WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!! DUH ;D Still, I'd hate to get banned for not warning you. ;DA rating of 1 on this site is "awful", or so it says! I'd only add one word to that in order for it to be completely fitting. The movie was _god_ awful. Surprising, too, considering some of the cast!At first, I thought maybe it only struggled with direction (it was as if the directors were trying to say, "People, in general, lack total self-awareness,") but now I think it's just that the directors lacked the mental-fortitude!Not five minutes into the movie you've got the main character buying a gift for someone who is neither 8 years old, NOR A BOY! Instead of apologizing and saying something appropriate, the guy sarcastically offers to buy (the clearly 14-15 yr old GIRL) CONDOMS. Yeesh!This is prefaced with a prior interaction where there was a cashier so clearly uninterested in her job (CASHING what's his nuts out) that she appeared as if she didn't even know there WAS such an invention! So disillusioned with her job, was she, that she seemed like she was giving the camera the slowest eye roll in human history! Then again, the dude who bought the toy car doesn't seem to know where he's at when he asks ghetto-toys'r'us GIFT WRAP IT! Yikes! I probably would have slow-eyerolled, too!Next up, there's the salsa dancing barber who is (FOR WHATEVER REASON) salsaing in the middle of the salon! It's never explained, never even touched upon, just spontaneous dance break!And all of this goodness within the first ten minutes. The lack of self-awareness is key, but after twenty minutes watching these patched together and just as quickly orphaned sequences, I can see why people have rated this one so low! Actually, I'm a little clueless why it's rating this HIGH!There are a billion and half other glaring issues as the "story" (and you'll use that word extremely flippantly, because at 105 minutes in (with just 20 to go) you'll really wonder where the story was!!). Obviously, it wasn't in the movie!Strangely, with 88 reviews, RT has this at a 93% audience approved. At least IMDb is a little closer to true North. ;P We know what's up! And this movie was a real turd. ;D

I think this was a decent movie.. I'm actually glad it wasn't full of mindless violence and sex scenes. It seems too many movies rely on that nowadays. His acting was first rate.. He came back a marine, torn about what he had done in the past.. It showed the viewer how one can get locked into their past. Yes it could have been more exciting, more gritty, but I thought it was quite view-able the way it was.

This is an excellent and entertaining drama/western; a powerful instant classic on its own right. Credibility and authenticity in a movie are the most important proofs of talent. Issler, Snyder and Almanraz, the writers/directors and the lead actor of the film, do have that special talent. They created a carefully designed, suspenseful story about revenge, forgiveness and redemption in the life of a returning US Marine and his community. It is resourceful and successfully avoids gimmicks, packed with well-motivated and surprising twists; it's a gem of creativity, full of fascinating and complex characters. Remarkable film by filmmakers to watch. (In Cinema Village (NY) and also available on Vimeo.com and YouTube.com to buy or rent everywhere.)

There was a lot I liked about this film. The connections between the people families, friends, and the functions in the region they live was done well. I had a very in-depth understanding of their culture and community. The character of Nelson played by victor Almanzar was also done at some length so we really have a good sense of who he is and what he stands for as the film progresses. He does a half decent job with this part, but the range of his character is really quite narrow so I can't truly attest to his ability.Elizabeth Rodriguez who plays his sister gives an exceptional performance and adds some serious dimension to all the sections in which she's featured. The rest of the cast is quite capable though besides Rodriguez I can't say there are any outstanding characters.It's a pretty straight forward story essentially about a 'showdown' and the events that preclude it. Nothing spectacular, and even a little bland in some aspects. The deprived neighbourhood was depicted very well, but there was an absence of authenticity about how the characters fit within that environment as well as discrepancy in character that individuals in such surroundings would exhibit. In my opinion the characters lacked the edginess and the harsh natured brutality that comes with life in such neighbourhoods.Nelson as a typical example, is an ex-drug dealer and gang member, but what we see here is a pensive man with serious concerns about his place in life, his family, friends, and honour, as well as pained disquieted feelings of remorse about killing someone. There is none of the course hard nature that such a life would betray, nor any real sense he was anyone of real questionable conscience. The film really centres on this inner conflict Nelson has without really filling in the enough else to keep us really fired up in interest.Even though there a period of peace and calm has cloaked the neighbourhood since Nelson's spell in the military, the prior gang members all seem to have suddenly reformed. None seem to have any dealings in any gang related activities, and besides a bit of 'hood talk' even seem to be like genuine gang members at all, reformed or otherwise. There was never any mention of guns, and even when knives are drawn on two separate occasions in the film, this is done by two of the female characters. We don't even see a gun till the final part of the film. I'm not an expert on gang activity or rough neighbourhoods; indeed, most of my knowledge on such matters comes from Hollywood, but I have seen 'Cops' and on the few occasions I met people from such backgrounds I was in no doubt about the validity of who they were and what they represented.That said, the film does stay true to the tone it sets from the outset, and even the conclusion, if lacking in my opinion, holds true to this tenet. I personally would liked this to have been a little more hard edged, a little more gritty... possibly some of that hot Latin Caribbean sauce to spice things up a bit, because as it is, it's a little lack-lustre.Nothing to write home about, but a decent film anyway.