| Hotel California | |
|---|---|
 Film Poster | |
| Directed by | Geo Santini |
| Written by | Christine Conradt |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Luis Panch Perez |
| Edited by | Erik C. Andersen |
| Music by | Bobby Johnston Shotgun Radio |
Production company | Alliance Group Entertainment |
| Distributed by | IFA Distribution |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Hotel California is a 2008 film that follows three professional criminals in Los Angeles.
The film follows Troy (Erik Palladino) as he returns to Los Angeles from Miami to meet with his former crime partners Al (Tyson Beckford) and Pete (Simon Rex), whom he requests that they meet him at the hotel he is currently residing. Troy had been in hiding for the previous 18 months, to escape being murdered by the elderly, but nonetheless ruthless, Dmitri (Raymond J. Barry), who is Al and Pete's (and formerly Troy's, until things went south) Boss. The film begins with Troy and his friend Davey talking in Troy's hotel room. Davey supplies Troy with a snub-nosed revolver, and advised him how quick and easy it is to use the gun to rob a convenience store, acting out the lines he normally says when he commits robberies himself. Troy thanks Davey for taking care of things while he was in hiding. Troy then calls Pete, who is having lunch with Al at the time, and they are both shocked to hear Troy's voice. Troy asks them to meet with him, giving them the location of his hotel room. They agree to visit him later in the day, and hang up the phone. Immediately, Pete tries to dial Dmitri's phone to inform him that Troy is back in town, but Dmitri doesn't answer. The screen switches to a flashback sequence, to a time not long before Troy went into hiding. Pete is shown going to a private residential property, where he routinely goes to pick up large quantities of drugs, and buys 2 kilograms of cocaine. Upon returning to his vehicle and placing the drugs in the trunk, as well as his gun in the glovebox, he is subsequently taken out of his car, beaten, and the drugs are stolen. A bloodied Pete, Al, and Troy go to the backroom of a nightclub, and confront Gino, a Hispanic gang member who was receiving oral sex from one of the nightclub's dancers when they stormed in. Troy interrogates him, holding a gun to his head, and demanding the identity of who stole from his crew. Gino insists that he doesn't know anything. Troy asks the dancer to resume what she was doing before they walked in, and she reluctantly agrees. Troy then forcefully shoves the dancer's head down and instructs her to bite down on Gino's penis, who shows intense pain. Finally, Gino confesses he knows who robbed Pete, and begs Troy to stop. He tells him that Manny Ramos, a small-time drug dealer and gang affiliate, was responsible. Gino then insults Troy, and tells him that Manny Ramos is "just the beginning of your fucking problems!" Troy lets him vent, and finally, tells Gino he has one more message he needs him to deliver. As Gino asks what it is, Troy shoots him in the temple, killing him instantly. They then leave the nightclub casually. Troy, Al, and Pete then stop by to see Dmitri, who sees they are visibly upset and inquires what is wrong. Troy explains that Pete got robbed, and they found out that Manny Ramos set them up. Dmitri, recognizing the name, tells them to let it go due to political ties he has with Manny Ramos's older brother, Hector. Troy insists it will make them look like punks if they don't get the drugs back themselves, and this angers Dmitri, and abruptly says to forget Manny and go about their business, to which Troy reluctantly agrees. Leaving Dmitri's office, Troy convinces Al and Pete that they should all go and retrieve their stolen merchandise. Troy says he'll take care of any fallout or backlash from Dmitri, and they prepare to go to Manny Ramos's apartment. They put on ski masks and storm the residence, and Troy hits Manny in the forehead with the barrel of an Uzi sub-machine gun for pretending he doesn't know anything about the stolen drugs. After a woman in the apartment grabs a gun that was hidden in a cupboard next to where she was standing in the kitchen, gunfire erupts rapidly, with Troy, Al, and Pete killing everybody in the apartment. A few shots fired by Troy went through a closed door at the end of a hallway, and this door is never opened, only showing the bullet holes. Once the briefcase is found, containing their stolen drugs, they are quick to leave, but not before Troy takes his ski mask off and reveals to a barely-alive Manny who he is. Troy insults Manny, saying he should have just told them where the briefcase was. Manny warns Troy, saying "you better run, because that's all you're going to be doing from now on. Running like a little bitch." Troy then shoots Manny in the forehead, killing him instantly. Switching back to the present day, Pete knocks on the hotel room door and is greeted by Troy, who gives him a warm embrace and hugs him, offering him a drink. Pete complains of a malodorous scent lingering in the air, and Troy brushes it off. After talking a bit, Troy asks Pete if he thinks Dmitri knows he is in town. Pete reassures Troy that Dmitri doesn't know about his returning to town. Finally, Al knocks on the door, and Troy greets him in the same manner. The 3 of them drink whiskey and discuss how things used to be. Al similarly complains of an awful smell in the hotel room, but Troy brushes off his comment just like he did to Pete. Another flashback, detailing the scene where Troy meets his love interest, Jessie (Tatyana Ali), who is reading a book whilst seated at a small cafe. Troy is there having to hide several kilograms of cocaine, as an officer has just witnessed a suspicious drug deal take place outside the cafe. Troy leaves after giving Jessie his phone number, and they start to become intimate shortly thereafter, when she calls him the following week. Back to the present day, Al and Pete tell Troy he was foolish for coming back into town. Pete says "you're as good as dead. Troy, you're the only person who's ever fucked Dmitri over and still lives to talk about it." Troy, unaffected, calmly says "You're sure about that, right?" with a deceitful grin on his face. Al and Pete question Troy about why he betrayed Dmitri. Troy responded, saying he didn't betray him, but rather, Dmitri set him up. The film then goes to another flashback scene where Troy is shown delivering a briefcase full of money to Hector Ramos. After speaking with one of Dmitiri's associates via phone to receive the combination code to unlock the briefcase, Troy stalls and uses the bathroom to retrieve a pistol hidden in his pants. Upon getting the combination code, Hector opens the briefcase to discover that there was no money inside, and only a note stating that Troy is the man behind the murder of Hector's family (Manny Ramos) and immediately reaches for his gun. Troy takes Hector's cousin hostage in order to escape the situation. When Troy explains what happened to his partners Al and Pete, they inform him that Dmitri told them that the money was in the briefcase and therefore Troy must have stolen from him. Troy denies it, and tells them that their only option is to kill Dmitri, but they are not on board with this idea and refuse to back him up. Hector and his men show up to Dmitri's compound and begin a tense standoff with Dmitri's crew, as both sides have their weapons aimed at the other. Hector demands an explanation for the note left in the briefcase and Dmitri explains that Troy killed Hector's family after Hector's younger brother Manny Ramos had robbed Troy's crew for 2 kilograms of cocaine, and that he did it before giving Hector a chance to correct the situation. Hector angrily tells him to find out where he is and to bring Troy back to him alive, and that their drug deals are done until that happens. He also says he wants the cash for the 15 kilos that Dmitri owed him which Troy was supposed to be delivering in the briefcase. Hector's men leave and Dmitri immediately orders all of his crew to begin looking for Troy immediately. He also tells Angelo, one of his best associates and who was there with Dmitri as they counted out the money, to call Yuri, the man who gave Troy the briefcase, as he demands to know what happened to the money. Dmitri's men show up at Jessie's house looking for Troy, and catch her as she gets out of the shower. They assault her, Dmitri asks her to cooperate to make it easier on her, but she doesn't tell him where Troy is. He leaves, and one of Dmitri's men stay in the house to keep an eye on her, which leads to him making sexual advances and raping her. Troy comes home to find the man still thrusting into her, and he beats him savagely, then fatally shoots him. Troy takes Jessie away, and they hideout in a motel, where he phones Davey to come get her and take her somewhere safe and to look after her for him. Troy then slips into hiding for the next 18 months, dodging Dmitri's attempts at locating him. Flash forward back to the present day, sitting in the hotel room, Al's phone rings and he says it's Dmitri. Troy makes a smart remark, and Al decides he's had enough and gets up to leave, and Pete follows suit. Troy asks Pete to stick around, which angers Al, who then reiterates they both need to leave. Troy mocks Pete for Al acting like his boss instead of a partner. Al angrily heads toward the door, and Troy informs him that he should stay inside the room, as he might not like what's waiting for him on the outside. Thinking Troy has set them up, Al instructs Pete to check the fire escape and see if they're able to escape that way while Al checks the hallway. Troy utilizes this moment to retrieve the revolver Davey gave to him at the beginning of the film, and sneaks up on Al as Pete is still checking the fire escape, forcing Al to surrender and give up his pistol. Pete turns around to find Al being held at gunpoint, and Troy tells him to put his weapon down. Pete refuses, saying he's the one who needs to put the weapon down. Troy insults Pete saying he must have "grown some balls since I left" and steps away from Al, now pointing a gun at both of them. Troy then starts yelling at both of them, calling them backstabbers and accusing Al of telling Dmitri he is back in town and that he was going to send Dmitiri to his hotel room to kill him. Pete looks confused, and Troy is surprised that Pete doesn't know about Al's plan. Troy then taunts both of them, saying that if they want to bring Dmitri to the hotel room, then they should right now. Pete tries to reason with Troy and avoid calling Dmitri, but Troy immediately threatens to kill Al right now if he doesn't call Dmitri. Pete reluctantly dials him, and all of a sudden a cell phone begins ringing in Troy's shirt pocket. Both Pete and Al are shocked and realize that Troy already killed Dmitri. Troy makes Al look under the bed and retrieve a bowling bag, which has Dmitri's severed head in it. Al and Pete are horrified as they now know why the hotel room had the unpleasant stench they complained of earlier.
Hector's men storm the hotel, and upon reaching Troy's room, they are confronted by Davey and a fellow nightclub operator who helped Troy develop a plan to kill Dmitri. They begin a mexican standoff in the hotel's hallway, and similarly this happens in the room as Troy and Pete are still pointing guns at each other. Al's phone rings, and it is Yuri, who plays a message revealing Al called him to let him know Troy was in town, and Yuri responded by saying he'll let him know when he's on the way. Troy hears this message, and confirms Al betrayed him, and fires a round from his revolver directly in the back of Al's head, killing him instantly. Pete freaks out and desperately tries to reason with Troy. Yuri shows up to the hotel, and sees the standoff in the hallway on the hotel's surveillance cameras, and forces the front desk clerk to give him the key to the breaker box. He cuts off the power to the hotel, which results in everybody's guns beginning to fire, and gun barrel flashes are rapidly seen simultaneously going off for about 5 seconds non-stop. Yuri turns the power back on, and goes to investigate, finding everybody is dead, except Troy, who has escaped out the fire escape after fatally shooting Pete, but he also took a bullet in his lower abdomen. Yuri is then confronted by the hotel front desk clerk, now holding a shotgun, and kills Yuri. Troy drives away, wounded, but still alive.
It was produced by Alliance Group Entertainment. The movie was filmed throughout Los Angeles in early 2007 and is directed by first time director Geo Santini. During filming in Los Angeles, the LAPD mistook the actors' prop weapons for actual weapons, and placed actor Erik Palladino and members of the crew in handcuffs until the producers were able to resolve the situation. [1]
The film premiered on 25 July 2008 as part of the New York International Latino Film Festival presented by HBO and was part of the Boston Film Festival on 13 September 2008. Hotel California was an Official Selection on 16 September 2008 of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and the Kansas International Film Festival on 21 September 2008. The official theatrical release was on 23 March 2010 in the United States.
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