600 Miles (2016)

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Laid back approach to exciting drama that gets where it's going to very slowly and quietly. For the most part though the director keeps us distant from the characters and the action. Unfortunately this limits our involvement.

I saw this film at the Minneapolis St. Paul international film festival and I have to say even though it was tense, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a though-provoking film that makes you take a deeper look at gun control and tensions between the US and Mexico.I love Tim Roth, and think he does an excellent job in this slower paced drama. This is definitely not an action packed film, and the dramatic tension is led up to over the course of the film. Tim Roth's character does an excellent job bringing an understated but poignant performance.While I don't agree with some parts of the film, I found that it laid out the complexities of this issue in a very human way. This film is definitely packed with tension and emotion as we are taken through not just a journey of guns and drug cartels but of human character.

This is Mexico's submission for the 2016 Oscars, and it's a semi-kinetic B-movie with good acting but no story. A G-man (Tim Roth) on the trail of teenage gunrunners gets himself kidnapped by one of the Latino teens, who doesn't really know what to do with his likable victim. It all ends in violence although director Gabriel Ripstein adds an amusing coda to keep it light. With minimal character development and mostly unpleasant characters, 600 MILES acts like its plot twists are tremendous.... they are as diving behemoths with the equivalent crushing effect, rendering the movie quite boring. Further proof of bore city: Endless tight shots of people driving and standing, or just staring into space. A B movie masquerading as artistic vanity is a waste of effort. Ripstein, who also co- produced, edited among other things, could have gained more market value for his film by just doing it as a straightforward B-movie. At least then we could revel in expanded villain roles. The villains here are boring, too. Not Oscar worthy.

The son of Mexico's prominent filmmaker Arturo Ripstein, makes a debut like a few, with a big cinematic crime thriller that talks about humanity and it's advantages and disadvantages through the smallest workers of each band, the one of the crime (a Mexican drug cartel) and the one from the justice (ATF), showing that none of them are evil or good, they are just acting from their human behavior. There is not a big plot and a big twist, as it more focused on it's principle themes, the film shows an agent that get caught in a nasty situation when a young criminal he is following gets to apprehend him and the relation they create in a long travel the criminal has to do to show him to his boss. That's it, the interesting part is how the director takes this simple actions to go further, approaching the substance of his film with delicate affection. With a calm rhythm and performances well directed (Tim and Krystian develop and incredible chemistry), this film gets to the point it is looking for. The cinematography is clean, very natural. Maybe it is not for everyone and less the mainstream audience but it will keep them in their sits with a couple good but breve shootouts as it is no intention to look for an action flick position. Deep, meaningful and beautiful. One of the best films Mexico produced this year.