Very disappointing...

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely Fantastic

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Herod's Law translates into "La Ley de Herodes" which is a proverb people say frequently in politics, meaning that you're forced to do something you don't want to, but you have to do it anyways for your own good. I came in expecting something simple and boring, but I was in for a fun Mexican movie about cynicism and politics.This movie presents mexicans as lazy people and having lived here for most of my life I've become a bit lazy too so I'm just going to copy/paste the IMDb synopsis: Mexico, 1949. The fable of a janitor turned Mayor on a little town lost in the Mexican desert, who gradually realizes how far his new acquainted power and corruption can get him.Similar to director Luis Estrada's previous work, "El Infierno", expect to see a satiric view on Mexican politics, its pretty hilarious. It's not only what I now recognize as one of the greatest, but also an important film in Mexico for how it helped Mexican people vote for the other political party (PAN) instead of PRI, members of which had all been presidents since 1929.Here's some other information about it I got off IMDb: The movie release was forbidden for several years. Since filming started, the Mexican government wasn't very happy about it; mainly because it showed a bad image of that administration. Filmmakers fought back. This reached the press so the movie had to be released to avoid rumors about political censorship and released it just before the 2000 presidential elections.I wish I had it seen it earlier, I now admire it as one of the best Mexican movies ever made. I think its on par with movies like "Casino", not only for its great dark comedy and cinematography, but for its story about people living for themselves and ending up losing it all. It might be hard to find, but I couldn't recommend this and Luis Estrada's more recent work "El Infierno" any more. The acting and cinematography are also amazing.I'd recommend it to anyone who liked "Goodfellas", "Y Tu Mama Tambien", "Capitalism: A Love Story", "The Big Lebowski", "The Hangover", "Office Space", and "Bad Lieutenant".

I am one of many Mexicans who got their eyes popped out when first saw in this movie things called by their actual name.The story takes place with real names (historical, including presidents), real political parties names, all familiar situations for those who were born on this side of the Rio Grande. The trick is that it happens some decades ago, but still remains sadly fresh. No-one gets away with it in this movie: catholic church, society, politics and some others you should find out. All this happens in a comedy, and the comedy is actually funny.It might be less significant for others, but still I recommend it if you are in the mood for this.

This film has a lot of good things: good photography; excellent actors; a good recreation of Mexico in that times (so I've heard); the low-saturated colors are also a pretty detail... Anyway, I think that this topic of corruption could lead to a much better film. I mean, the story could have been a much more real and deep scope on the topic. Actually, the film ends up with a situation where you can easily split things into "good" and "bad" characters "good" and "wrong" actions... However, the intention of the story was another, and it is very well driven. As a comedy, the film is excellent and refined. And also very funny, specially if you speak Spanish.

All the elements are here: bureaucracy, corruption, hypocrisy, ignorance, ambivalence, revolt, arrogance, machismo, and many more combine to make this film so realistic and satirical that it is hilarious.It is always amazing how often patronage and the perception of power combine to corrupt. 'Herod's Law' really is Latin America at its core. The setting and the veracity of the portrait couldn't be better. As true today as it was in the 1940's, Latin American politics revolve on a wheel of indifference to the norm, of corruption and an incestuous political bureaucracy bred to deceive and obscure. Then you have the periodic explosive reactions to too much tolerance of so little honesty.Brilliant montage of all the right elements.