All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A pretty good and disturbing look at the drug traffic 'culture' in Juarez, Mexico and the music that represents it, literally.Big time drug bosses pay these musicians to write theme-songs for them to enjoy for themselves and to send a message out to the police and rival gangs that you should not mess with them.If you don't speak the language the folk songs sounds like happy fiesta music perhaps about wooing a girl or something like that but the happy music has some rather disturbing lyrics about the life of various criminals.It is bizarre to see big crowds of people in their concerts singing joyfully about kidnapping and decapitating people, when you know that all these songs represents real people and real events.They also follow one police around who's trying to do the best job he can but is unable to because the criminals have more power than the police does.So yeah worth seeing.

This is quite an interesting documentary by Israeli filmmaker Shaul Schwarz who follows police and musicians connected with the sadistic and violent Mexican drug cartel. The film is called 'Narco Cultura' and is a scary, yet hilarious examination of the music that exploits the drug war in Mexico as well as the never ending pursuit of the drug lords by the Mexican police. I don't expect this making anybody's Top 10 documentary list, due to its repetitiveness, but should play well and might even make the rounds on VOD.If you are unfamiliar with narco corridos, they are known as drug ballads and were featured in the TV shows 'The Shield' and 'Breaking Bad'. A narco corrido is a song, primarily created by a Mexican band consisting of a waltz or polka type beat with accordions, a horn or two, and has brutal lyrics that talk about real life drug lords and the ongoing drug situation in Mexico. It's like gangsta-rap with a polka beat in Spanish, but more hardcore, as it usually features chopping up bodies, mass murders, and kidnapping. It basically glorifies the drug lords and their crimes.One of these musicians lives in L.A. and goes by Edgar Quintero, who has a band named Buknas de Culiacan. He tells us that he and the other rappers like himself scour websites for news on the violent drug cartels and their vicious murders for their inspiration and their songs. They even go so far as to meet with the drug lords and their henchmen to get stories to put in their songs, to which they are paid in drug money, and even weapons.Meanwhile, Richi Soto, is a crime scene investigator in Juarez, Mexico, the world's most violent city, who investigates the cartel's murders and kidnapping cases. He tells us how a lot of his colleagues have been assassinated by the cartel, and how he has to take sever precautions with his own life and his family, in order not to meet the same dire consequence for just performing his job. We even see very graphic photos and videos of the murders, which is horrifying to say the least.What is so sickening and sad, is that these so called musicians have a giant following, which is mainly the young Latino crowd, who revel in these lyrics and hold these drug lords and their crimes as if they were golden idols. Every concert is packed with a young crowd of Latinos who know every violent word, dance, and cheer these frightening songs. Even the musicians brandish weapons on stage, even a bazooka. Above, I mentioned this was a hilarious look at this situation, and I mean that these hardcore lyrics and stories are set to an accordion and plays out like a mariachi band. It just doesn't seem to mix well, especially when these bands play at club like venues with laser lights.If two things are evident in this documentary, they are that some of the law enforcement are just as corrupt as the criminals themselves and the musicians themselves wish they were a part of the drug cartel, but have made their money exploiting their hero's lives. One thing for sure is that I might be too scared to step inside Juarez. But what makes this documentary suffer, is the offbeat pace and unnatural flow to it. Not too mention, we see the same scene over and over, but with different people. This could have been better as an hour long HBO special, rather than the 104 minute doc it is.

"Everybody wants respect," Quintero. Maybe, but most normal humans have a vastly different definition of this word than the violent morons running loose in Mexico and those who attempt to immortalize them with lousy music.Yet another sad testament to the downfall of Mexico, at least great swaths of it under the control of the drug cartels in which the police are afraid to leave their posts and normal citizens barely have any chance at a life.Before anyone becomes too critical of Quintero, the knucklehead singer of narco-corridos, just think of all of the moronic middle class kids in America who listen to gansta rap and wear Scarface t-shirts. Then you have to keep in mind that many of the guns used in the horrific killings across our border came from the good old U.S. of A. With that said, this kid s particularly stupid and I wish that he could see first-hand just a bit of the violence he glorifies with his crappy music.Besides the damage done by the avalanche of homicides in recent years it would be impossible to calculate the destruction of the values of perhaps millions of Mexican men who have always been terrified of their own lack of masculinity, something almost absent in Spanish men where being a "tough guy" will get you absolutely nowhere.

"It smells of blood and death, and 50 meters from here, across the border, no one wants to know what happens, and they shut their eyes. I miss the Juarez where I grew up, where I played. Will it return again? What is the limit? Why go on? But at the same time, here I am, in my beloved Juarez." Another scary-wacky documentary along the lines of the "Act of Killing" from Indonesia. The truth is indeed stranger than fiction. 60,000 dead in Mexico since 2006. It is all taking place so near to the U.S., yet so far away from consciousness for many. Looking across the border recently from El Paso, I tried to imagine what it was like in Juarez. I did not imagine such insanity; palace style graveyards for dealers, broken systems for justice and law enforcement, the perverse glorification of the violence, the extremes people will go to in order to survive, . . .