Excellent but underrated film

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Blistering performances.

As Echo Park becomes a gentrified suburb, you'll see more and more movies reflecting the middle class hipster culture that's taking over the neighborhood. Mi Vida Loca is the best glimpse a lay person will ever get into the pre-gentrification Echo Park. This is Los Angeles, shortly after the Rodney King riots. Mousie (Seidy Lopez, "Resurrection Blvd") and Sad Girl (Angel Aviles, "Desperado"), two lifelong friends, and members of the Echo Parque Locas gang, each have a kid by the same guy, drug dealer and Echo Parque gang member Ernesto (Jacob Vargas, "Selena", "Road Dogz").A death in their tight knit circle changes everything, including many preexisting grudges. But a real wild card gets thrown into their hand when a homegirl, "Giggles" (Marlo Marron, "My Funny Valentine"), is released from prison, and tries to steer the homegirls away from the street life, and into a life in "COMPUUUUTERS!!!". Her very astute warning of what the future will be like, likely learned while reading in prison, falls on deaf ears, but her independent, entrepreneurial spirit does not, as she leads the homegirls through a plan to get the best out of a pickup truck in which the ownership thereof is in dispute, not only within the Echo Park gang, but also with a member of the rival River Valley gang, El Duran (Jesse Borrego, "Bound By Honor: Blood In Blood Out"). A correspondence between a beautiful yet reclusive younger sister of Sad Girl, La Blue Eyes (Magali Alvarado), who's "trip" is getting an education and avoiding the gang life, and a "torcedo" (guest of the California prison system), eventually puts La Blue Eyes front and center of the tragic climax of these intertwining stories.

i loved this movie. It shows the life and struggles of young Hispanics growing up in the hood. With this even if it is not acted out to the best of other actors abilities, these actors are real. They may not know how to act very well, but they are true to the character. It shows that no matter how you begin your life you always have a choice and depending on the choice you make it can change your life forever. From gangs to drugs and even guns this movie takes you in the life of some harsh realities. With the good the bad and the babies they do the best they can with what they have. Survival is everything. Similar movies to see are Blood In Blod Out Bond By Honor, American Me, and raising Victor Vargas. These movies also focus on the ups and downs of gangster life.

I'm a newcomer to USA, having been here for less than 2 years. But I live in LA and not too far from where Echo Park is. My first exposure to the gangs was through Los Angeles Times; but later when I started tutoring a kid, I started learning lots of things about the gang culture. (No, the kid does not belong to any gang. To make sure that he won't, his parents enrolled him in Taek Won Do, Tennis and many other such things). For example, earlier I never knew that seemingly innocent graffiti on the walls signify gang territory, or that a bandanna of a certain color, or even a pair of Nike shoes of a certain make implies on'es affiliation to a particular gang. Similarly, a shoe hanging from a telephone wire conveys a message...and that as a kid, this kid was offered gang membership in his school from some of his classmates.I watched Mi Vida Loca with interest because of such background information I have. And to me, as an outsider, the movie seems to depict reality. Now, though my opinion in this matter perhaps does not make much difference, testimonials/reviews from people, who were themselves involved with gangs earlier, make me feel that this movie does indeed depict reality of the mean streets.It's obvious that some of he actors are not professionals, but who cares! In addition to the main actors, Bertila Damas (Rachel)'s face is so dignified, and she carries herself with so much grace that one almost forgets that she's depicting an ex gang-banger.Similarly, Nelida Lopez (Whisper) looks really so fresh and innocent that she instantly wins hearts.In my opinion, irrespective of what critics say about the movie,the kind of emotions this movie seems to have generated from the ex gang-members (read their reviews here) proves that this movie has succeeded in doing what it perhaps intended to do: to open people's eyes towards the harsh reality of gang life. And I think, that alone proves the worth of this movie.

I'm a High school student in Chicago. The movie was okay, but it was nothing I would have spent my money on to go see.It was about gangs. There was a lot of violence in this movie.The main characters in this movie were Mona, Mousie, and Ernesto. Mona and Mousie were best friends they grew up together. Things fell apart when they both start sleeping with the same boy,Ernesto. They found out about each other, and their friendship fell apart. They wanted to kill each other. Ernesto got killed. This movie was nothing new I see this almost everyday gangs, killings, girls having babies by the same boy and always fighting.