Review of Bound by Honor

"Bound by Honor" circles interminably around a trio of East L.A. Chicano gang members through decades of life. Overwrought, over acted, uninspired, and fraught with foibles and plotholes, the film spends too much time wallowing in the numbing excesses of prison gang life and politics unable to escape the varnish and tarnish of a Hollywood contrived shock-value execution. Even if we needed another prison gang flick, which we don't, this flick accomplishes too little and runs too long wearing its characters down to nubs instead of fleshing them out with insights into familia, community, heritage, and church. Worst of all, we're not given anyone to care about leaving us with three hours of mechanical detachment. (C+)

Note - The version I Tivo'd included a lot of "Spanglish" with no subtitled translations and no closed captions.