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1.0 out of 5 stars
Let the band play!, August 29, 2004
This review is from: Narcos y Perros: Drug Wars (DVD)
My knowledge of Spanish extends only as far as on-line translation programs take me. NARCOS Y PERROS translates to "narcotic officers and dogs." Assuming that "dogs" is a slang term for drug smugglers I suppose that's about right, although it's possible it has a more derogatory connotation that my prudish source doesn't recognize. They could have just as easily called it Barato y Estupido. Less edgy, I guess, but more accurately descriptive.
A drug lord sets up his friend and delivers him over to the Mexican equivalent of the Drug Enforcement Agency. The drug lord marries the man's wife, with whom he's been carrying on an affair, and raises the children as his own. The son grows up to become the brutal right hand man of the drug lord. Fifteen years pass. We know they pass not because anyone sprouts gray hair, or loses their hair, or gets paunchy, or in any way LOOK fifteen years older. A title insert tells us that fifteen years have passed and title inserts never lie about such things, although you really couldn't tell that by the scene where the drug lord oils down his slim and trim bikini-clad wife.
To say the acting is bad is to insult bad actors. Nobody is too convincing or seems to be breaking much of a sweat. Dramatic confrontations are loaded with significantly arched eyebrows and thrust out chins. It's a little difficult to say that for sure, though, because the sub-titles race along at a tidy clip and are studded with typos, which is distracting. For instance, "hypocrites" are "hipocrytes," and characters say things like "You are free to go or enter the United States however times you desire."
About the only highlight, if you can call it that, are the songs studded throughout NARCOS Y PERROS. There are four musical interludes here and they happen in the oddest places and they last about four minutes each. I didn't go into this movie much a fan of Mexican music and left less of one. The musical inserts do stop the movie in its tracks whenever they occur, so I guess you could say they're a positive element.
Get it if you must, but consider yourself strongly warned.
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