Hollywood loves to repurpose an acclaimed genre film and transform it into a glossy star-studded thriller, but it goes without saying that you’re much better sticking to 2011’s Miss Bala than its disastrous remake.
Even though the latter was directed by Twilight veteran Catherine Hardwicke and boasted plum roles for Gina Rodriguez and Anthony Mackie, it tanked at the box office after just about recouping its $15 million budget from theaters, while a 21 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is the stuff of nightmares.
Compare that to co-writer and director Gerardo Naranjo’s OG, which is Certified Fresh on the aggregation site with a mighty 87 percent, and treats its real-life inspirations with respect and dutiful care while still managing to deliver the goods when it came to pulse-pounding action sequence and intense thrills.
Stephanie Sigman stars as a young woman with dreams of becoming a pageant queen, who finds her life turned upside down when an encounter with a drug runner leads her down a rabbit hole and into the dangerous, violent, and often deadly world of organized crime, where she’s often sent in as a decoy when lucrative and highly illicit deals are being made.
It’s an engaging piece of work, with Miss Bala V1.0 having experienced a huge uptick in popularity its undercooked successor could only dream of. As per FlixPatrol, the original and vastly superior spin on the tale has charted on the Top 10 in multiple countries so far this week, and it could continue mounting an undercover operation of its own as we edge closer and closer to the weekend given the action-packed thriller’s penchant for success on the platform.
