No Man's Land

"No Man's Land" sets up two families on either side of the border. I expected a lot from this movie as the cast seemed unbeatable. The plot and the main characters were also shaky. After the Greer family bump into illegal Mexicans on their property in the middle of the night, Jackson (Jake Allyn) tries to help but ends up shooting and killing Gustavo's (Jorge A. Jimenez) young son Fernando (Alessio Valentini) in the chaos.

When Jackson's father (Frank Grillo) tries taking the blame, Ramirez (George Lopez), a Texas Ranger, suspects the cover up. Jackson flees south into Mexico. On his journey to nowhere, Jackson starts to realize that his neighbours across the border are people too and he starts to develop a bond with Mexico (and a Mexican girl of course). This movie shows that the world is growing apart and racism and prejudgment are ample. The whole storyline is very predictable. Regarding the performances, the most captivating ones are from George Lopez, Jorge Jimenez and Jake Allyn. And always nice to see Frank Grillo in a movie. He never disappoints. Watchable but missing a kick and a twist.

The story is slow, but it is quite effective at portraying guilt of the main character. If the reason of why he feels so guilty, and why he goes to such length to seek peace, it would have been even better.

The bad: average acting performances. Well, to be honest, these were BELOW AVERAGE acting performances with NO actor's chemistry. This movie was intended to be a real drama and for me personally when I see a drama I really (REALLY) need credible, good acting performances. No actor's chemistry to be enjoyed though in this movie. What a bummer.

More bad: this movies' plot is predictable from the get go. Which makes it pretty boring to watch. The photography or soundtrack look and sound like a commercial; in other words CHEAP

Upon a first look it looked like an honest, real life drama, but what I finally got wasnt bad, but simply below average. Nothing worse then being below average, when making a drama.

I thought it was a beautiful tale of remorse and redemption. A young man kills a young boy accidently. He is driven to find the boy's father to ask forgiveness.

I had to review because it doesn't deserve less than a 6. It was a decent film that I wouldn't mind watching again and I'd recommend to my sons. The story was moving, I didn't find it boring or slow like most of the popular reviews. The land, the people, Jackson, and Sundance (gorgeous paint horse) kept me invested. The only drawbacks were a couple a couple trope-y characters. I think it was a well rounded story and worthy of telling.