Some of the acting is kinda hokey and over the top, but surprisingly everyone does great in their parts, Vasquez does exceptionally well in the lead role.
This is a solid film, I recommend it.
Tito Sunshine (Vasquez) lives in The Bronx with his girlfriend Maria (Frances Colon), he runs a strip club, and he is also a small time crack dealer in his neighborhood, working alongside his brother Tony (Fabio Urena), and a friend of theirs Raymond aka Crazy (Miguel Sierra), who sometimes complains about not being second in command to Tito.
Rachel (Charmaine Cruz), the troubled sister of Tito's girlfriend, shows up out of nowhere, and asks to movie in with them after she ends up on the street, initially unaware of her situation, they take her in, but later discovering that Rachel was working for Caesar (Andre Brown) a rival drug dealer just to make quick money, and was ripping him off before hiding in Brooklyn with her boyfriend.
Tito confronts her, but she denies it, saying that her boyfriend was taking the drugs knowing the outcome, though he later finds out that she did take the drugs after escaping a home invasion that saw everyone including her boyfriend getting killed.
Caesar contacts Tito, claiming that Rachel was responsible for stealing $40,000 worth of heroin, and demands that he turns both the drugs and Rachel over to him.
Instead, he reluctantly chooses to protect Rachel from Caesar, and lies to his gang about the real reason, only telling them to watch their backs.
After a shooting at a restaurant, Caesar calls Tito and declares war on him and his gang, Caesar has corrupt cops kill everyone at one of their crack spots, including a kid that just started working for them. Tito gets angry, then arranges to have those same cops killed. Leading into an all-out gang war that leads to violence, betrayal, and a lot of dead bodies.
There are also three minor subplots in the film, with Tony becoming romantically involved with one of the dancers from the club, Rachel trying to get back on good terms with her mother (Ivonne Fidias), with whom she is estranged from, and Crazy being frustrated with Tito's decisions, ultimately turning on him, and aligning himself with Caesar's gang.
This was the second film written and directed by Vasquez prior to him making "Hangin' with the Homeboys", you can see his skills as a writer & director improve, the film is gritty and low budget, but I think that is what makes it great.
That opening scene, which showed a gang killing off an entire family was pretty violent, but then again a lot of the scenes in this film are violent.
Some of the acting is kinda hokey and over the top, but surprisingly everyone does great in their parts, Vasquez does exceptionally well in the lead role.
This is a solid film, I recommend it.