I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Sick Product of a Sick System

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

In this sturdy "stranded couple" film, everyone is suspected of smuggling immigrants across the Mexican border. Practically everyone. Early in the film, a polite couple stops for fuel at a small Texas town, en-route to a job offer in California. The shady gas-station owner/operator, Dean, seizes an opportunity to take the couple's last few hundred dollars. It being that this is a border-town, and the couple are out of money, you might guess where the film goes from this point. Well, sort of. While not advertised as a period piece, the film seems to have a certain 70's mood. Not to complain, as it adds a certain flavor and zest, per se. I'm not familiar at all with Bill Sage as Dean, but he did his part, as did the rest of the cast. Eric Mabius apparently filmed this one concurrently with "The Crow: Salvation" and stars as Luke. His wife in the film, Marley Shelton, is in fine form as an actress (especially in a waitress uniform). There are a few head-scratching scenes, such as a scene where Web can't make up his mind whether he wants to use a .38 caliber or an automatic pistol, at a crucial point. But for the most part, the film is serious (almost too serious, as Dean is overtly slimy as the villain, to the point where he has no respect for infants whatsoever). As I mentioned, the performances are a strength, including R. Lee Ermey (star of Full Metal Jacket) as the long arm of the border-law. All in all, a worthwhile film, deserving of repeat views.

-May contain spoiler-I had one massive problem with this movie....This is as follows..He was paid $500 for the first people smuggle he did, then he told his wife he had to do the third run because he hadn't been paid yet.... Dude.. take that $500 and get out... And he didn't tell his wife they were pointing a gun at him telling him he had to do it, she wouldn't have thought of leaving then...Quite entertaining but very predictable.All in all not a bad mid day movie.6/10

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS - CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION I was completely stopped cold in my suspension of disbelief when Luke failed to tell Nickie that he was only making one last run because Dean had him at gunpoint. He goes through the entire scene where she's packing to leave him (because he broke his promise not to drive for Dean anymore) and he should have told her the two guys had guns on him. If he's desperate to keep her from leaving and he knows she thinks he's breaking his promise, then the OBVIOUS thing for him to have said was that he was being forced to at gunpoint. It was the elephant in the room. When he actually left the motel room without telling her this overwhelmingly obvious and important piece of information I lost interest.

The best performances are turned in by Ermey's Border Patrol officer and Elizabeth Pena's waitress, Connie. Cumulatively they have about ten minutes of screen time. This factoid can tell you a lot. The three leads do not radiate charisma. Luke is barely competent as an actor and he looks ordinary, but not in the appealing sense of the word. Nick, his wife, is an admittedly toothsome young blonde with a wide forehead and huge innocent blue eyes and a nice figure. A little gratuitous nudity might have helped. Dean, the chief villain, has a bit of Texas-type charm, teaching Nickie how to do the two-step, given to engaging chuckles, playing it relatively straight. He becomes violent only when provoked, or when, from his primitive point of view, some form of payback is called for.The script is the best part of the movie. Some of the lines are kind of interesting. Luke is stranded with Nickie and their baby in a small border town and, desperately broke, is invited to join Dean and his somewhat homoerotic partner in their sideline, which is smuggling mestizos into the states to work on farms. When Luke points out that Dean owns a garage (what a dump) and doesn't really need the money, and asks why he's doing it, Luke grins and replies, "Because I can." When Luke's cooperative impulses fail him at one point, Dean's sadistic buddy turns to him and says menacingly, "Luke, you better get your mind right." Dean chuckles but nobody explains the joke.It's mainly at the end that the script gets all loopy. The three gringos, Dean, the sidekick, and Luke are at the border prepared to meet the Mexican contingent. (Luke only at gunpoint.) They are interrupted by Ermey and his unit, who have been suspicious of Dean and his buddy all along. There is one of those tedious slow-motion shoot-outs, after which Dean and his fellow thug decide that Luke has turned them in to the law, and they decide to take revenge by visiting Nickie in her shabby motel room. It's not clear what they intend except that, whatever it turns out to be, it won't be to her benefit. Pursued at high speed by both Ermey and by Luke, the two no-goodniks race to the motel, and Dean very sensibly starts demanding of Nickie's infant, "Where the Goddam remote control for the TV? It's ALREADY on channel three?" He throws the TV through the room's plate glass window, an act I think we can all understand and whose motives we can sympathize with. Nickie grabs Dean's gun and her baby and exits the room. Thug number two fires at her (and misses) and she fires back (hitting him both times). She then runs away from the motel, rather than to the office, and -- are you following this? -- she runs into the desert and Dean, cackling as only a movie lunatic can do, follows her, and Ermy follows him and Luke follows Ermy and -- well, never mind.Aside from the other irritations, there is the photography. There is more use of color filters in this movie than in any movie since 1915. Scenes at night are ultra-violet. Daytime shots of the motel are siena. The interior of the crummy motel is chartreuse. Open day shots in the desert are a sulfurous yellow. I'll quit there because I can't remember any other of the tints in my box of Crayolos except "vermilion" and I didn't recognize any vermilion scenes. Oh, there's "burnt umber" too, but that doesn't fit either. It's clear that the cinematographer had a much better Crayola memory than I do. I wish they wouldn't do that, use color filters. Not as a matter of principle, because I thought their use was perfectly apt in a movie like "Traffic," where they help us distinguish Mexico from the United States. Here, the technique is just pointless.This could be worse. As I say, until the end, the story is rather engaging and is sprinkled with neat lines. But more could have been done if more talent and thought had been involved.