A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Sin Nombre tells the story of an Honduran girl Sayra, played by Paulina Gaitan, that tries to better her life without future by trying to go to her family in New Jersey. The route is not without danger, as she travels with the Mexican gang member Willy, played by Edgar Flores. It's confrontating to watch how those gang members have about no morals and their way of life, or survive, is just honoring the gang by killing and thieving. The gang members are been recruted at a very young age and from then on it's a spiral downwards. With their homemade guns, called chimbas, their very recognizable tattoos, you get an inside look on how those gang members live. It's absolutely not far from reality and that's what makes Sin Nombre good. A hard life but a good movie to watch.

Sin Nombre was a very eye opening film. The film immerses you in the Mexican gang culture through the story of a La Mara gang member named Willy, or Él Casper. If a viewer is unaware of what goes on in a gang, this movie definitely shows them. Él Casper recruits a young child named Benito, later named Smiley, into La Mara. Smiley's grandmother does not want Casper to take her grandson, but he does anyways. This definitely shows how much power the gangs have in Mexican culture. Smiley goes through many tough experiences to join the gang, including getting beaten for 13 seconds by the gang members and having to kill a member of the opposing Chavala gang. This was what really showed me the struggles that a child and family can go through due to the gangs. Another surprising part was at the end of the movie, when Smiley was ordered to kill Casper. He was ordered to kill Casper because during a train robbing mission, Casper killed the second leader of La Mara, named Lil' Mago. Casper was getting revenge because Lil' Mago tried to rape his girlfriend, Martha Marlen, and when she resisted, he killed her. If it was an American movie, Smiley would have not been able to kill Casper, and he would have gotten away, but instead Smiley shoots Casper after exclaiming, "Mara por vida." This means Mara for life, proving how quickly a small child's life changed after joining the gang. Overall, this movie showed how gangs can ruin the lives of Mexicans.

I'm not really a big movie watcher, but this film really pulled me in. I liked how I got to see the global issue of immigration from a different perspective. Normally I think of illegal immigrants as being the worst of people from other countries that have nothing better to do but beg for money. After seeing this film and understanding it, I really got to see the true struggle that some of these people go through and I now understand that they are just people trying to start a new life. I also really like how El Casper breaks apart from the gang and stands up against what was done wrong. One thing that really shocked me was how they accepted a 9-12 year old boy into their gang. I also found it surprising that he actually killed El Casper. If this were an American movie, Sayra's father wouldn't have died, El Casper wouldn't have died, and all of Sayra's family along wth El Casper would have successfully made it to the U.S. That is a big indicator that the film is not American. Also the fact that they are all speaking Spanish. One thing I didn't like was the amount of violence. For example the scene where they fed the guy's intestines to the dog or when the gang members absolutely riddle El Casper's body with bullets after he is already dead. Overall, I do recommend this film to anyone interested.

One thing that pulled my ratings down for this film is that the plot structure contains too many clichéd elements that don't seem to fit well with everything else. However, even with that taken into account, the movie did not disappoint too much fortunately, because its focus was on the smaller puzzles that make up the lives of the communities in question, rather than the lovey-dovey/gangster glorification/unneeded sense of insecurity/'bad boy' elements that are seen too much in movies nowadays.The director did present fruitful details resulting from extensive research of living with these subjects, whether on top of a train or in the midst of a cold inner empire of the gangsters. the REsult, A much more penetrative, underside view on the effects of poverty in a Latin community unseen in other movies, which typically lack the courage to be that direct. That is the beauty of this movie.