Miss Bala (DVD) – Movie Review
Follow Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 104 minutes

Miss Bala (DVD) – Movie Review

Site Score
7.3
Good: Acting, Strong female lead
Bad: A lot of predictable plot points
User Score
6.6
(5 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 6.6/10 (5 votes cast)

With movies such as Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, it’s becoming clear that female leading roles are becoming more and more common and popular. There is still a lot of controversies when it comes to female superheroes or action heroes in general. Well, in Miss Bala we once again get presented with a tough-as-nails leading lady who has a run-in with a Mexican drug cartel. As this movie never appeared on our radar before we got our hands on the physical release, we were quite curious to see how good this movie actually was.

We get to see how Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) visits one of her closest friends in Mexico. She is visiting Suzu (Cristina Rodlo), who is entering a beauty pageant. This alone is a cause for celebration and the girls decide to go to a club to dance and drink. Gloria finds herself going to the toilet, only to be surprised by a bunch of criminal intruders with weapons. She is given the chance to escape, but mere moments later guns are fired within the confines of the building and she gets separated from Suzu. When trying to find out what happened to Suzu, Gloria turns to the local law enforcement, but sadly they are in cahoots with the mafia that raided the club. It doesn’t take too long before Gloria gets dragged into doing odd jobs for the cartel, hopefully, to see Suzu again.

Gloria’s first job is a success, but due to this she is also on the DEA’s radar, and she gets arrested. The DEA wants her to prove her innocence, and she has to do so by placing a tracker inside the cartel’s leader’s burner phone. She reluctantly agrees as this seems to be her only option to actually get back home. Little did she know that this was only the start of her arduous journey.

The flow of Miss Bala is actually perfect for an action movie. You’ll get a bit of information at the beginning, but only mere moments after the movie starts you’ll already get a hefty dose of action. There’s a certain atmosphere of suspense from start to finish which graces the movie, the plot and also the acting performances. While there is no real depth to the characters of the movie, it still works and all fits together quite nicely.

It’s easy to say that the movie is actually pretty much a one-man (or woman in this case) show. You’ll see a lot of Gina Rodriguez in this movie as she balances between her activities for the local mafia and the DEA. This very strong lady is being supported by a very decent cast, ranging from the exquisite performance of Ismael Cruz Cordova and the now enormously popular Anthony Mackie. The cast is quite impressive, but as mentioned before, it’s all built on a solid foundation that was bricked by Rodriguez.

The special features on the DVD of Miss Bala are quite plentiful actually. You’ll find a lot of making of sequences, snippets about the guns used, parts about the action scenes and even a small featurette about the leading lady. It’s fun to see that a movie such as this has this many extras embedded on the disc. It’s certainly a plus when a publisher invests in extra content for their physical releases.

Conclusion

Miss Bala actually surprised us with a decent plot, proper acting and enticing action scenes. While the movie has its predictable plot points, there are a few nice scenes to persuade you to keep watching until the next predicament pops around the corner. If you’re into a decent action movie, with a strong woman in the lead, we can wholeheartedly suggest watching this title.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 6.6/10 (5 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
Miss Bala (DVD) - Movie Review, 6.6 out of 10 based on 5 ratings
Ibuki


Aspiring ninja.

No Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.