| “ | This is quite a tender moment, guys. I'm touched, but I'm a little pressed for time, so can we get on with this sh*t? Where's my money, Shame? | „ |
| ~ Ernesto Mendoza to Shame
|
Ernesto Mendoza is the main antagonist of the 1994 action comedy film A Low Down Dirty Shame. He is a drug kingpin who owns a drug cartel in Mexico and expanded his business in Los Angeles.
He was portrayed by Andrew Divoff, who also portrayed Richard Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Luis Cali in Toy Soldiers, Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, The Djinn in the first two Wishmaster films, Andre Bushido in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI Miami, first father in Criminal Minds, Nikolai Krukov in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, and Lev Kravchenko in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Biography[]
Background[]
In 1989, then Los Angeles Police Department Detective Andre Shame along with a team of detectives including Sonny Rothmiller infiltrated Mexico to apprehend Mendoza. Not only did Shame went to Mexico to arrest Mendoza but he was also looking for his then girlfriend Angela who was also dating Mendoza and was caught in the middle of a love triangle with the two men. Shame managed to track down Mendoza and shot and killed him during a shootout but the other detectives were killed leaving Shame and Rothmiller as the only survivors. Shame's former boss Captain Nunez attempted to fire him for botching the drug raid in Mexico but instead Shame quit the force in disgrace.
A Low Down Dirty Shame[]
Five years later in 1994, Mendoza was revealed to have survived his shooting and has laid low for a couple of years and resurfaced to run his drug empire. He has expanded his business to Los Angeles by having his chief lieutenant Luis run his operations. Shame who is now a private investigator and is running his own private investigating business is informed by Sonny Rothmiller, now a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, that Mendoza is still alive and hires him to find the only witness who would testify against him: Angela. She has escaped from the witness protection program in New York and is in Los Angeles. Shame at first refuses not wanting to worry about the events in Mexico but decides to take the case after seeing the chance to arrest the man who took everything from him.
At a restaurant, Shame finds Luis his former childhood acquaintance and his friends having dinner and tells him to give Mendoza a message: that he knows that he is alive and is coming for him. Shame then ends up in a fight with some henchman before engaging in a Mexican standoff with Luis and his friends before leaving. When Shame arrives home he is attacked with metal batons by two of Mendoza's henchman and warned by the now alive Mendoza to back away from the case before he gets killed.
Shame then tracks Angela to a posh hotel and calls Sonny. Unknown to Shame, Rothmiller is actually working for Mendoza having been his mole in the DEA. At Mendoza's mansion he orders Luis to bring him Angela and to kill Shame. Angela informs Shame that she has been in witness protection for the past six months and she would've testified against Mendoza a long time ago except someone tip him off and he got away just before the Justice Department moved in which forced her to flee after Mendoza found her location. Shame realizing that Rothmiller is a mole with Mendoza helps Angela escape from Luis and the rest of Mendoza's thugs. He then drops Angela off at his partner Peaches' apartment.
Back at his mansion, Mendoza is having a party when Sonny comes by angry with Mendoza for sending his henchman to the hotel to find Angela before he would. Mendoza claimed that Shame had started the mess by trying to take his business his life and his woman and that it is all about business to regain his $20,000,000 in drug money that Angela has stolen from him. He intends to kill both Shame and Angela in the process. Rothmiller goes on a rant until Mendoza uses his dagger to threaten him. Sonny says that things are getting out of hand and that Mendoza would let him take care of things from there on out. Mendoza agrees and tells Sonny to leave as he has a lot cleaning up to do but not before slitting one of his own henchman's throat for failing him.
When Shame kidnaps Luis and takes him to an abandoned building he demands Mendoza's location. Luis refuses and Shame causes him to stumble into a meeting of white supremacists'. While Luis is being chased by the mob he tells Shame that Mendoza owns a club in Hollywood and asks him to give him a ride. But instead Shame leaves him at their mercy where the supremacists' beat him.
Shame arrives at the nightclub and exchanges words with Mendoza before the two get into a Mexican standoff where Mendoza uses his date as a hostage. Wayman, Peaches roommate and Shame's acquaintance attempts to get his attention and Mendoza uses the distraction to shoot at Wayman and escape while Shame saves him.
Near an LAPD safehouse Mendoza is with Sonny in his limo saying that he thought he was going to take care of things and complaining about Shame almost killing him at the nightclub. Sonny says he is on top of everything before instructing the driver to pull over. He then gets out and goes to the abandoned apartment serving as the safehouse before busting through the door and shooting and killing the detectives who were assigned to guard Peaches. After chasing Peaches through the apartment and down the fire escape. Mendoza and Sonny decide to kidnap her to lure out Shame.
While Shame is making love to Angela at a motel, Mendoza calls him and informs him that he has Peaches and will exchange her for Angela and his drug money. The two agree to meet at the Palisades Mall which is owned by Mendoza himself. Shame agrees and tells him to bring Sonny along too.
At the Mall, Mendoza and Sonny along with Peaches and two of Mendoza's henchman meet Shame and Angela at the escalator. Sonny finally admits to Shame that during the raid in Mexico he killed the other detectives because they wouldn't take Mendoza's bribe without Shame. He left Shame alive to take the blame. Mendoza asks about his money and Shame says to exchange the girls first. Shame turns on the escalator and tells Peaches that he hopes she good as she said she is revealing that he has hidden a gun on the escalator. Mendoza tells Angela that before he kills her they are going to make love one last time. He soon discovers that instead of Angela it is a mannequin prompting a shootout to ensue. Shame kills one henchman and Peaches takes the gun and shoots the other henchman. After gunfire was exchanged, Peaches and Shame escape.
Sonny later finds Angela with the money in the parking garage and she attempts to seduce him by taking off her blouse and playing with her breasts. Sonny however says that he isn't turned on and attempts to kill her by raising his gun. She reacts quicker by unlatching her gun from her bra strap and shoots Sonny repeatedly until he falls down. She then finishes him off by shooting him in the head.
Mendoza then captures Peaches and calls out Shame who suddenly appears swinging on a rope and kicking him down. He then engages in a fist fight with Mendoza which ends with Shame back hand elbowing his back to knock him down. Shame then arrests Mendoza who says that he is gonna make bail, Shame asks how he is gonna do that as he got his money. As he is about to escort him out Mendoza is suddenly shot in the heart by Angela. After being shot he falls to the floor while handcuffed and says Angela's name before slumping over dead.
Angela reveals she killed Mendoza for attempting to take back the money she stole. She tries to kill Shame telling him she knows he won't allow her to keep the money. Peaches comes and fights off Angela and she is later arrested for her crimes.
Trivia[]
- Mendoza was thought to have been dead for a long time after Shame shot and killed him 5 years ago but he was revealed to have survived his shooting and changed his appearance after keeping a low profile. He not only resurfaced to run his drug ring but to also get revenge on Shame for bringing down his drug cartel.
- Mendoza dated Angela after she dumped Shame for him. While Shame tracked Mendoza in Mexico he attempted to search for Angela in order to get back together with her. Although later when he developed romantic feelings for Peaches he stopped caring about Angela. Mendoza himself wanted to kill Angela rather than continue to date her after he found out she stole $20,000,000 of his drug money.
- Andrew Divoff previously played a drug lord named Luis Cali in Toy Soldiers.