This film suffers from its Hollywood-ization... It's all so slick.

| Sep 18, 2019

Miss Bala provides the first feasible argument for our southern neighbor to pay for building a wall: to keep Hollywood hacks out of the country.

| Mar 21, 2019

This Hollywoodized remake is mostly generic and uninspired, but it also proves that Rodriguez has the makings of a true movie star.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 20, 2019

Miss Bala offers a self-flattering vision of American strength, as one focused gun-toting gal strikes a blow for her gender while cleaning up a skirmish in the ongoing war on drugs.

| Feb 7, 2019

[Director Catherine Hardwicke] gets solid performances from the actors, especially Rodriguez. If only there wasn't the mindset that movies made for an American audience can't end on a negative note.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 2, 2019

Anyone thinking about plunking down the bucks to check out "Miss Bala" this weekend: You DEFINITELY deserve better than this.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 2, 2019

The souped-up plot is certainly indigestible, and there's a steady stream of bad laughs, but something genuinely frightening comes through: a woman's sense of disempowerment by men on all sides of the law.

| Feb 1, 2019

Hardwick's film is gleefully entertaining in a B-movie kind of way, zesty yet also corny at times....For those who go along for the wild, undemanding ride, it makes for a good Friday night action flick.

| Feb 1, 2019

Rodriguez and her fans deserve better than "Miss Bala," a disappointingly bland and formulaic Hollywood remake of a much grittier and bleaker Mexican thriller.

| Feb 1, 2019

Hardwicke's latest is undeniably generic.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 1, 2019

The film is calculation impure and simple. It's a box-ticking exercise in female jeopardy, survival and empowerment, oppressively efficient in its relentless way but unrelieved by emotional resonance.

| Feb 1, 2019

Although the new Miss Bala gives its lead character the agency to fight back and outsmart her captors, the film overdoses on its own message of pop feminist empowerment.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 1, 2019

Achieving tonal balance between sociology and schlock is no easy task, and this film doesn't pull it off.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 1, 2019

It's as if the film has boiled down every post-2000s action thriller into its own particularly unseasoned, overcooked and tasteless dish.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 31, 2019

It goes so far it becomes cartoonish.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 31, 2019

Overall, "Miss Bala" is a misfire - but its leading lady is No. 1 with a bullet. And that's a beautiful sight to see.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 31, 2019

Resourceful and athletic without ever becoming superhuman, Rodriguez is easy to root for.

| Jan 31, 2019

It's the kind of thriller about violent turf wars, corruption, and sex trafficking that's rated PG-13, in case some 11-year-olds want to see it unaccompanied.

| Original Score: C | Jan 31, 2019

You see Gina Rodriguez's infectious, light-up-the-sky smile only a couple of times in "Miss Bala," and it's just enough to make you wish that she were in a different movie.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 31, 2019

Hardwicke gets the mood and pace right... and handles the action scenes effectively, leading to a climax that is cathartically pleasing, while Rodriguez's nicely balanced performance has the audience rooting for her all the way.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 31, 2019