Spiked

When I was a kid, stations in my country aired great 2-part British movies. This one is just as good as those, except there's no second half. Seriously WTF?

This is a local story, a feud between local police and a newspaper, the police v.s imigrant workers , legal as well as illegal, a film about a marriage on fire with alligations that the spouce thalium poisoning the husband eg the newspaper owner, and its a story about police corruption and judicial injustice, and comeradery within the ranks of the local police force, where alledgedly officers are organizing illegal immigration, etc and a lot of other large and small affairs . Its supposedly a true story about the newspaper owner. And publisher Joseph Soldwedel. Well it might be a film that will engage people that lives around and next to the usa/mexican border wall, its a film that easily could have been a 6-hour netflix or hbo documentary series, but at a pace as used in this film its like a seed falling on barren ground and the story and plot bears signs of of this, trying to tell too many in one turn , and where the end stops out in nowhere. As a film product it covers the basics, acting is semi professional, all made on a relatively low budget, that makes it suffer like the major drought of the southwest. So the grumpy old man will come to tucson with a tuxon if invited to the premiere party.

While based on a true story, one that wasn't told from an overly-liberal viewpoint, there were too many aspects that failed. First, Deirdre Lovejoy overacted her part as police chief Collins. Just not a good fit. As a matter of fact, overall there weren't many "strong" acting performances. Secondly, it was clear a mile away that Officer "Ricky" (Lovensky Jean-Baptiste) would be the one to crack the story. That made the rest of the entirely predictable. Lastly, the movie ended with too much hanging in the balance - you didn't see chief Collins brought to justice, the corruption wasn't rooted out and Wilson (Adian Quinn) never reconnects with his daughter. All in all, it just wasn't satisfying. Too bad, there certainly was potential.