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

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I honestly thought it was a good flick -- worthy of 8-stars, but I'm giving the film 10-stars to counteract the tool who said he gave it 1-star because he thought the overall rating was too high. :)A powerful and realistic look into the gang culture within the Mexican American population. Very gritty and very disturbing, as a it should be.

I had trouble even giving this movie a 4. I'm really confused as to why everyone loves this movie. First of all, the poetry thing was terrible. It's a superficial attempt at giving the gangster protagonist an "artistic side". In this way, we're immediately supposed to love him and pray for his transformation. This type of thing should be developed in a plot and not just thrown in as a device. Having him reflect his life through rhymes doesn't give a character depth, it just reveals the intentions of the filmmaker. The rhymes stop once the subject becomes trickier, but that's where the real poetry should begin. There is a difference between simply manipulating the audience and revealing details to them over a period of time.Moreover, the film lacks creativity with known plot standards. Extremely brutal scenes with a protagonist we're supposed to sympathize with. In an apocalyptic finale, our Christ figure sacrifices himself for the good of future generations; future generations who rebuke him and commit the same sins. Thus, the endless cycle of violence ensues. It's the tale of every gangster film and I'm not saying the cookie-cutter is bad; I'm just begging for creativity when one approaches the cookies. Scorsese did it with style. He gave us the option to sit as outside viewers and judge our character for his actions. Jack Lamotta's poetry was terrible, but Scorcese knew that. Tarantino gave us strange dynamic characters and off the wall dialog.One can't just take a genre and reproduce it with Mexican characters and nothing more creative than Spanglish and expect the film to be a success. One can't even expect it to be a proper portrayal of Mexican-American crime culture. Human beings are more complex than this.That being said, gangster films are tough this day in age. I'm always slightly skeptical because the filmmaker has to be original, or it will be a flop like this film.

Few films have ever highlighted the struggles of gang life and perpetual cycle of bloodshed better than American Me. Ultimately the film focuses on a split in loyalty between the nuclear family and the criminal family and the tension between those two worlds. There is also a good deal of attention played to the inability to escape gang life, the very limited options of the gang members, and their narrow worldview.While there are may things to like about this film there are a few obnoxious flaws. While the plot and most of the performances are top notch, some of the dialog is redundant and much of the cinematography is unimaginative aside from a few memorable moments. The narration takes the form of simple rhymes which take away from the seriousness of the subject matter. Finally, there some odd editing decisions like cutting between the lovemaking of the main character and his girlfriend and a man being gang raped in prison, but otherwise the direction was stellar.My only real complaints about the film are the over use of the term "ese" which seems to be every other word and the score which is unfortunately stuck in the 1980's with cheesy softcore porn blues guitar. Otherwise there is very little to complain about.There are few if any gangster movies that better serve to highlight the endless cycle of death, drugs and betrayal of gang life better than American Me.

I remember when I first saw this movie. I was like 12 years old. I thought it was cool as h*ll ! I actually saw it again today. Its a very good movie. Sal Lopez does a very good job playing the Mexican crimelord in the Mexican maffia, "LaEme" I think that the film shows us all that there is hope. Even for the hopeless. In the end, Santana realises whats important in life.very good actors in the movie period. It may seem a little bit old even for a 90:es flick. Great movie. 8/10