mkczup The idea behind undocumented is truly terrifying. It would not surprise me to find that something similar to this goes on near the US border. However, as a film it is just a run-of-the-mill average torture-porn.This film won't win any awards for creativity, writing, or acting. But for those who just want to watch a gory flick that appeals to your sense of empathy it does deliver. The gore is believable and there are plenty of gut-wrenching emotional scenes.This isn't a thinking film. You won't come out of it scratching your head, ready to discuss its deeper implications. But it has more heart than your average slasher film.Avid horror fans will not be impressed, but it's not a bad flick for the average film-going Joe.

artpf OK, let's discuss the cinema verite.All mexicans are good, family oriented, extraordinarily poor innocent people who only want to come to America the land of opportunity.Of course, when you are on the wrong side of of the law, things tend to go haywire.In a very obtuse way, this film reminded me of Midnight Express -- you know the film where libby liberal Hollywood wanted us to feel sorry for a guy who wants to brings back tens of pounds of pot to sell in the states, gets caught and is thrown in a Turkish prison.From the get go there's no involvement in the main characters because they are breaking the law.And to this point, if these Mexicans are so poor, how can they dig up thousands of dollars to be transported over the border? For next to nothing, they can buy a used car and drive over the border legally and just never go back.It's ridiculous.Ohm and then there's the fact they don't even look Mexican and dress way too nicely and have way too designer hairdoos to be remotely poor.So in the first 10 minutes you just don't care about them and can't wait for the violence to ensue.Parenthetically, one has to wonder why the "american" vigilantes all have Mexican accents. Jeeze this film is dumb.One more thing -- when are you hack writers and directors going to stop putting in the signal less cellphone in the picture? It's been done in every movie like this. We get it.It's dumb.Let's be frank, this flick is nothing more than a pandering exploitation flick hoping to cash in on real problems the filmmakers are too dumb and vapid to understand.It's a bore fest.The hot chicks on vacation scenario is far more believable and entertaining. Go with that concept next time.

Mike Lovecraft 'Undocumented' follows a documentary crew who is attached to a group of Mexican immigrants who have paid enormous sums of money to a coyote (not the cat-snatching mongrel, rather a smuggler of people) to get into the United States. Illegally, in case you weren't getting the point. The irony is that legal entrance to the United States is cheaper and safer, if safety is part of the calculation - but that's politics, and a hard topic to rationally discuss in Texas, California, or Arizona.Incredibly the creators of 'Undocumented' use blood and abject terror to drive the discourse in a way that TV's Border Wars simply cannot. And no matter what side you sit on the political spectrum, you will think about the subject matter.The crew, the coyote, and the huddled and downtrodden Mexican subjects are high-jacked minutes after they cross the border. Since they are all in the back of a cargo truck, they all figure they're busted. What's unusual is that the Border Patrol doesn't normally take in the illegal aliens in the same transport carrying them. And they would probably not hear the coyote getting body-slammed and some stick-time just prior. They are all offloaded and corralled. The obviously American film crew are individually interrogated, blindfolded and bound, in an effectively disturbing series of cut shots.They've been captured by an ultra-radical anti-(illegal)-immigration group: a more ruthless, sickeningly twisted, and better organized version of Arizona's Minutemen. There's really no dancing around that comparison. And they've got a message for the film crew they want to share.The group's leader, "Z" says it best (though I gotta paraphrase it - I really didn't expect the movie to be quotable): "Whatever you think is going on here, this is worse." Straight talk, delivered in skull-cracking, blood-splashing, bone-splitting reality.The synopsis on Time Warner described it as a "blood-soaked psychological thriller." And it is. I'll forgo much more plot description because it really needs to be seen to be understood. It's a fairly straightforward narrative, packed with tension and allegory. To tell you, dear reader much more is to spoil the uncomfortable fun.The cast does exceptional and memorable work: Liz, the high-minded liberal producer (Alona Tal, of lots o' TV and voice-overs since 2003); her erstwhile boyfriend and the project's journo-opportunistic director, Travis (Scott Mechlowicz, of 'Eurotrip'); the Mexican émigré cousin, Alberto (the more-than-credible Yancey Arias) of one of the crew, Davie (Greg Serano, with a solid TV CV); and drug-using sound guy smart ass, Jim (Alias' Kevin Weisman).Even the narratively expendable characters turn negligible "raw meat" roles into loss. The tragic chorus of ill-fated illegal aliens are authentic and utterly haunting, as if director Chris Peckover actually captured and tortured them. (He didn't. Right?)The film treads the kind of suggested territory that franchise torture porn such as Hostel and Saw is awkwardly compelled to throw at the audience in explicit, anatomically-correct splatter. The argument that such franchises are simply satire is lost: 'Undocumented' is pure and sophisticated satire that teases the sensibilities of the viewer without abusing them into disaffection. You care. And stranger still, your perspective - your "side" - is apt to vacillate. It's a "hard" movie.I could go on and on: I can't stop thinking about this film. I was on the edge of my seat early on, and gripped until the very end. It's a brilliant effort that touches nerves you may not even know you have. The closing shot and speech, the first reveal of the masked radicals, the enigmatic "Z" and the breadth of the cabal is unforgettable - cinema gold.Oh, yeah, "Z" - played by an actor to whom most of the $1.4mm budget probably went, and well worth it - was the subject of a little game. We resisted looking him up until the end of the film. Neither I nor she won, but we both slapped our foreheads with a big old DUH.

robinlouise This movie reminded me of The Most Dangerous Game where a hunter grew bored with hunting animals and turned to hunting humans instead.This hunter lived alone on a remote island and relied on the surrounding hidden rocks for the shipwrecks that supplied his victims. And so with Undocumented. The humans in this movie, the undocumented immigrants, would never be missed or could never be tracked. I found the movie very hard to watch but it was an effective a warning of man's inhumanity to man as you could get. Do I think that this could really happen......yes! Peter Stormare was very convincing as the psychopathic leader, Z, and I thought the acting was strong all round with an especially fine performance by Scott Mechlowicz as the lead journalist. This film was tight, tense and unforgiving to the senses but it's a story that needed to be told to remind us all that we are all brothers and sisters no matter where we come from or what our circumstances. And yes, we all have a Z inside of us waiting for that spark. Proceed with caution.