La hora final

La hora final is by far the most boring Latin American movie I have ever seen and, believe me, I´m Latin and I have seen hundreds of our movies. I hope you read this so you won´t lose your time on a political thriller that doesn´t say so much about politics and never thrills.

It is a decent movie; the plot is good and the performances are passable; sometimes it is boring; we are told a very interesting event in Peruvian history.

Surprising as it may sound to some, terrorism has existed for several centuries. It did not explode (pardon the pun) onto the scene just this century with 9/11. Communist inspired terrorism seriously afflicted many parts of Latin America. The scourge of narco-terrorism almost brought down many nation states, Colombia being the most prominent.

Peru struggled with Maoist inspired Shining Path guerrillas for a number of decades. The Last Hour film depicts the old fashioned pre-internet age 'War on Terror' as it was fought in one of terrorism's front lines.

The film grapples with the social issues facing emerging countries - especially indigenous communities in Latin America - which drive / drove many youngsters into the arms of leftist communist guerrillas. More than that, the Last Hour details the painstaking and old-fashioned detective work put in by an elite police investigating agency to capture the head of the Shining Path guerrillas.

In the course of the film viewers are shown the intrigues, power struggles, love tangles, family loyalties and inter-agency jealousies which hamper the real objectives of all state agencies.

To some, the film may be slow and boring. However, for those with an interest in global left wing guerrilla movements and good old fashioned police stories the movie deserves an '8' as it provides good insights into pre-9/11 terrorism and the state of many 1980s / 90s Latin American countries.

Political thrillers can be draining and this easily falls into this category. Presenting itself in an era and with protagonists that really had some issues to work out. Not an easy watch by a far stretch and more than likely something certain people will try to avoid. This is mean and it is gritty and dark to a degree that you may sometimes wonder if the level of realism was necessary (I would answer with yes and it depends on taste of course).

While on the hunt personal stories should take a back seat, but we are all humans, aren't we? And so our main characters may do things and act in a fashion they should probably not, but overall it's understandable. Read what it's about and if it sounds interesting, it will be believe me

The movie about catching BLD in comparison is just cheap B movie! Wow, wasn't expect too much when started, never saw any Peruvian movie before. But got great impression about other Spanish language movies, Mex, Arg, Spain, Brzl. They seem to have deeper understanding of the movie language itself. I don't speak the language and barely keep up with the subtitle. But the movie makers communicate so beautifully to you in the rich language of the movie that is so much more than just the loud words. Anyway, maybe it's just me. Definitely a 10! The best! Glad I caught this one. BWT, I do know about that part of the history more or less but don't have a horse in it one way or another. It's just a great story as told. Maybe some years later the other side may tell it differently, from the opposite direction perhaps. But it seems like this movie is from the normal human POV. How can you beat that? May all the sacrificed folks rest in peace!