If I were a middle schooler, I'd probably be okay being forced to watch this during my health class or something. As an actual movie you might want to watch for entertainment? It's a nope.
I mainly watched it because I live in the San Diego area and I like the Anza Borrego desert. I'll say the film did make me want to drive out there and go for a hike. I haven't been in awhile, and the cinematography was decent.
Everything else mostly stunk. It wasn't tense at all, the acting wasn't very good, the characters were poorly developed so you didn't really care about any of them, the plot was dumb, and the story was wrapped around the opening and closing "tragic facts" about fentanyl and other drugs. It was like someone said, "Hey, what if we take an infographic that warns about the drug problem in America, and try to write a screenplay from it?"
I'm not saying the message about drugs isn't important -- just that this film was a lousy (boring, poorly constructed and acted) vehicle for getting that message across.
And, they had to throw in two additional ridiculous messages: 1) Most people in the drug trade are really just decent folks who came into hard times and are trying to provide for their families and 2) No one in the San Diego area cares about Mexican-Americans.
Give me a break. Neither of these things is an accurate reflection of reality. I could rant a bit here, but I'll skip it because I AM a liberal and I don't want to appear like I'm one of those folks who wears a red cap. I'm just fed up with the messages, that are neither accurate nor helpful, that seem to be seeping into way too many films these days. There's a way to put and keep important messages in front of viewers without distorting the truth, and without resorting to cheap caricature-like portrayals.
Anyway, okay I guess I did rant a bit, but that's the end of it. Back to the movie itself: I'd say you could happily skip it and not miss out on a thing...
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