Que Viva México Review: Directed by Luis Estrada, and written by both Estrada and Jaime Sampietro, the Mexican movie is also known as Çok Yaşa Meksika! It stars Damián Alcázar, Alfonso Herrera, Ana de la Reguera, Joaquín Cosio, Ana Martín, Angelina Peláez, and several other actors. The total runtime is 3 hours and 11 minutes, and this is exactly why we need to talk about how irrelevant the movie feels.
The movie is distributed by Sony Pictures and Netflix. Produced by Alexa Aroesty, Maynné Cortés, Luis Estrada, Rolf Helbig, and Sandra Solares, the flick’s music director is Nacho Mastretta. Cinematography is done by Alberto Anaya Adalid, and the editing team is led by Mariana Rodríguez.
– Que Viva México Review Contains No Spoilers –
Pancho is a greedy guy who lays off employees from his company to increase profit and pressurise the staff by giving them overload. His boss Jaime is another yet egotistical person who doesn’t really believe in paying a fair salary to his staff. Pancho is the senior general manager at the textile company, and due to his terrible personality, Jaime likes him and tells him that he might be promoted.
Then we get a picture of what pushed Pancho to be wolfish through his nightmares. Apparently, Pancho comes from a working-class family back in a small village in Mexico. As he believes he isn’t respected for his roots, he ends up cutting ties with his family and pretends to be the man in power. He despises his poor family and tries to hide his etymology so that the people in the city will respect him.
In his nightmares, his father and grandfather are usually seen questioning him at gunpoint for leaving his family behind and for being ungrateful. Pancho’s wife, Mari, understands the nightmares and suggests he see a therapist. But Pancho only rages at her and disses her ethnicity and background. He also tries to control Mari and doesn’t let her lead much. Hence, Pancho is also a sexist, and we’ll get to this point soon.
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After days of rejecting his father’s call, Pancho finally picks it up only to learn about his grandfather’s death and his death will. Since Pancho’s grandpa is a miner and it is said that he might have found gold, Pancho decides to visit the funeral out of greed. Pancho, Mari, their two children, along with their maid Lupita leave for his hometown La Prosperidad, Mexico (a fictional place).
Simple Plot and Bad Execution
So we understand that this movie is about an arrogant son returning to his hometown to have character development. Sounds like the prodigal son story from the bible, hence this plot isn’t too new or unique. However, with the added comedy, a whole new Mexican culture, a good cast, and cinematography, we might love the movie, but is it really worth the watch? In my view, absolutely not.
For the whole three hours, all one can find is repetitive humour loaded with sexist commentaries and unnecessary flashbacks and nightmares. These aspects pulled the runtime, and the three hours really feels like a burden. The editors had so many opportunities to trim the movie and keep the story crisp, short, and humourous. But they decided to drag and drag to make the viewers learn about each character which is really unnecessary.
A Sensitising Movie or Simply a Reinforcement?
There are so many irritating moments in the movie that is too many misogynistic commentaries, cheap brothels where men feel okay to cheat on their wives, male dominance, and other such themes and scenarios. If the director intended to show the terrible side of society with humour, it’s a good thought, but the movie really didn’t feel like it served that purpose. With all the scenes supporting these cruel themes backed with jokes, the flick seems to be reinforcing the societal trash and normalising it.
We see how Pancho is so ready to sleep with another woman, but when his wife Mari gets a little bit swayed, his misogynistic side pops up to rage at her. We should also note that Mari gets drunk and takes her decisions hastily, so what are we trying to convey here? Also, when one of Pancho’s cousins hugs Mari in a sexual way, what was Pancho doing? Absolutely nothing. Honestly, these terrible and pathetic characters can teach one not to be like them. That’s probably the only good thing in this movie.
Que Viva México Review: Final Thoughts
A long movie with repetitive jokes and a regular plot with no suspense and nothing fresh. So why waste three hours watching it? There isn’t anything too nice to talk about in this movie.
Que Viva México is streaming on Netflix, and if you have watched this movie, let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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What a f***ing waste of time! As a novice I could have written a better more interesting plot. A big 5 thumbs down ???? ????????????????
Satire and Parody of Mexican families, Fantastic film. It’s a movie not a life changing event.
Absolutely horrible movie. The writers and Directors should be ashamed. As to the actors- don’t put this on your filmography!
Stupid ending makes no sense at someone in the family should have got one gold bar.wasted 3 hours
I watched the movie. Even though I liked it, I’d prefer it to be a 1.5 to 2 hr movie. I feel that a 3 hour time allotment should be reserved for classics like Dances with Wolves, Out of Africa, Titanic, Wizard of Oz. Nonetheless I did like it, I’m an American living in Mexico for 17 years and was curious how they would portray the characters and what the Mexico landscape looked like, the landscape is what I enjoyed most. I got a kick out of every time there’s a new scene/theme, here come the Mariachis. They sang for any reasons. Such greedy people, Pancho and his whole family of thieves. Here’s a missed opportunity, when the guy stole the tire/wheel from Pancho’s car, I thought for sure they would have a flat tire on their trip to town, adding to the frustration that there’s no spare. If we’re offering thumbs up or down, I will say 2 thumbs up. If it were 1.5 to 2 hr movie, then 4 thumbs up. I’d watch a sequel if it wasn’t long.
Speaking of landscapes and the culture, yes that’s the only aspect I continued to watch the movie because it is nice to learn about other ethnicities. However, the timing for a very pale story—not a good move, isn’t it?
I wasted 3 hours of my life watching that movie. I was waiting for something good to happen at the end, but no just a stupid ending. Good cast, so sorry for them.