Viva o México!

I understood the point of this movie's satire perfectly. And if you come from a small remote town in Mexico, you REALLY understand it.

So I applaud this film's producers for attempting to bring light to Mexico's underlying social problems. However, this film is very flawed.

For starters, 3 hours and 11 minutes is WAY too long for a comedic satire. Even TWO hours might have been way too long. So that right there was the film's major undoing.

The plot itself strikes me as odd (and yes, I fully know it is satire). The entire extended family in the small mining town is basically dirt poor. But the deceased grandfather is secretly filthy rich with who knows how many millions in gold and property. And he decides to leave it all to the one person in the family who needs it the LEAST?? I get that this is satire and it is meant as a subtle jab as to how poorly the country of Mexico manages its riches in reality. I get that. It still doesn't make sense. But I get that.

The only way I can make sense of this movie is that the producers used this film as a subtle way to say F YOU!! To Mexico's ignorant and selfish ways. They are trying to tell you that Mexicans only look out for themselves and no one else. And that's why Mexico is the way it is now.

It is grossly exaggerated. But there is SOME truth to that. For far too long, Mexico has failed to properly invest in itself because so many of their nation's richest people know that everyone else is just itching to take their money away at every turn. So instead of investing in the future of their country, they hoard it all for themselves instead.

So if that's what this film's message is, then I think I understood that part. But I didn't need 3 hours and 11 minutes of bland comedy to understand it.

This is a 3+ hour "comedy". I don't have any idea how something like this could happen from a studio like Sony. There is no way to make a comedy funny and fun that is that long.

The worst part, is that most of that runtime could have been easily trimmed. The first hour is wasted in presenting characters and situations that have not much importance later on.

So, the story is very basic. A city man goes back to his childhood town for his grandfather's funeral and reading of his testament. In the will, his grandfather leaves all his valuable assets to him, to the chagrin of his very big family. This is the set up of the movie, this is where the story begins. This moments happens 1 hour 30 minutes into the movie (I know, because I was checking my watch constantly 30 minutes in).

The rest of the movie you have seen in countless others like Greedy (1994), where all relatives fight each other to get what they think is their fair share.

It could have been a fun silly comedy had it just focused on the funny bits, but it somehow gets lost in super long sequences and presenting dozens of characters that do nothing but just being presented.

A movie to avoid, for sure. But maybe we might eventually get the "Non Director's Cut", that puts this at 90 minutes, and maybe that would be a watchable funny movie.

Avoid watching this movie or you will suffer it twice: it's not just bad, it's long. Nothing more to say, avoid it like the plague.

It's a movie with jokes with no punchline, which leverages stereotype after stereotype to try (and fail) to make a half decent joke. The storyline Is repetivie with tons of divergent points that go nowhere and contribute nothing to the plot.

Characters are one dimensional, acting is passable at best, and many of them are just fluff that have tons of screen time but don't contribute to the storyline.

Camera shots and framing is boring, no nice landscapes and no interesting camera movements.

Each character in the movie is a symbol, an avatar of the many aspects of Mexico and it's people.

It feels like a dream, like a nightmare.

It uses cartoonish characters to make a point.

I don't think foreign audiences would be able to enjoy this movie as the language used and the symbols will be lost in translation.

Mexicans on the other hand will understand even tiny cameos of things and people in the movie.

This is not a subtle movie in any terms. Its very much in your face and it's better understood as satire.

I would like the director to make a movie about southeast Mexico, with actors from the area.

This is a Bollywood length movie, a French Farce done Mexican style. There are all the hallmarks of a farce i.e tons of overacting, dalliances that make no sense and the usual silly characters that are commonplace in satires. Unfortunately, this one is just not well done, and is far too long. There are much better satires produced in Mexico that poke fun at the class structure, rich vs poor etc. The "jokes" in this one are all done poorly, and lack sophistication or good writing. It's amazing that it was funded at all, even more amazing that it could be streamed on a premier site like Netflix!