redrobin62-321-207311 First, the good: gunplay was spot on, set design was very good as the Pueblito looked gritty and foreboding, and the soundtrack was pleasant to the ear. Lots of action, too, albeit a bit over the top.The bad? It was filmed using digital video. Nice for commercials, bad for feature-length films. The digital sheen of video subtracts from the "feel" of the movie, making it seem sterile and amateurish.Mel Gibson was, well, Mel Gibson, just a little older. There's no mistaking he was Riggs from Lethal Weapon. Everything was intact - the wise cracks, the mannerisms, the ultra bravado, etc. That a top level businessman could be fooled into thinking a random phone call from Clint Eastwood could grant him an audience seems preposterous. In fact, quite a few things seemed preposterous. How convenient that Mel should not money retrieve the money he'd stolen, but also gain a wife and son in the process!This film really wants the audience to have a suspension of disbelief to enjoy the film. Maybe I would've liked it better if I was loaded up on Modelo's like half the characters in the flick.

Uriah43 This movie begins with a car chase on the American side of the Mexican border with the "driver" (Mel Gibson) doing his best to evade the police. In the back of the car is approximately $2 million in a bag and a badly wounded accomplice in serious need of medical attention. With his options running out he decides to take his chances with the Mexican police waiting on the other side of the border. However, to get there he has to somehow traverse a very thick wall that separates him from them. Needless to say, although he does indeed find a way over the wall, he is quickly apprehended by the Mexican police. They promptly seize the money for themselves and send him to a prison with the expectation of never seeing him again. What they don't count on is the amazing ability this "gringo" has to adapt to the situation. Neither do they quite realize the danger they have exposed themselves to by taking the money for themselves. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I thought that this was an enjoyable film which pretty much kept my attention from start to finish. I especially liked the manner in which the director (Adrian Grunberg) combined the drama with some action and suspense. In any case, I liked this particular movie and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Anssi Vartiainen Mel Gibson's career is definitely one of those that resemble a roller coaster more than anything else. From Mad Max, Lethal Weapon and Braveheart to being the laughingstock of the whole media, he hasn't really shined in recent years.Which means that this film is even more enjoyable because once more you get to see Gibson playing the badass we knew and came to love in the past. The movie opens with an American criminal (Gibson) in a getaway car, trying to elude the police by crossing the boundary into Mexico. The only problem is, he's carrying a lot of loot with him and the Mexican police goes dollar-sign-eyes faster than you can yell Speedy Gonzales. Thus they throw him behind bars.What I like the most about this film is the prison itself. El Pueblito is a beautiful place with a character and soul of its own. Kids can live with their incarcerated parents and go freely, you can buy Pepsi from a corner store, drugs are freely distributed in little shacks by a semi-professional medical practitioners and the whole place is almost like a really high-tech prison you could find in a first world country. The only difference being that those are this varied because the country is so developed. This prison is so varied and "open" because the place is so corrupt. Very cool place and an excellent place for an action thriller.Unfortunately the plot doesn't quite deliver. Gibson's character is very resourceful and interesting, plus the kid character (Kevin Hernandez) he interacts with is not half bad, but the rest of the cast, especially the villains, are pretty much cookie cutter and thus dull. I don't really care about their motivations, I don't care about their past and I don't care about what happens to them. I was much more interested in learning more about Gibson's character, but very little is revealed about him. The film makes some references, but you can tell that Gibson is just spinning the yarn.Nevertheless, I do like the film and it's definitely worth checking out if you want to see a good film from Gibson for a change. Not a masterpiece by any means, but a decent film on all accounts.

Johan Dondokambey The movie sure presents unique new things to learn especially about the supposedly corrupt Mexican prison and law enforcement system and also the street smarts someone's got to have if he/she wishes to survive in it. I really like how the production design helped so much in presenting the world needed to depict this story. It gets the world presented to be both colorful and very nastily dirty at the same time. The story got some curious thing sat first that could really incite interest. But as it develops, it surely seen that it only focuses on the driver character and the kid, without even explain enough on the characters like Frank and even Kaufman. This made this lot of the last one-third of this movie feel unconnected to the rest of the story built thus far. The acting overall is a so-so for me. Mel Gibson didn't hit it quite right to his character, which was portrayed on the border of being either a sanguine or a calm and calculated person. For me it's a long way from what I've seen from him in his more serious action roles like in The Patriot or even Braveheart. Kevin Hernandez and Dolores Heredia did enough to keep their characters afloat for the story.