"Border Town," (2009). Starring Mark Jay, Linda Kennedy, and Ricard Melendez. Director, Chris Allen Williams. This is one of those films that you have to warm up to. You know immediately that it's an independent film. The credits remind one of the fifties westerns television credits such as the ones which were sketches of Cheyenne and Lawman. The first scenes lead to a situation in a cafe on a desolate border town road. The acting is a bit campy and over the top. But subsequent scenes show a marked improvement in acting and direction. And immediately the viewer notices that Border Town has a graphic novel feel, similar to Sin City and Desperado. This film is very much a guy flick. Lovely Spanish ladies in the clutches of human traffickers, and her father is a one-man army out to rescue his daughter. A loose senorita with a heart of gold, wielding a shotgun, backs up the dad. Lots of guns, explosions, and a score with guitar music giving just the right flavor to the mix. The editing of the action scenes was excellent and exciting, fitting together well, but did not detract from the plot. The flashbacks had some layered, focusing technique that I thought worked really well. A gratuitous sex scene could have fit into this plot easily, but the writer, to his credit, chose not exploit the possibility, maintaining the integrity of the father in his quest to retrieve his daughter from the traffickers. Although the director used unknown actors and had a limited budget, I found this film entertaining and quite well done. I give it 8 of 10 stars.
Review of Border Town
