Wonderfully offbeat film!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Director like this would be nicer, who reminds us all that one of our best friends is not only our dogs, but our FFWDS's bottoms, oh my agnostic god! Like a reviewer already said looks like an essay of what not to do in a movie: crappy narration, awful -unpaid maybe?- acting, uneven camera work - i cant do better with a first generation V3-, evidently unintentional zero budget. If this is an outspoken voice of the oppressed, then id go right now and change my name for Hakan! Im like most people here Hispanic & offended, were not this stupid like they portrayed us there and I'm sure our "enemies" the gringos neither. Placido Domingo, Benicio del Toro they're not Mexican, so why they need 2 prove how smart they are telling us that there are 40 countries behind the south border, come on! If the Americans, or the orientals, or the Armenian disappears one day so suddenly it will affect us everyone, no doubt about it. Next time think harder, before doing this waste of people's money & time, hire real actors: Latins doing Latins, Americans idem. Those sketches to connect scenes, why god, why?! And they tried to repair all the damage they've done during 90', with that background music when all Mexicans reappear in the same stupid and brainless way they disappeared

As most people, I assume and hope, I try to rate movies on IMDb with my own established set of guidelines. In my case, technical excellence is not overlooked, but I tend to give a bigger weight to other aspects (such as the idea behind the movie as I see it, soundtrack picks, and cultural significance) than most people, I think. So while I admit much more effort took place for a movie like Star Wars, for instance, to be made; other cheaper and with less depth movies might get similar ratings - perhaps because the subject caught my attention, perhaps because I empathise with the filmmaker's premise, and so on.I am trying to justify my vote for "A Day Without a Mexican", because although I agree that the movie is far from being a masterpiece, I can't help but to feel like I enjoyed badly every minute of it. Not the best script or premise ever, not so thorough camera, art or sound directing, not the best acting or even the comedy, which failed to be hilarious more often than not.Nevertheless, this is a movie I'll hardly ever forget. Despite of all its shortcomings, it managed to get me emotional - but maybe it's just my time of the month.I picked this movie for watching expecting a light-headed comedy, and I was wrong. It does have some charming comedy on it, but the fact that so many characters - while depicted always mockingly - are quite similar to the bigoted minds around us, makes me sad. But sad in an optimistic kind of a way. After all, I believe ignorance is a finite resource.

The premise for this movie is actually very interesting. The title alone drew me to watch this movie. What the viewer is left with is cheap production, boring idiotic "jokes" and mundane repetition of news scenes with bad acting. Some of the actors seem like they were picked off the streets or from community college acting classes.The movie doesn't draw the viewer in, instead it psychologically irritates and alienates the viewer by butting unrelated scenes together (which one would think might have some overall meaning in the end, however this is not the case). Viewers are more so alienated by the constant fake news cast scenes. The movies banks all it's value on the fact that viewers will be able to relate to ignorant racist white Californians. Many scenes of this nature are played out to exhaustingly boring exaggeration.Don't waste your time on this movie as it has nothing to do with the reality of the Hispanic/white culture of California.

Sergio Arau is a Mexican artist whose main work has been done in the field of visual arts and in music, but in 1998 he along with his wife Yareli Arizmendi, wrote and directed a short comedy named "A Day Without a Mexican", a fake documentary chronicling the fictitious events that happened in California when suddenly all the Hispanic people disappeared without any reason. Their fake documentary was a satire about U.S. immigrant policy and the unfair treatment the Hispanic immigrants received. Their work was well received but the couple decided to take their message to the main audience by turning their short film into a feature length film.Like Arau's original short, the movie's premise is that for strange circumstances all the Hispanic immigrants (not only Mexicans) disappear of the state of California and the state is surrounded by a mysterious fog that isolates the people leaving them without the work that Hispanics usually do. The movie chronicles the events happening in that situation and showcases how important are the immigrants for the development of California.Writer Yareli Arizmendi plays Lila, a reporter hired for her Latin looks who later becomes the center of the attention as she becomes "the last Latin in California". John Getz plays Senator Steven Abercombie III, an anti-immigrant politician who becomes governor of California after the actual Governor disappears due to Hispanic heritage. Muse Watson is Louis McClaire, owner of a ranch who understands the importance of the immigrant's work but who has to deal with his overtly patriotic and racist son George (Bru Muller).These three main stories as well as other minor subplots get together to showcase different situations of the immigrants in California. Arau mixes "interviews with experts" giving opinions on the Hispanics disappearance and noticing the importance of their presence for the country. Using comedy as a medium to deliver his message, Arau's film delivers good laughs and flows smoothly most of the time, however, at times it is notorious that the project started as a short as there are scenes that seem to be shot only to reach the runtime of a feature length film.Being a music video director before, Arau can't help but to display the influences of his previous work, giving the movie a modern albeit a bit MTV-like look. Also, the movie has been severely criticized for its highly fictitious premise. While this criticism is valid in the sense that the unexplained disappearance and the comedic tone do diminish the importance of the subject matter, Arau makes his point clear despite the flawed conception of his plot.The acting is good on the main roles, but the apparently undeveloped script makes it look a bit forced at times. Arizmendi and Getz shine in their respective roles and without a doubt they are the driving force of the film. The rest of the cast is also good, but nothing spectacular. This in my opinion is due to the lack of details in the script that leaves some characters at a very shallow stereotypical level."A Day without a Mexican" may not be subtle in its approach, and probably it forces its message a bit too much, but still raises very important points and delivers its message without problems. The Arau couple had a brilliant idea and raised very good points, however, the film still feels as if it could had been better. Hopefully the couple will continue making films that will be better than this first attempt. 7/10. Interesting film.