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A Day Without A Mexican (2004)
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis: It seemed like just another day when the residents of California awoke from their peaceful slumber. The usual pink smog filled the air, creating a foggy haze over the mid-morning sunrise as the population rubbed their eyes, ready to face another...wait a minute, PINK smog? On further... It seemed like just another day when the residents of California awoke from their peaceful slumber. The usual pink smog filled the air, creating a foggy haze over the mid-morning sunrise as the population rubbed their eyes, ready to face another...wait a minute, PINK smog? On further inspection the residents discover, to their horror, that disaster has struck The Golden State overnight. The entire Latin-American population has been wiped out in one fell swoop, meaning that one third of the citizens have suddenly vanished! With the governor conspicuous by his absence, it's up to the redoubtable Senator Steven Abercrombie III (John Getz) to grapple with the problem. Unfortunately Abercrombie is widely known for his anti-immigration stance, and with California falling apart he hardly seems to be the right man to take charge of the situation! Hope comes in the unlikely figure of TV news reporter Lila Rodriguez (Yareli Arizmendi), a Hispanic who has somehow survived the mass exodus. But a demented military geneticist holds Rodriguez under lock and key where he tries to extract her DNA, believing he can create a vaccine to prevent other ethnic groups from vanishing. As the film builds to an eyebrow-raising conclusion, nothing can be taken for granted in this zany, off the wall comedy. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Yareli Arizmendi, John Getz, Maureen Flannigan
DVD Info
Release:
Sep 11, 2004
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Additional Release Material:
- Making of A Day Without A Mexican
- Commentary
- outtakes
- Theatrical Trailer
Reviews
'Tiene la honestidad de ser una divertida y, por momentos compleja, denuncia de los maltratos y desprecio a los que son sometidos nuestros compatriotas en el extranjero'
For the first hour director Arau ... and his co-writer and wife, actress Arizmendi, negotiate the story's tricky mix of comedy, social satire and science fiction with surprising aplomb.
As many times you consider A Day Without a Mexican a crude and underdeveloped parody, there are moments that it vindicates itself with on-the-money situations.
The movie in its extended version is frequently muddled, emotionally messy, a little heavy-handed and misses the real opportunity presented by the new format.
A cheap-looking, one-joke movie that can't get any laughs even in its first telling.
The tone is often that of a preachy after-school special, down to the instructional messages that regularly flash across the screen.
Arau has expanded his satirical short from 1998 into one joke that he solemnly beats to death for 100 minutes.
A promising premise without a successful follow-through...vacillates between preachy tract and bland comedy.
An ambitious, hit-and-miss social satire that doesn't score as many direct hits as it should. But it lands enough punches to get its point across.
Ultimately loses something in the translation from 28 minutes to 97.
The film suffers from low-budget-and-looks-it production values and some ridiculous aspects of the plot, even for a fantasy like this.
This Day not only lacks Mexicans but also good acting, sharp storytelling and humor.
In tripling the original length, the film's delightfully pointed mockumentary aspects are combined with a pallid chain of sketched-in characters reacting to events.
A film content to let some mild comedy carry its straightforward message rather than trying to say something more profound.
A terrific premise is mangled to a pulp, then beaten to death in this forced mockumentary.
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by: BlackDildo 9/29/05


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