Started out looking like a documentary, it might have been better if it hadn't already been covered in every other movie done of this genre. it was shot bad, acted bad, and all the angles seemed off, cinematography was meh at best, it was basically a encyclopedia explanation of American Me, which along with Blood In Blood Out and Training day I think did a better job of shocking me and showing the dark underworld and sunny skies of (East) Los Angeles. The violence was boring and pretty much copied every other movie seen in the past 30 yrs in it's genre including Casino, pfft! It was just not effective or shocking as it could or should have been. It's a dollar bin movie in my opinion, I would have liked this a tiny bit if I was 16 and had never seen a decently done movie yet.