If other Mexican tv-movies are this good, sign me up for a subscription. Directed by Chava Cartas (script by Bernardo Esquinca from Héctor de Mauleón’s magazine series), a story too amazing to be anything but true. Naturally well constructed, too. (Who’d believe it as a piece of fiction?) It opens as El Chapo, Mexico’s top-drug lord (Hector Kotsifakis) and top cartel second El Cholo (Juan Pablo Cruz García) wade to freedom thru one of his infamous escape tunnels. Moving thru the watery muck in their underwear, they emerge (weapons intact) then steal a car after tossing its middle-aged driver & passengers out. The incident, initially reported as a simple stolen vehicle, and the car quickly spotted by roadside Federal Policemen (Alfonso Herrera; Noé Hernández), patrol car partners just reassigned to night shift. Family man Herrera and near retirement loner Hernández strangers without a known history to have built trust on. And with bigtime drug money corruption so rampant, it’s naive to have trust between agencies; from one desk at headquarters to the next; let alone to the guy sharing the front seat of your police vehicle. Even more so with two of the most dangerous people in the world cuffed and wearing dirty underwear behind you. (No wonder some crucial info gets ‘slow walked’ thru the system, there's always someone on the take you've got to work around.) Overtaking that stolen car, the pair immediately know who they’ve got and what the stakes, bribes and odds of survival are. Plus, they’re running out of gas in unfriendly territory and a stop will surely expose the men in the back seat. Sure enough, word inevitably leaks thru mobile phone pics and a hostage drama quickly ramps up as cops & criminals race not only to the scene, but also to Herrera’s family home. All this honestly and cleanly handled without having to push the situation. Yes, massed military-style standoffs in the mix, but at heart this is a chamber piece. And all the more effective for it. (NOTE: Once again, for those on the Main Site who see our LABELS which don't show on e-phones, another Family Friendly listing, but definitely not kiddie fare, Think Junior High and up.)
DOUBLE-BILL: Instead of other drug cartel action/suspensers, go for a Western that works in similar fashion, 3:10 TO YUMA/’57, the Delmer Daves classic with Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, everyone at their peak. Not the over-egged 2007 remake.
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