This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This is the story of three border checkpoint guards who operate on a lonely highway in remote New Mexico, one without a wall or fence. Lou Hobbs (Clifton Collins Jr.) is the politically incorrect senior member of the three, sometimes called Mr. A--hole. Lance Flores (Gabriel Luna) speaks Spanish and is an expert tracker in the desert. He is training Benjamin Davis (Johnny Simmons) who is catching on fast. We see them at work and talking as we get character build up for 15 minutes when a car runs the check point and all hell breaks loose. The film has good characters with shifting trust and goals. Mexican undocumented/illegal (circle the term for your political leanings) immigrants are shown as either being very good people or outlaws. Michelle Rodriguez doesn't take her clothes off...in fact she wasn't even in the film. It was basically three guys in the desert looking for...trying not to get caught.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

So....just tell me, what's the purpose of making this pointless movie, huh? The whole story most of the time felt like a chicken whose head was chopped off but it didn't realize yet, so still running around in circle aimlessly until all the blood drained, then died finally. These two guys driving around in the wildness in Texas....for what? Looking here and there, then got ambushed finally as they would have expected, looking for the mailbox in the middle of nowhere for what? The cinematography is good, desert wildness looks beautiful but at the same time, very cruel and vicious. The screenplay writer(s) at first seemed to have something to tell, but then seemed totally lost and didn't know how to continue, so just shot the film without any direction. We didn't see any justice was ever served, Mexican drug cartel? Yeah, just some words in the meaningless dialog. The survived Border Patrol guy was rescued by some illegal immigrants, yet those good Mexicans were cuffed after the guy was rescued, so where's the justice? An incident report was crossed out line by line then brushed under the carpet, the survived guy even had a choice either to stay put or transferred to the north border....So tell me, what's the purpose of making this film? I finally found out that I was one the headless chickens blindly following these border patrol morons in the wildness. I've tried very hard to see if there's anything really worth seeing out of it, but in the end, just turned out NADA.

Good acting and beautiful scenery get overwhelmed by unbelievable story ...To list a few things that 'spoiled' this for me:1) If you have a 3 man border crossing, and bribe/blackmail only one guard, make sure it is the one who can override the other 2. Otherwise, your odds of getting things through are less than 1/3. Especially, when you choose the most junior guy.2) I thought of the adage, 'I could beat you up with one arm tied behind my back'. A man with a freshly broken arm, can not balance his weight while choking someone. Roll him off of you!3) If you know Drug Lords kill Border Guards (with pipe wrenches and pushing off cliffs). Why does the hero want to go to a drop-off? To arrest them? (better off with backup) Kill them? (better off with backup) Reason with them? (seems unlikely; more likely you will be killed and they will take the drugs)4) How do you expect to have a successful drop-off driving a Border Patrol truck while still in uniform? Why not drive the mules car?5) Once the hero knocks out the guy, why does he not call it in? His lack of radioing for help, leads to the death of his fellow officer. After not calling it in, how is the hero not, at least, kicked off the force?6) When the pick up guy tells you to head down a road, and a boy appears in the middle of that road, how do you not think it is a trap?7) Why throw the drugs out of the truck? You need the drugs for any hope of a resolution with Drug Lord. Why not go back and pick them up?8) If you believe the premise, that they drop the drugs off and everything will be OK. Once you get to the drop-off, and you are spotted, why continue? The pick up guy is going to phone in that 2 Border Patrol were at the drop-off. The charade is over. Tio is immediately going to order your family killed. He is not going to wait until they get in protective custody.9) Why not leave the drugs with the pick up guy?10) When you open fire with an automatic weapon on 3 guys ... the only one to die is the one with the bulletproof vest?11) That Border Patrol truck has GPS ... track it12) Who would want to be partners with the hero after this? You know he let his last partner bleed to death to 'maybe' (threats are not always carried out) protect someone else's family, and Tio is clearly going to want revenge for losing half is drugs.13) Throw the drugs in the river and a ferry will pick them up?!?! Maybe if they were bright orange ... but to cover an entire river would require a lot of boats and men walking on shore.Finally, if I am ever shot, I hope the people with me, continuously apply pressure to the wound (which I never saw them do; a tourniquet to the waist is a waist), and if I say, 'just let me die' ... they say, 'You will be OK' and call for help. Do not let the person with lack of oxygen to the brain, make the decisions.

Just had to say something about this movie. Rarely have I encountered a film, let alone the first major film of a director, where stark realism can project such meaningful and unexpected dialogue. This is the kind of film that some won't appreciate because, at times, scenes appear 'convoluted' or illogical. However, from beneath these seemingly illogical scenes arises a continuity that is as refreshing as it is unpredictable, and from seemingly illogical actions imparts a strong feeling of authenticity. This is the hallmark of realism, and Director/Producer/Writer Greg Kwedar understands this. When one of the Border Patrol Agents (BPA) first pulls his gun against his fellow agents you know something sinister is at work. But most scenes after this don't happen quite the way one would expect. BPA Flores thinks he can fix the situation but finds out he can't; BPA Hobbs thinks guilt rests entirely with BPA Davis (the agent who first pulled the gun) but as the plot unwinds we begin to understand that this isn't really the case; and Davis(?), well he realizes that he was 'cursed' all along.The unpredictable nature of circumstance is always at play and always rings true. The scene in the garage with the cartel employed 'bad guy' who doesn't turn out to be so bad, the way Hobbs dies, the illegal immigrants who choose to give up their freedom to help dying Flores, the scene in the Border Patrol office where everything gets swept under the carpet...none of these things were expected but they all add up to an experience that, along with everything else, yields a truly remarkable and authentically realistic film.