'La Banda del Carro Rojo' is a solid Mexican crime-drama, filmed on location in Texas. Rodrigo y Lino Quintana(Mario Almado and Fernando Almado) play two brothers who live in poverty and they have debts piling up. After hooking up with two other guys looking for work(Pedro Infante Jr. and Jorge Patino), they work in the lucrative, yet dangerous field of drug traffiking. However, as La Banda del Carro Rojo("The Red Car Gang")reap the benefits of making money from illicit drugs, they also get more than they bargained for. Los Tigres del Norte, a famous band that are notorious for singing songs about drugs, make a guest appearance.
When I was five years old, my dad watched this Spanish language flick on TV. He didn't have any shame; he didn't tell me to go to my room or shut my eyes. I was "blown away" when the characters on screen starting blowing each other away! After watching dozens of violent movies, domestic and foreign, the violence in 'La Banda del Carro Rojo' was tolerable. My mom is the more moral prude in my family. The filmmakers borrow stuff from Sergio Leone, such as close-ups of people's eyes during stand offs. They also borrow canned music from a number of Hollywood movies. The last twenty minutes of this film has a fair share of bloodshed; the MPAA might slap an R-rating on this flick if they choose to pan it. Keep in mind that this is a Mexican film with a very UN-Hollywood feel. Aside from some hammy acting, the performances were quite solid. There's some broken English spoken in a number of scenes by Mexican actors. 'La Banda del Carro Rojo' is not for the kiddies or fundamentalists, but it should please viewers who like good crime flicks. The red car doing a "donut" in a field has been burned into my memory.
