Boneyard

I gave this movie a shot but it just kept letting me down. It was unevenly paced, which made it draggy when it should have been building, and the action sequences seemed wholly out of place. Yes, Mel Gibson is in this, but there's very little of him in this picture. I have a lot of respect for actors, having spent most of my life around them, and I know they try to elevate the material they are given, but they are only as good as the writing and the directing they receive. And the script frankly stinks. The director never had much a vision about the film he wanted to make. And even though, this is set in Albuquerque, there is almost nothing that feels like New Mexico in this film. Most of the force is of Mexican descent, but there's hardly one cop in it who is brown. Even Ortega is cast white. Not a great picture.

I live in Albuquerque and have followed and researched this particular case pretty closely with all available evidence and theories from other researchers and people.

This movie is nothing more than a imaginary tale developed by a Hollywood up and coming that wants to debut his craft.

The beginning, or the discovery of the crime scene was legitimate. It was a woman walking her dog beside an up subdivision at which the dog uncovers a human bone(femur bone) and the dogs owner who was a nurse was able to identify it as human and alert the authorities.

The remains of 11 women and a fetus were discovered buried in shallow graves in a certain area of the west mesa area of Albuquerque NM.

Something that was left out that was pretty important to the case was how the review of satellite images of the particular area of the west mesa between the the year of 2004 to 2009 showed the appearance of tire tracks and what appeared to be graves on the very lot of land that these bodies were discovered at in 2009. The interesting part is how the tracks increased in length off the desert dirt road and the number of supposed graves grew from one set of satellite images to the next. That development was conveniently left out of the movie which is sad.

Furthermore the actual suspects in the case were completely different than those portrayed in the movie as well as the events and characters that led to the narrowing down to the final suspects.

So this movie is pretty much a Hollywood caricature of what really happened in the high desert New Mexico city of Albuquerque. And it's unfortunate because it is basically a fictional exploitation of the victims of the West Mesa Bone Collector and their demise.

Watching someone as notable as Mel Gibson be involved in such a mediocre film shows how the mighty have fallen. This movie has soap opera grade acting, local cable directing and camera angles, and low budget set/costume design. The premise of the film has a lot of potential but fell beyond flat.

I am a .50 cent fan, but the 10-20 min he's actually on screen is painful to say the least. You'll definitely need subtitles to understand a word he says, all his dialogue (most of the dialogue in the movie) and conversations come off as unnatural. You can tell that the actors/actresses memorized their lines in the parking lot the day of filming.

Save your money and Avoid this Tubi movie.

This could have been a really good film as the plot was based on a true story but unfortunately, it failed on account of the awful 50cent has-been mumbling through his lines as if he was drunk and the irritating Ortega with his horrible coarse and irritating voice. Acting was sub-standard, even Mel's acting (sorry Mel)... and casting the beautiful Kesia (Puerto Rican) as the sister of a white American just didn't stand true. The whole film seemed so empty and weak. Ignore the fake 10/10 reviews and me giving it a 3 is being kind. Maybe a 1 or 2. Anyways, if I were you, knowing what I know, I wouldn't waste my time with this!

I wanted to like this - I really did. Despite some of his actions outside of film, I'm a long-time fan of Mel Gibson. And "50 Cent" has made an admirable turn into acting. Several of the other actors are familiar from other shows. Basically, it's got a good cast.

But this film is NOT good.

It's confusing at times (several times I had to ask my wife "what was that scene about?" - she had no answer); it drags on at times (I was pausing it to wonder how much longer it had); and generally wanders a path that leaves the viewer going, "Whatever."

To make matters worse, it had potential! Again - the cast is good. These are people who can act - and the acting is fine. But it's brought down by the writing, the plot, and the directing.

I won't post spoilers, but I'll just say that when it ended I felt...empty. Devoid of emotion. Kind of like, "THAT is how it ends?"

I give it a VERY GENEROUS 4 out of 10.