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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: EAST SIDE STORY (DVD MOVIE)
EAN: 0754703762979
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Label: WOLFE VIDEO
Manufacturer: WOLFE VIDEO
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: WOLFE VIDEO
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 04, 2007
Running Time: 88 minutes
Sales Rank: 10627
Studio: WOLFE VIDEO
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Set in East LA EAST SIDE STORY is the story of Diego a young man working at his family's restaurant and having an affair with a secretly gay real estate agent. As the relationship heats up and the Latino neighborhood becomes more and more gentrified everything changes for Diego and his family.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/ROMANTIC COMEDY UPC: 754703762979 Manufacturer No: WOL4515D
Amazon.com:
Handsome restaurateur Diego (Rene Alvarado, Fall to Grace) thinks he has the perfect boyfriend--until Pablo (David Beron, Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders) makes it clear he's not coming out of the closet, in case it might threaten his real estate business. Of course, Diego himself isn't out at work--until his flighty aunt Blanca (Gladys Jimenez, Tremors: The Series) casually reveals this to the homophobic staff. Heartbroken and alienated at work, Diego gets distracted when Wesley (Steve Callahan, Nine Lives) and Jonathan (Cory Schneider, The M.O. of M.I.), two hunky guys who are apparently allergic to shirts, move in next door. But as sparks start to fly with Wesley, Jonathan attempts to use racial strife as a tool against Diego. For a low-budget gay romance, East Side Story has broad ambitions, juxtaposing racism and homophobia without getting too heavy-handed with either. The script and the acting are a little wooden, but sincere warmth, flippant humor, unapologetic directness about its characters' lives, and a lot of well-muscled bodies give this movie its appeal. Irene DeBari, as Diego's grandmother, provides a lot of the movie's heart. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Two-dimensional cliche but fun
This is a fun, but heavily flawed, movie. It's charming as eye candy, and the story is light and amusing enough that it certainly passes the time favorably. But sometimes the comedy is too broad, the characters have crossed the line from believable to not, so the entire film suffers as a result of a screenplay and director who needed to take a heavy handed approach, or at least needed to know what the target was. Was the film meant to be a light-hearted romance, or over-the-top nonsense? We've got both here, and that means we've also got characters of little depth.
The villain, and I am referring to the live-in parter, one third of the romantic triangle that has developed, has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and is of so little appeal overall that one can't figure out how he's managed to have a faithful, devoted, good guy lover for two years.
We open with an over-the-top homosexual-hating chef who is nearly frothing at the mouth, who after being fired by the part-owner of the restaurant who is himself gay (almost angelically gay, in fact, we nearly envision him with a halo, he is so perfect), the dying chef places a curse upon the place of business with his final words. After that, either because of the curse or more likely the owner's being an outed gay in a neighborhood culture that is vehemently anti-maricon (so to speak) the business starts to fail.
The owner might be more upset about this except he has other worries: his one-time real estate ... Read More
Rating:  - Nice people...Bad film
Well...Home-movie to be precise. I guess a lot of effort went into it, but the result is without a doubt the worst DVD that I [still] own. Somehow you keep hoping that things will eventually turn out OK because most of the participants seem so charming -in real life. But no, when the last potential climax turns out to be an anti-climax again, and the end-credits begin, you know you'll never watch this film again. Don't see for yourself.
Rating: - What a bad story
I not sure what the people who gave this movie a good review where smoking. It was such a horrible moive, I could not finish watching it. The best part of the movie was when the main character takes off his towl.
Rating: - Utterly Predictable
This lame take on "West Side Story" -- substitute gays and Latinos in East L.A. for "whites" and Puerto Ricans in NYC -- is predictable almost from the opening scene. Worse, most of the gay characters exist only for cheap laughs at their stereotyped behavior. It's idiotic. One more thing: In a genre where the DVD jackets bear little resemblance to reality, this one takes fantasy to a new level. The flick's skin quotient is fine, but it's nowhere near as much as the jacket indicates. On the plus side, Rene Alvarado does a nice job, considering a poorly written script that has him alternating between sulking jerk and the perfect boyfriend. (Having said all that, I'm a sucker for any gay romance film, so there were enough threads to make it worth a look -- assuming you rent it rather than buy it.)
Rating:  - should you pursue your dreams or stay and help out your family?
Very few low-budget films are worth watching that deserves recommendation to friends. It's rarer to find/view films that addresses or contains gay Latinos.
Diego is a waiter/chef, who is stuck, by familial obligation, working for his grandmother's small Mexican restaurant. In addition, Diego has to deal with the homophobic head chef, whose rantings increase as more and more gay people are moving into the neighborhood. Diego wants to leave and pursue his dream of opening his own restaurant but his grandmother insists that he stays.
His life is pretty much monotone, including occasional trysts with Pablo. Diego wants to announce their relationship but Pablo doesn't see himself as gay. Pablo just enjoys an occasional man-to-man "bonding".
However, things change when heart-broken (& broke) Bianca returns home from Monaco. The grandmother suddenly takes off to her homeland for a visit, entrusting Bianca to help out Diego at the restaurant. Pablo dumps Diego for Bianca, who soon abandons helping out Diego.
Meanwhile, a new gay couple, Wesley and Jonathan, has moved into the neighborhood. Well, actually, they came to flip a house, which they'll move on to a new project. Wesley is truly interested in the neighborhood and tries to get to know Diego. Jonathan is a stereotypical character who thinks lowly of Latinos and is irked that Wesley is friendly with them, especially Diego. The different treatments of Latinos soon put their relationship ... Read More
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