I’ve found that one pretty good indicator of really bad movies is when a movie gets featured at prestigious film festivals but never makes it into the main stream.  Battle in Heaven is a classic example of this.  The critics seem to love it but because it’s “artsy” but that’s about the only thing that it’s got going for it.

Since this movie is pretty bad and I expect that you’ll never see it, the rest of the review will contain spoilers, so bail now if you really thinks you want to see this film.

The movie centers around a Mexican man, Marcos, who along with his obese wife have kidnapped a baby.  Unfortunately, the baby died while in their custody and Marcos is filled with guilt.  Marcos works for the chief of police and one of his duties is chauffeuring the chiefs twenty-something daughter, Ana.  Unbeknownst to the Chief, but known by Marcos, Ana gets her kicks buy working part time as a prostitute.  Marcos unable to contain his guilt over the death of the baby, tells Ana what happened.

The rest of the movie is about Marcos brooding about the city, trying to decide if he should confess his crime, having sex with his obese wife (I considered ripping my eyes out after seeing this), having sex with Ana (made it worth not ripping out my eyes), stabbing Ana …

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Mel Gibson plays a single dad cop whose recently graduated daughter finds herself in some serious trouble.  Mel spends most of the movie trying to find out what happened.

This is definately a second tier Mel Gibson movie.  It’s watchable and somewhat entertaining but just doesn’t come up to the level of most of his previous movies.  There are also a few places in the script where you get the feeling that something was cut on the editing floor because things are happening that don’t make a lot of sense.

My rating: 4 out of 10 stars