Salvando al Soldado Pérez

"Saving Private Perez" is not only the funniest film of the year, but it also features the best ensemble cast. "Saving Private Perez" gets some of Mexico's finest to act. I can best describe this film as Seven Samurai directed by Stephen Chow. It's a story of these seven Mexicans trying to rescue a drug lord's brother. It was insane and funny, but it isn't a parody of American war films it's a parody of drug dealers in Mexico and action films. In fact if it wasn't for the last frame of this film....This could be my favorite film of the year. Coming into the theater I could tell that they thought no one would want to watch this film there was trash all over the floor and the projector wasn't even in. Finally they realized "oh crap there is a crowd here. We better start this soon." I was worried, but this turned out to be the best "movie experience" for me all year. I went into a theater full of Mexicans all ready to laugh. When the first scene happens with these little kids playing with a sling shot you hear a guy a row behind us say "all hard" and I bursted out in laughs. This film does have its touching moments though. The film jumps around from the past to the present so you could see the protagonist's past. You see his life wasn't the easiest. He had to sell drugs in order to get by for his family after his father's death. Saving Private Perez gets all the style points for me as well. It had the best clothes as well as the best music. TOMATOES! (9.0/10)

I truly love this film, is so funny and also so exciting, something that most of Mexican movies today seem to have forgotten. Is also a powerful story about family, I don't think is about to sanctified criminals, is about bad people doing a good thing in the middle of a terrible war and a crazy world. Antiheroes are here to stay in movies, since the beginning of cinema. And the antiheroes of "Salvando al soldado Pérez" are well presented, displayed and put into action and a weird but very enjoyable trip. I hope Mexican cinema learns from this movie to think about what cinema-goers expect from a movie: to have a very good time!!!!! By the way, I loved the references to Sergio Leone's movies and all the cinephile paraphernalia, including "Scarface", "Star Wars", you name it!!!!

When I thought there were enough "narco" (drug dealers) movies, I saw the trailer of this movie... I believed there was something special in this movie, and, though I was wrong, anyway I had a funny time. This film deals with the typical Mexican stereotypes: drug trafficking, immigration,family values​​, etc. All in all,this film is a set of different hilarious gags, gags that perhaps a foreigner couldn't understand. The performances were pretty good, specially Miguel Rodarte (as Julián Pérez, the typical Mexican drug dealer), Jesus Ochoa (as Chema) and Gerardo Taracena (as Carmelo,a tomato farmer). As I said, this movie features numerous gags of physical humor, puns, and stereotypical characters. It is not a smart movie. It is not a movie with a message. It's only a funny movie for people who just wanna have a laugh. Anyway, this is one of the best Mexican films I've seen in recent years.

Before "Saving Private Perez" started, six indistinguishable action film previews reminded me of the repetition that comes with American action films, threaded with a slim MacGuffins. There were also two comedy trailers that had weird premises, and an outlandish over-the-top trailer for "Anonymous," a scary Tim Burtonesqe intensity/darkness and whopping Foley.

Happily "Saving Private Perez" is over-the-top and outlandish,but in a snarky, straight-forward, perhaps satirical, literal way. If this seems contradictory, it is because this film is having it all ways. And that is its pleasure. It is not a mockery, but a tongue in cheek presentation of a Mexican drug lord's quest to save his USA Marine brother held hostage in Iraq (which is somewhere near Saudia Arabia and Holland). His estranged mother had asked drug lord to bring the brother home (alive). Occasionally funny, the film follows this quest seriously.

The drug lord recruits a "Dirty Cinco" and they fly to Turkey and camel into Iraq. Much exaggerated, nothing is driven into the ground (but who can really exaggerate the American action film or one of our recent comedies?). Its exciting moments are balanced with laughs. "Saving Private Perez"'s ancestor is Phillipe DeBroccca's "That Man from Rio," which spoofed the Connery/Bond series, using exotic locations and validating French traits including stubbornness. "Perez" validates the Mexican character and travels as far.

Production values (2.35:1 aspect ratio)are unexpectedly good. Camera work includes appropriate long shots and scenes are staged for widescreen without excessive closeups. It's not a smooth film, but neither is "That Man From Rio"--you have to allow both their quirkiness and rough edges(cuts).

One pleasure of "Private Perez" is the sense of place, whether LA, a hacienda, rural Mexico, Istanbul or an Arabian desert. You enjoy the space which propels the action. Similar to Brazilia in "That Man from Rio" it intrigues without being a travelogue

I haven't seen a desert like this since "Lawrence of Arabia." It is beautiful desolation. At one point, the "heroes," climb out of an oil pipeline, cover themselves in desert dust and remind me of the mole men in "Superman Meets the Molemen." The film offers other references.

"Saving Private Perez" is an interlude from the dispirited manufactured films that clog our previews. With nonchalance, a joke ever so often, an action sequence here and there, it refreshes us.

This movie is really surprising because it is filled with clichés to tell a totally original story. It is the story of a Mexican drug lord who takes 5 of the baddest guys he can find to go rescue his brother who is an American soldier missing in Iraq, believed to have been captured by insurgents. It is filled with stereotypes about Mexicans and drug lords yet it is such a fresh story that none of that matters. In fact it adds a lot of tongue in cheek humor to the story because it plays the story off the stereotypes. There is humanity, redemption and a lot humor in this movie and is definitely worth seeing. It is mostly in Spanish with subtitles.