Although this is my first review, I have watched a lot of movies. I normally am attracted to the anti-hero against the world kind of movie, which is what this movie portrayed itself to be. The actors and writers attracted me to this movie, knowing that most likely, that this high profile combination would put in a worthwhile performance. Which you really can't say they didn't. The reason for such a low rating then is, I just didn't get the point of the movie. A movie doesn't need a great plot to be entertaining or evoke emotions of some sort. And that is the problem in the end. I didn't feel any emotions that the film was trying to pry out of me. I didn't feel sad when the movie wanted me to, I didn't laugh when the movie wanted me to, I didn't feel angry or sympathetic to the characters when the movie wanted me to. Why do I keep saying "when the movie wanted me to" you might ask? Because you do feel these emotions through the movie... mainly because the script is so awful. Awful as in poorly written. The lingo was hard to pick up and go in the way of the characters emotions. I felt myself laughing at scenes when I was supposed to be feeling something else. I felt myself distancing from the movie and creating my own entertainment. The movie doesn't go anywhere. I don't think it's supposed to though. It was supposed to get you inside the head of a person confused as to who he is supposed to be. Trapped in two different worlds. The world he wants to be in, Mexico, filled with beautiful scenery, beautiful people and peaceful settings and the world he longs for, LA, full of violence and anger which deep down he feels he needs. Unfortunately we only get brief glimpses of this deep and meaningful inner turmoil of the main character as the movie feels the need to throw in sub plots that really don't add to this turmoil. Trying to combine it with other peoples turmoils - but only superficially. The side character probably has the most powerful scene!? I don't for the life of me understand why!? But he even has two of them! The movie may have salvaged itself if they didn't try to also make the main character, try to talk like a ghetto person one minute, and then a respectable, sensible person the very next. Even though this was trying to bring out the point of the film, the characters mixed emotions deep down of who he actually was. We find ourselves laughing at this comical person. I didn't want to laugh at him, but just couldn't help myself, which I think speaks volumes about the script of this movie. I didn't take this dark movie out to laugh at its contents, which were trying to be very real and were also very graphic. Maybe that speaks volumes about me, but I didn't watch this movie on my own, and I found myself looking around and seeing people feeling as I did.<br /><br />Very disappointing movie. Wasn't quite what it should have been. Should have spent more time on the main character, less time trying to build up the minor characters, and also should have taken a closer look at the dialog on this script. "Dude", "Dawg", "Homey" coming out of a person's mouth 3 or 4 times in a sentence every sentence, makes it very tough to see and not laugh, especially when that person is Christian Bale. I laugh just thinking about it. It also makes the scenes seem shallow, and they were supposed to be powerful scenes.<br /><br />Didn't get it. Could have been so much more. So much better. Pity.