Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

polaral I've seen this movie a few times and while it does have it's moments, it also has some really fundamental flaws. Overall I consider it mediocre at best.WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD...First of all I thought some of the prison scenes were a little on the far fetched side and really strained my credulity - specifically one where Pedro and company confront a rival black gang leader and his crew in the cell block for several minutes with hoots and jeers and toilet paper flying all around. I really can't believe that the prison guards wouldn't have intervened long before they did. And the idea that the Latino gang would dare to kill the Mafia crime bosses son was ridiculous.Secondly, as some other reviewers have commented, the overuse of the words "ese" and "homes". I'm not even a Latino and I found this stereotypical and contrived.The films was rather long and slow moving and could definitely benefited from editing.There were no really sympathetic characters and some of them were down-right repugnant. I didn't even particularly like Pedro's girlfriend, Yolanda. I can't empathize with someone who falls for a man who spent 18 years in the joint running a prison gang and is then surprised when he turns out to be a user and fake and not a social reformer. About the only person who seemed to have any honor at all was "El Japo" A movie needs to have someone you connect with and root for me to enjoy it.Lastly, there was no optimism at all to the ending. It seemed to say to me, "It's all hopeless and will never end". Rather depressing.Overall, a nice try, but fall short of the mark.

tmcclus "American Me" is arguably the most significant film not discussed in the same breath with crime epics such as "The Godfather." It was clearly made, both consciously and perhaps subconsciously to be the Mexican Godfather film and that is hardly a bad thing. Its honesty regarding the emotional costs of violence and murder are on par with that film. I don't know what to say to anyone who critiques Edward James Olmos. First, this actor's capacity to convey a complicated range of emotions without words is absolutely staggering and has been seen to great effect in many great films including "Blade Runner." Additionally, he is inarguably the premiere Latino / Chicano filmmaker and actor of all time. If you look at the films he has been involved with, think about how they have dominated the way Hispanic people, Mexicans in particular, have been seen by others who would, largely, not even know of the experiences of their neighbors. "American Me" is so unflinching that, after seeing it, I had to see it again to believe it was actually made by or released by a major studio. Once upon a time studio films featured honest portraits of life but rarely any more. "American Me" tho hardly the knee-slapping comedy some reviewer wanted or expected, conveys an honest sense of the life lived by many without the hope of education or prosperity but with the same need for respect and something bigger than themselves to believe in that you or anyone else has and lives their life by. If you want to see a life perhaps very different than yours depicted with uncommon honesty, watch this film.

bubbazanetti This almost qualifies as the "Goodfellas" of Mexican Mafia movies, although it lacks the humor and character development that make the violence wrought by Scorsese's goons somewhat palatable.Not for the weak of heart, this is one of the more daring works of early 90's American cinema. Violent, ugly and (allegedly) based on true events, the film yanks you into a world that lifelong residents of Los Angeles (like me) have never seen. The film starts with the L.A. zoot suit riots of the 1940's as a backdrop (Olmos portrayed "El Pachuco" in the stage and screen versions of "Zoot Suit"), and chronicles the rise and fall of Santana (Olmos) who, along with his boyhood "crime partners" (the always good William Forsythe and Pepe Serna), becomes the overlord of the Mexican prison mafia.From the get go, the viewer is yanked down to the violent streets of East Los Angeles, then it's on to Folsom State Prison for some of the most brutal prison sequences this side of "Runaway Train." This film has its critics - some lambaste the acting as second rate, and some view the dialog as corny (the poetic voice over by Olmos worked for me). Personally, I noticed none of this. I regard this as a very important film that deserves to be seen, now more than ever.Not quite Scorsese, but light years better (and more socially relevant) than the "Penitentiary" movies. Those who can stomach the brutality will be richly rewarded with a film experience not easily forgotten.

Peter Hayes Social history of the Mexican gang-banger set in East LA.What does "inspired by a true story" mean? Most things on TV and in the cinema are inspired by true stories or glued together true stories; or even what-if true stories. Films are either true (allowing for cinematic license and internal time constraints) or they are not!This does, indeed, tell lots of truths. But they were truths I already knew: Prison is hell. Rough ethnic neighbourhoods are run by gangsters. Drugs are the only way to live beyond hand-to-mouth when you have no education. The unseen ties that bind. I could go on a while, but I won't.But is "entertainment" the right way to explore this? Wouldn't documentary deliver more punches per minute? Is there not a danger of even making "the life" look a bit glamorous? Despite everything you can throw at the audience? I mean what have these people to lose - a life tossing burgers or working fields?I have a theory about gangs. They are what the whole world would be like without law and order, indeed they thrive where law and order is at its weakest. You won't break them because they make sense, they offer comradeship, leadership and employment. Sorry if I am making them sound a good thing - but they serve a purpose like hard drugs do. Acknowledge it or not. The film works hard not to glamorise crime and its shows the victims too (so better than the Godfather in that respect), but it is a film born in to bondage. People are on a track without crossroads or even slip-roads. "No hope" is written across their foreheads. They plod their path like lambs to the slaughter. To be the boss in the Mexican underworld you have to be vicious, you have to blackmail, rob, kill; and indeed risk being killed yourself. You have to sell your soul and become a cold robot without true human feelings.I thank the producers for showing me a piece of the world I will never visit, but what have I learned that is going to change my life? Most people that are in prison deserve to be there - they are there because they are criminals convicted by courts on evidence. How can I "feel for them"?While it stays away from siding with the guilty, this only results in it being cold and moody. It left me outside, when all good movies (of whatever intention) bring me inside the tent rather than a freezing outside.A brave try, Snr. Almos, and probably as good as you could do given the severe limits of the people under the microscope and the subject matter. You now know what most actors seek to learn: Yes you can direct, but you are actually only average at it.