{"id":17702,"date":"2019-01-31T13:27:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T21:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=17702"},"modified":"2019-01-31T13:27:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T21:27:27","slug":"miss-bala-softens-its-storys-rough-edges-and-loses-its-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=17702","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;s Rough Edges and Loses Its Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/24_0004_C-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13282\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s probably not the best of signs when a critic begins a\nreview stating that sometimes the best of intentions can go wrong. <em>Miss Bala<\/em>\nis an attempt at a gritty crime thriller and boasts an unusual role for its star,\nbest known for her work on a comedy\/drama TV series. This tale is actually a\nremake of a well-regarded 2011 Mexican film about a beauty pageant contestant turned\nhardened criminal. But like most Hollywood redos, this\neffort softens out all the rough edges and adds a shiny gleam to proceedings. In\nthe process, it appears to have lost whatever might have made it distinctive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Miss-Bala-white-dress-cartel.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17704\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) is a sweet-natured, Los\nAngeles-based make-up artist who agrees to head south of the border and help\nchildhood friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) compete in the Miss Baja beauty contest.\nAfter going to a club in the hopes of impressing a judge, the two find\nthemselves in the middle of a violent shootout. Suzu disappears and Gloria\nfinds herself under the control of drug cartel boss Lino (Ismael Cruz C\u00f3rdova).\nHe forces her into acting as a mule, promising he will help her find her friend\nif she completes certain tasks for him. Also pressured by DEA agents to help\nthem take down Lino, Gloria struggles to find her pal and a way out of the\norganization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Miss-Bala-in-car-with-Tyrese.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17705\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodriguez is a likable\nheroine and one could easily see her as the lead in more films, but the script\nprovided doesn&#8217;t give her much to showcase. Gloria is more or less terrorized\nby Lino and gang members for a great deal of the running time. She spends most\nscenes placating them and waiting for the villains to turn away so she can give\na disturbed and disapproving expression. The cliches and one-note supporting\ncharacters pile high very quickly&#8230; the villain even has a henchman who is\nsuspicious that Gloria may be trying to undermine them. There&#8217;s nothning here\nviewers won&#8217;t have seen before, and as a result it gets old very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Miss-Bala-in-car-border-stop-1024x456.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17706\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another error in adapting this tale may have been changing the lead character and making her an American. Once she arrives in Mexico, Gloria encounters nothing but corrupt police men, criminal thugs and morally questionable DEA agents, along with gunfights and explosions. After seeing Gloria work as a make-up artist in LA, the consequences of this change are that it unintentionally ends up presenting Tijuana as a veritable hive filled with nothing but nefarious characters. One thinks the city&#8217;s tourism board will be less than impressed with this title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Miss-Bala-with-drug-cartel-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17707\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even the action\nleaves something to be desired. Confrontations are covered in a shakey,\nhand-help style and aren&#8217;t particularly dynamic or threatening. Those hoping\nfor Gloria to kick butt will also be disappointed and essentially left waiting\nuntil the climax. Of course, it&#8217;s an extraordinarily difficult task to create a\ngritty crime thriller while maintaining a PG-13 rating. Truthfully, the makers\nwould have been better off to either get uglier and embrace an R rating, or go\nfor an exaggerated tone and turn its star from a timid woman into an\nunstoppable force of nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Miss-Bala-red-dress-close-up-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17708\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a lot of\ntalent and effort visible here (along with a likable lead), but it just doesn&#8217;t\ncome together. In recent years, we&#8217;ve seen movies like <em>Sicario<\/em> tackle\nsimilar themes and really deliver chills as well as thought-provoking analysis\nof the situation. In comparison, <em>Miss Bala<\/em> plays like a B-movie, and one\nthat still ends up shying away from even delivering pulpy thrills. This flick\njust doesn&#8217;t make an impact.&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s probably not the best of signs when a critic begins a review stating that sometimes the best of intentions can go wrong. Miss Bala is an attempt at a gritty crime thriller and boasts an unusual role for its star, best known for her work on a comedy\/drama TV series. This tale is actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,697,4931,6251,6331,8327,9983,14048,14049,14050,14051,16846,22876],"class_list":["post-17702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-action","tag-cristina-rodlo","tag-drama","tag-druug-cartel","tag-gina-rodriguez","tag-ismael-cruz-cordova","tag-miss-bala","tag-miss-bala-film-review","tag-miss-bala-movie-review","tag-miss-bala-review","tag-remake","tag-tijuana"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}