Miss Bala - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Miss Bala

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Miss Bala is actually the American remake of the Spanish language film of the same name, and very easily the weaker of the two by all the critical acclaim heaped upon the 2011 film, vs. the absolute abuse this remake has taken. Sadly I have never been able to see the 2011 Miss Bala, so all I can do is critique the 2019 film as it’s own film, and not as a comparative to it’s predecessor. The trailer and the cover made it seem like this was a full on female empowerment action film ala Columbiana, but instead is a weird hybrid of dramatic elements and action. Both of which seem to be at odds with each other throughout the film as the movie careens from one side of the spectrum to the other, bouncing from dramatic and poignant moments as our heroine struggles to escape her captors, only to turn her into a super hero action star the next, leading up to an ending that really cements the “super spy” element of the film into the movie goer’s mind. As such, it’s a disjointed movie that is certainly intriguing at times, but does everything with a “tick off all the check boxes from the action movie guide” motif. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.

Gloria Fuentes (Gina Rodriguez) is a Hispanic Hollywood make-up artist (who seems to be under appreciated in a scene that’s never really fleshed out) on her way to Tijuana to help her friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) prepare for the Miss Baja beauty pageant. While there she and Suzu get caught up in a gang war in the Millennium night club resulting with Suzu going missing. Desperate to find her friend, Gloria goes to the Mexican police only to realize too late that the police themselves are as corrupt as the criminals when said police man hands her over to the drug cartel that shot up the place. Captured and terrified, Gloria is manipulated by the cartel leader Lino (Ismael Cruz Cordova) into running money and guns across the border while dangling the carrot of “finding” Suzu for her.

As Gloria gets deeper and deeper into the gang she’s also turned into an unwilling mole as the DEA capture her and use her forced deeds while in the cartel against her so that they can get into and destroy the cartel from within. With both sides seemingly against her, and her back against the wall, Gloria does what she can to survive and find Suzu before it’s too late.

Miss Bala (at least the 2019 version) is a bit of a mishmashed film here. On one hand the trailer and the cover really wants to have you think that this is a non stop action film with a bad female heroine, but the brunt of the movie is more like a dramatic thriller. The powers that be really try to show how evil and corrupt both sides are, making the cartel out to be vicious killers (although they tease us with scene s where Lino is humanized and tries to Stockholm syndrome Gloria), and portraying the DEA as heartless feds who will gladly sacrifice their pawn as long as they get their end result. While the dramatic elements are there, the film really does try to push the action sequences as much as possible, and as a result the film feels rushed as the movie is more intent on getting to the next action scene than it is really fleshing out characters and sitautions.

There are some flickers of real storytelling underneath though, as we get some neat character moments between Gloria and Lino, as well as a strange symbiotic relationship they share. Gina Rodriguez does what she can with the script, but it’s so intent on bouncing her back and forth between scared victim and angry avenging angel that her attempts are serious emotion are hampered. Cordova is perfect as the duplicitous Lino, and while Anthony Mackie is billed in the film, he’s really only in it for a grand total of 5 minutes.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of gun violence, sexual and drug content, thematic material, and language




Video:

Outside of the fact that it was shot with Arri Alexa Mini digital cameras there’s not a whole lot of information about the master used for Miss Bala. Whether it is a 4K or a 2K digital intermediate matters very little for this release, as the Blu-ray release looks amazing (as is the case with most moderately budged Hollywood films these days). The colors really pop, with the dusty area of Tijuana accented by the bright red dress Gloria wears, or the bursts of green and blue from passing vehicles and the lovely Mexican landscape. Fine details range from good to really excellent, with crisp digital photography that leaves little to the imagination. You can see the creases around Gina Rodriguez’s eyes, as well as the little freckles and sweat droplets on her face, not to mention the blood splattered bodies. Backgrounds are appropriately detailed, and the blacks are super deep and inky. There’s some mild banding in a few of the night time shots and a speckle of digital noise here and there, but other than those few moments the 2.39:1 framed Blu-ray is more than excellent.







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is quite good as well, creating a rather immersive 5.1 mix that reverberates with the action sequences throughout the film. The vocals are always well balanced and the use of surrounds is superb as you can hear everything from the pulsating music at a club, to the random ambiance of the dusty Tijuana cities. The one thing that really stood out to me was that the bass wasn’t wildly overwhelming. In fact, it was almost underwhelming from my expectations. It hit and hit often, but the power and ferocity that I was expecting for some of the more aggressive action bits was just missing. Even the score feel like it was hitting a bit softer than it should, and while there was certainly a lot of bass, it wasn’t stretching my subs by any real means either. It’s a solid track, and it does everything else superbly, but that one little issue had me raising an eyebrow.






Extras:

• Eight Deleted Scenes & Extended Scenes
• Three Featurettes:
- "Gina: The Unstoppable Strength of a Woman"
- "The Bigger the Bang: Action on Set"
- "Making of Miss Bala"
• A Look into the Stunts and Costumes with Catherine Hardwicke
• Feature Commentary with Director Catherine Hardwicke, Executive Producer Jamie Marshall, and Associate Producer Shayda Frost

Final Score:
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I kind of liked Miss Bala, and it’s NOT a horrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I can certainly see why it got lambasted critically earlier this year. The movie is a hodge podge of “paint by the numbers action” and serious drama and can’t seem to figure out which of the two genres it really wants to be. The action is so stylized and “big, dumb, action moviesque” that the more dramatic elements seem at odds with the over the top action, and said over the top action only works to cheapen the actual dramatic scenes in the movie. It’s a fun enough time waster, but even with the great video and good audio on Sony’s Blu-ray, makes for a moderate rental only.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gina Rodriguez, Thomas Dekker, Vivian Chan, Cristina Rodlo, Damian Alcazar, Ricardo Abarca, Ismael Cruz Cordova
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Written by: Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA, French, Spanish, Portuguese DD 5.1, English, French DVS
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional), Thai
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 104 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 30th, 2019

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will see it once it is on amazon prime/netflix.

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. Same here N/P when available.