Review: 'Flamin' Hot' sweetly serves up dubious Cheetos origin story

Yet, for all of that, this directorial debut from actress Eva Longoria is a sweet-natured, occasionally charmingly funny though totally disposable take on this bit of junk-food history. At the heart of it, the facts don't matter as much as the never-give-up-on-your-dreams and importance-of-family lessons to be gleaned from the movie version of Richard's life as he climbs his way up from crime and poverty to flamin' hot, hot-shot executive.

Jesse Garcia makes for a very empathetic Richard whose life starts out at the bottom of the ladder as a farmworker. With an abusive father and no high-school diploma, his prospects are dim. Longoria, working from a script by Lewis Colick and Linda Yvette Chavez, kicks off the film with a bit of archival footage of Latino struggles against prejudice and police abuse in the '60s and '70s, setting up the background for Richard's early path.

He gets into selling street drugs until his girlfriend and then wife, Judy , pressures him to quit. Through a friend he lands a job at Frito-Lay as a janitor where his willingness to work hard and learn all about the manufacturing process impresses Clarence who seems to be the company's lone Black engineer. Clarence doesn't think Richard is crazy when he proposes giving Frito-Lay's products a spicy, Latin twist.

Longoria at times goes for the easy laugh as in the boardroom scenes, one involving the CEO of Pepsico , Roger Enrico , in which the tough gang language of Richard's youth is used as the soundtrack for their corporate conversations.

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