Eastside

Its funding comes from India's Bollywood Pictures, but the title and the subject matter are very L.A. Happy-go-lucky thief Antonio Lopez (Saved by the Bell's Mario Lopez) gets out of prison and looks up his straightlaced brother Horatio (Mark Espinoza), a lawyer who's become such a yuppie that he talks like Bryant Gumbel and pronounces the family name "Loaps." Irony of ironies, Horatio turns out to be more crooked than his brother ever was; he's hiring out his services to rich Latino crimelord De La Rosa (perennial "evil Mexican" character actor Efrain Figueroa). When De La Rosa figures out that Antonio is more streetwise than his brother will ever be, he quickly signs on the younger Lopez as a local enforcer. Up until this point, the action has been fairly predictable, but made fresh thanks to an enthusiastic cast. Unfortunately, the inevitable crisis of conscience occurs, prompted by a very contrived love interest angle (the fact that nothing is made of its interracial nature is a plus, but it's still contrived). There's also a cute little boy with no arms, for additional sympathy factor, leading to a bizarrely exploitational scene in which Antonio uses athletic tape to attach a badminton racket to the kid's stump so he can play sports. It doesn't help matters that the one surprising plot development is immediately undercut and reversed, and the final dedication to everyone who tries to help inner city youth reads more like a desperate plea for attention than anything else. Still, director Lorena David (Bravo) shows talent for working with actors, and manages to make at least some of the cliches tolerable, if not entirely novel.