Desierto (2016)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Chase movies can be a hit or miss genre - this one has exciting hit possibilities but misses on just about all the points it should score on. We know basically nothing about any of the characters - what drives them, where they are from, or quite why they do the things they do. The hapless runners are all Mexicans fleeing poverty - on their way to the USA via the 'back door' of the badlands (Donald's wall would actually have helped them!) and the Hunter...well, he's somehow just driving around the desert looking for people to murder. With him, he has his trusty dog - trained to hunt down and kill whatever his master sends him after - human or otherwise. Once the murderous chase is on you know exactly what's about to happen every bloodied step of the way.No subtleties here, just people led to the slaughter - and so it goes, repetitively and soullessly on and on. Some nice visuals, a promising opening and a curious music score can't add any more to the threadbare script. Only a famous movie-making father (Alfonso Cuaron) could fund this, his son Jonas Cuaron's minor attempt at fame - surprisingly, this was Mexico's entry as 'best' foreign language film at 89th Acadamy Awards (must have been a very light year indeed!) Lovers of mindless excitement won't be too disappointed - thinkers can expect to be.

why in tarnation would they name the dog tracker instead of tractor??? why in tarnation would they kill an innocent dog for this stupid indie home video? why in tarnation would why in tarnation why in why According to all known laws of aviation,there is no way a bee should be able to fly.Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.The bee, of course, flies anywaybecause bees don't care what humans think is impossible.Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black.

Desierto is a top notch thriller for a foreign language film that delivers on the intensity with a base pumping music score. From the director Jonas Cuaron (Alfonso Cuaron's son) is starting to take up the reigns in making a thriller film like how his father did to 2013's Gravity. Desierto is about Mexican immigrants crossing the border to start a new opportunity for a better life. Moises (Gael Garcia Bernal) is traveling with a group; he is looking to cross the border illegally to go home back to his son. As they travel across the desert terrain. They are all hunted by a sniper toting man named Sam (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). With Sam on their trail, as he snipes and hunts them down one by one. It is a matter of survival with Moises and another immigrant Adela (Alondra Hidalgo) who also is trying to seek a better life in America. The plot is basically straightforward and plays out as a survival adventure as these characters are trying to survive a vigilante. Besides the scorching hot heat, dehydration, and rough terrain. They have to avoid being caught by Sam and his hunting dog, Tracker. The film does have plenty of thrills, that put you on the edge. As these characters try to avoid being sniped. Or trying to stay ahead of the trail away from Sam. Cuaron does have a good use with their music composer score Woodkid. Which delivered on the score. Also, some good performances with Gael Garcia Bernal, and Alondra Hidalgo. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan was also good and menacing as an alcoholic vigilante. The film is fast paced with a thrilling chase of cat and mouse in a desert setting. Sure, characters do have that cliché of not making smart choices as in having opportunities to trip or push the bad guy off the cliff as he climbs up it. The film does struggle with weak flat characters in the script. Yes, a group of immigrants, which we only need to know about two of them. As you can tell, the rest will be picked off quickly. The two we do learn, the characters are written in a flat dimension that it was still difficult to care for them. Moises, we learn that he was accidentally deported back to Mexico, separated from his son that lives in the U.S. He made a promise that he would come back and holding on to his son's stuffed animal toy. Adela, we learn her parents wanted her to live in America to start a better life. We learn very briefly with these characters, and still have a little emotional feeling towards them. Otherwise, Desierto is an effectively good thriller film that has worthy performances; intense cat and mouse hunt chases, and a decent characterization. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The opening scene of "Desierto" is filmed in a quasi documentary style with a dozen illegal immigrants seeking to cross into the United States across the Mexican Border. But after the first scene, the drama lapses into a routine action film.After the truck breaks down in the desert, the immigrants begin to walk through the desert en route to their new life in America. But suddenly, a psychopathic killer and his efficient tracking dog begin to hunt down the defenseless people, knocking them off one by one.A man and a woman are the only two survivors, and the long final stretch of the film is the cat-and-mouse game played on the desert.While "Desierto" may have provided one of the most nefarious villains of recent memory, the film itself is not memorable at all. Rather than explore profound themes about the current issues of immigration, the filmmakers content themselves exclusively with a long chase sequence.By the end, we do not even learn the motivation of the psychopath. This film lacked depth, and the ending scene was especially inconclusive. A much better "desert" film is the silent classic "Greed" as directed by Erich von Stroheim. At least in that film, there was a great payoff in the final scene filmed in Death Valley.