EL CAMINO (2020)

EL CAMINO (2020)

Tagline: Nope

(Romance, Sci-Fi, Nice Aliens) [Short]

Note – There was no MPAA rating for this movie, but it would likely have been a PG-13 or even a PG. 

In this one, Rojo is a pilot who travels through space moving various shipments around to support his family. On this particular shipment just outside of Gate 34 to earth, he has agreed to move some dangerous cargo and a robot that guards it. Can his daughter resist the temptation to open it? 

First off, this short film with credits runs about 13 minutes and 6 seconds. It took 5 years to make according to one of the directors Jaime Jasso. It shows because the attention to detail in this thing isn’t like most short films. This film is an absolute eye-candy feast. The direction is also superb as is the score. 

We can feel the tension ratchet up as the danger does and there is a good amount of backstory to keep our attention throughout. I can’t say enough about how great this thing looks and the design work is amazing. 

Where this film kind of loses it for me is that in spite of all the effort, it feels very incomplete. Essentially this is kind of a re-telling of the opening of NIGHT OF THE CREEPS only way more sophisticated and awesome-looking. We also get robots instead of aliens, but that is beside the point. The ending here feels like a great beginning and then bam…it’s over…or is it? While doing this review I stumbled upon another film called AZTECH that also came out in 2020 and “EL CAMINO” is actually part of that movie. That one I have not seen, but it looks like it was a bit of an anthology with 8 different stories with a central theme. 

Acting-wise this is very solid. The daughter “Robby” or Robin is played by Yam Acevedo. She has been in about 8 different productions including the TV series “The Candidate”. Gustavo Sánchez Parra is also very solid as Rojo. Gustavo has been around for quite some time and is probably most famous for playing Guillermo Cortez in THE LEGEND OF ZORO. 

It sounds like the team that made this wants to explore this world further sometime in the future, but as a short film, it feels like there are too many things missing from the story that probably could have been nestled into the dialog. I also have no idea why this guy’s daughter would go right for the thing she isn’t supposed to touch even after knowing it’s probably making her dad sick?

Maybe someday that question will get answered. For now, however, I have to give this thing a 5 out of 7. It definitely had my interest. This is another great entry in the world of sci-fi coming out of Mexico. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF CGP DANIEL SCHMID/ RODOLFO GARCIA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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