Miss Bala

Miss Bala

Thanks to all of the vacant space in their heads, beauty pageant contestants make for the best border mules.

Regrettably, the cartel in this action movie made the mistake of selecting a make-up artist instead.

While visiting her pageant contestant friend down south, Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) witnesses a gang shooting. But when she goes to the authorities, they take her straight to the gang responsible. Now she must run guns and money across the US border or else they will kill her friend. Meanwhile, the DEA (Anthony Mackie) is also using Gloria to gather Intel on the gang.

Featuring some of the worst dialogue ever uttered, not to mention the most banal action even scenes recorded, this needlessly convoluted adaptation of the Mexican original is all over the place and nowhere all at once.

Besides, the best way to smuggle across the US border is to label shipments: Border Wall Material. Red Light

You can see every plot twist. Eye rolling at its best. Wait for Netflix - wish I had.

Gina Rodriguez and Ismael Cruz Cordova do well in their lead roles here and for the most part portray believable characters. However, many of the plot elements just came across to me as quite non-believable and the whole movie itself was not engaging enough to rise above a fair rating, as I see it. It does bring to the front though the issues of the debasement and trafficking of women.

I feel like I have written this review a million times. I'm sick and tired of people giving movies a 1 or 2 because it had weaknesses, 'wasn't as good as the iriginal' or they just didn't care for it. Try to at least be somewhat objective. This movie was entertaining, suspenseful, tense at times and had you torn as to which way you wanted the movie to end. And as a bonus, little or no gratuitous sex, violence and language!!

Unfortunately, Miss Bala 2019 do not surpass the original Miss Bala (Cannes Film Festival 2011). This remake lost realism and message from the original.