'Blood In Blood Out', or 'Bound by Honor' as it is sometimes known, this is a solid film whatever the title, tracking the experiences of two Latino brothers and their cousin, each of whom go in diverse directions after a run-in with the police estranges them from each other. The film is very slow to warm up, only really taking off once the trio are arrested, but from then on there is a nary a dull moment to be had as the arrest influences one brother to become a policeman, the other to become an artist and the cousin to embrace jailbird life. Despite making very different life choices, fate eventually brings the paths of the trio together with each having to contend with having the same blood despite being on opposite sides of law and conventional living. If there is one thing to hold against the film, it is that it spends more than twice as much time on the cousin in jail as it does on the two brothers, but then again, his experiences in prison deliver all the highlights of the film. From attempted rapes to hidden messages to prison riots, the film depicts the jail experience of the 1970s in incredible depth with warring racial factions and unwritten codes of conduct that all abide by. The film is also blessed by one of Bill Conti's tersest music scores to date, a terrific supporting turn from Delroy Lindo and some remarkable artwork, including a full scale wall mural. Clocking in at close to three hours, this is not the lightest or breeziest film to get through, however, the ample length allows one to get under the characters' skins in a way that a shorter film could not have done half as well.

I have seen this movie way too many times, its a true cult classic. 3 hours of brilliant (and sometimes corny) mobstermania.Miklo is a great character, and the surrounding cast is equally great. The 90's vibe oozes out of every frame, and there are so many memorable scenes, its hard to name the best.Although its fair to say the prison parts are very amusing and might belong to the movie's best moments. its not the best movie ever made by far, but for fans of the genre its a very memorable and highly amusing movie i have watched countless times and enjoyed every time. Great characters, great atmosphere, hilarious scenes and a 3 hour journey through a pretty well written story.Cult classic, gotta watch it every 5 years.

Oh dear...what a mess.This film is so incompetently written that it could be used masterclass in how not to write anything at all. For a start it is repetitive beyond all belief: same riffs on blood ties, brothers, mothers, fathers and cousins etc etc etc ad nauseam throughout. Tedious to a degree that is extraordinary that it passed the producers.Secondly, the script has two pitches: loud and violent. That also makes it very boring. It is obvious how things will be shown in these two modes. A violent film can work on other levels but the writers are so inept that it escaped them to give this a few more tones.Thirdly, the story lacks precision as if it lacked a good editor. Therefore it has adopted the familiar course of amateurs, and that is to add everything in the story without giving it a balance and counter balance. There is no editorial overview of how to shape material within a reasonable time period. It is also very very long ..."Anna Karenina" is long, but that was by Tolstoy and he has some claim to be one of the greatest writers of all time.Fourthly, the actors: oh well, and the report card is depressing. Basically two modes of action. The leads are all generally terrible, especially Mr Chapa, whose performance might be compared to a guard dog with distemper. Such monotony should not be viewed in a feature film.As with anything that that exemplifies all that is detritus in film making, there are so many other things to mention but space precludes a fuller list of its faults. The music for instance, with its deliberate sentimental Spanish guitar style in the few quiet moments showed all the artistic intelligence of a fast food restaurant franchise.Almost anything on earth is better than wasting the time that is this dreadful waste of one's own too short life.

Dear fellow movie watchers, In the writing of this review I got a bit carried away, going over the 1000 words limit. Because my words contain the truth, I dared not delete any, and instead decided to host it elsewhere.Namely, here: http://the-written-truth.blogspot.com/I urge all those who are about to watch this movie with high expectations to read it, before they too plunge themselves in the dark depths I had to suffer.This also gives those who don't like reading, or perhaps don't like to see their poor taste in movies challenged a chance to skip this review. This review of truth.-Cheers