Borderland (2007)

Wonderful Movie

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The sepia toned cinematography in this movie captures expertly the surrealistic, bizarre, and disturbing landscape familiar to anyone who has found themselves running for their lives across it as a hapless tourista. Unflinching truth and unrelenting power is a cinema triumph. Zev Berman directed this essential and enlightening drama from a brilliant script co-penned with Eric Poppen. What they have accomplished with this important film is to expose the unholy dangers Americans face south of the border. Pulling no punches and depicting the horrors in Mexico in graphic detail, this is nothing less than essential viewing for tourists, especially the young who believe they are immortal. This is not a horror film but more a docudrama based in reality and truth. For anyone who has lost a friend or loved one to the violent, carnal, and vicious devil worshipers, drug cartels, and corrupt police of our neighbor down south, the experience of this film will be quite moving indeed. An outstanding cast give superb performances and demonstrate the overwhelming evil of those who prey on vulnerable, innocent victims with impunity. A vital film that serves to awaken a complacent nation to the terrible risks inherent in any senseless southern journey.

'Compact' is the word I'd use to describe Borderland. It doesn't offer anything revolutionary which will blow your mind, but, if you're a fan of the genre, you should find it satisfying.It follows the (familiar) story of X good-looking young Americans, travelling to X and running into trouble in the form of X. Sometimes these packs of good-looking young Americans are girls, sometimes boys, other time a mixed group. Sometimes they travel to a remote town in America, sometimes a remote town in Europe. Once they get to where they're going, they run into trouble in the form of zombie/vampires/ghosts/rednecks/cannibals - choose your 'nasty.' In this instance, three lads travel to Mexico and get mixed up with... well, you'll have to watch it to find out.Like I say, the story is pretty generic. I've seen plenty of these sorts of movies (you can probably tell by my cynical tone), but this one is pretty reasonable. The protagonists aren't (completely) unlikeable, don't do (too many) stupid things and you can basically root for their plight.If you like this sort of film, give it a go. Trust me, there are many worse than this (and I've sat through almost every last one of them).

The first nine minutes, the first scene, followed by the opening credits, contain more true, gritty and believable horror than you can find in all of the Teenage Idiot slasher/gore/horror genre movies, save The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Like Massacre, its violence is uncompromising but, unlike Massacre, it lies on a bed of realism rather than silly, pre-adolescent wet-dreams of empowerment or the producers' simple-minded intent of soiling theater seats.From that first scene to the final confrontation, Borderland maintains its tone: edgy to the point of its Damocles sword threatening to fall at any moment. Which it does, literally, at the end.The three main, male, characters, all way older than yet-to-be college freshmen, are introduced as the usual narcissistic-stupid jerks with one exception - they're human; flesh and bone individuals. Petty, self-involved, unpleasant but real. And it's that sense of realism that raises Borderland to the status of 'serious' cine - a real movie, not just a splash of images designed to pick teenage pockets.The secondary characters are just as real, from the working girls on the street to the strippers in the bar to the primary villains and their henchmen. The extras are given little pieces of business that humanize and individualize them while the main characters, like those over-aged college males, come across as being unique, flesh and blood characters. So much so that even the over-agedness of those males dissipates and loses its potential as a flaw. In reality, Borderline's debt to slasher movies is slight, just those males going off to Mexico to raise hell. Once that allusion is made, Borderline turns the genre on its head in one short take - the virgin male talking and holding hands in the far focus with an under-age and very cute hooker. Already a Real Movie, that scene seals the deal and emphasizes that Borderline should be a film-school staple - as demonstrated by its use of a lot of Euro-cine techniques: extreme close-ups, dizzying angle shoots, strobe effects, rapid cuts, etc. - to effect; to helping drive the storyline. A storyline that is about as horrific as imaginable. Real fleshed-out characters being treated like the disposable teens of slasher movies.Cinematically, from character development (those three male are very much shocked out of their narcissism, made very much aware of their vulnerability) to pacing to framing to editing, all dedicated to telling the story, Borderland is virtually perfect. The only change I'd make is dropping the 'flyers' declaring that Borderline is based on a true story.The true story Borderline is based on is truly depraved but its villains were pathetic, damaged, spineless little critters deluding themselves into believing that they could fill the holes in their psyches by mimicking evil.Borderline is an exposition of true evil. It's to slasher films what Blood Simple is to revenge movies - both transcend, far transcend, the genres they spring from.Bottom line: if you're expecting a shock-fest adjust your expectations. Borderline is not about excuses for grabbing your date's boobs or sliding eager fingers under her skirt; it's a real movie that demands serious attention.Some reviewers have mentioned flaws, especially in the plot line. They may be there but you're going to have to dig deep to find them and even then it's a fuzzy call - like the status and motivation of the cop who survived the opening scene, and which fall more into the area of 'suspension of disbelief' than story-jarring, audience-yanking mistakes. One of Borderline's strengths is the seamless flow of its storyline, beginning to end.

Borderland was absolutely stunning to me and I really loved it. I was contemplating watching it due to the Average rating on IMDb but I decided to watch it on Netflix and it was a great choice. This movie is factual and is based on a true story about Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo which did make this more interesting than most horror movies I have seen. This movie isn't a typical horror movie that just kills people to kill but is a big part of the movie and makes perfect sense. Some might be disturbed by the opening scene but the rest of the movie is totally worth it. The intense scenes in this movie made me get antsy and I love the feeling of thrill and excitement in a movie and this had a lot of it. I will be watching this many more times in the future for sure. I give "Borderland" a 9 out of 10.~Joe