* This post may contain spoiler alerts.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (6 Stars)
Plot: Gloria finds a power she never knew she had when she is drawn into a dangerous world of cross-border crime. Surviving will require all of her cunning, inventiveness, and strength. Based on the Spanish-language film.*
Have you ever seen a kick-ass trailer and thought "Dammmmmnnn, I want to see that movie!" That is what I thought about the trailer for this movie.
Quick sidebar: If you are a subscriber to this blog, you should know something about me. One of my dream jobs would be to work at one of the 5 production houses, that create pretty much all the movie trailers in Hollywood, because it is what pushes someone to see a movie. I LOVE movie trailers (just like I love tv commercials). So if you read "I knew I wanted to see this movie after watching the trailer" a lot, this is why. Now back to the good part 😉
Before I get to my review, we need to talk about some research I did in the theater before seeing the movie. Did you know that there was another Miss Bala made in 2011 that premiered at Cannes Film Festival? Did you also know that this movie was a remake of that movie? I did not. I found this out minutes before the movie began. On Rotten Tomatoes, the original Miss Bala has a critic score of 87% and an audience score of 63% while the remake (or one that I saw) has a critic score of 23% and an audience score of 66%. Very different scores for the same movie just a few years apart. I have not seen the original so I do not want to discuss it. My review will be only on the 2018 version. I just thought it was a fun little fact and wanted to bring it up.
Back to the review. This movie was such a thrill with a strong storyline that kept you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole movie. There were so many twists and turns throughout I wasn't sure which way was up and which way was down at times. I also found myself getting nervous for the main character, Gloria, during certain scenes. For example, there is this scene where Gloria creates a diversion to get a tracking chip out of her phone in another room so the dangerous gang members wouldn't know she is secretly working with the FBI. I heard myself in my head saying "Hurry up, hurry up, girl you need to get out of there" during that whole scene.
Let's talk about Gloria or Gina Rodriguez who is known for her role as Jane Villanueva in Jane the Virgin. She did a FANTASTIC job playing the dynamic role of Gloria. She started the movie frustrated with her work (which we can all relate to) to super confident to scared to determined to fearless to bad-ass back to confident. The range she had to do was incredible. Her supporting cast also did a great job and a lot of the actors I hadn't heard or seen before.
You might be wondering how the movie only got a 6 star in my book. The movie was very good however it was on par with a lot of other thrillers that have come out in the past. It probably doesn't help that Catherine Hardwicke's, Director trademark was all over the movie. She is also known for her directing in Thirteen, Twilight (the first one only), and Miss You Already. If you watch any of those movies, you can tell that is movie looks a lot like those movies. Don't get me wrong, I loved (and still do) Twilight but more for the story and less for the direction of the movie.
Did you see Miss Bala? Let me know in the comments below what you liked and disliked about the movie.
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