Miss Bala

Gina Rodriguez seems a promising actress but the writing and most acting were just generic. There was a strong message about trafficking women, drug cartels, and a woman being used as a pawn by both the "good guys" and the "bad guys"...too bad it wasn't a stronger script. Being PG-13 made this "action" film much lighter with no s*x, strong language or over the top violence (an R film would have taken this in another direction) Anyway, this B movie was worth a lazy afternoon watch but don't expect too much In My Humble Opinion! 5.5 stars Sept 2019 (PS: the little boy is adorable!)

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

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.

The preview from Miss Bala suggested that the film was far more violent than it actually is. That isn't to say there are not some violent sequences, but the film is not per se a violence film as much as it is tense drama about an ordinary woman trying to survive under extraordinary circumstances. The acting is uniformly good and the Tijuana sequences are done very well.

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!!