The many faces of… Michael Peña

Michael Pena

There are some actors who have had a solid career, but a lot of people really don’t know about. Jeffrey Wright or John Leguizamo immediately come to mind, but so does Michael Peña. Looking at some of the movies he’s been in alone says enough: Million Dollar Baby, Babel, The Lincoln Lawyer, Crash, End of Watch, American Hustle and Fury. He’s also part of the new Ant-Man movie. Preparing this post it is clear that he’s someone who might not be as well-known as he should be as I wasn’t able to find pictures for various movies he’s been in in the past.

He was born on Januar 13, 1976 in Chicago, Illinois. He started acting in 1994, but it wasn’t until ten years later when he gave his breakthrough performance in Million Dollar Baby and Crash. He currently has been in 72 productions. Continue reading

Fury (2014)

review Fury

War is hell and for Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (Brad Pitt), Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña) and Grady ‘Coon-Ass’ Travis (Jon Bernthal) that hell comes in the form of a tank they have named “Fury”. The group has been working together for a while, with Wardaddy taking the lead, and they have lived through many horrible situations. The American tanks are weak compared to the German ones and they have witnessed fellow crews finding their death. Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) has never fought before, has been trained to speed type and has never seen the inside of the tank. Still he is assigned to join these men on the Fury, who aren’t too happy with that. Norman quickly finds out what war is about as the American troups slowly move further into Germany. Continue reading

End of Watch (2012)

Review End of Watch

You only have to take one look at the writing and director credits on IMDB to see that David Ayer knows Los Angeles, the police department and the crime scene. He wrote screenplays for Dark Blue, Harsh Times and Training Day. He also has written this movie, following two LAPD officers (played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña) during their every day activities. This includes routine activities like chasing cars and investigating 911 calls. When they run into someone who is connected to a Mexican cartel their work becomes a lot more dangerous. Continue reading