Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Claudio Carvalho The Colombian Jose Gutierrez (Roberto Urbina) leaves his girlfriend in USA and travels to Colombia to visit his parents Carlos (Tony Plana) and Marta Gutierrez (Alejandra Borrero). Jose meets his former passion, Luiza (America Ferrera), and they date and go to a night-club. Then Jose is abducted and a group asks for ransom to his father, who is the manager of a bank. The insurance company does not honor the contract and Carlos seeks the help of KNRC, a company specialized in abductions and ransoms, and with the powerful drug dealer Umberto Pompeo (Fernando Solórzano). A commando seeks the kidnappers while a carrier heads to the Buena Fortuna Street to deliver the ransom money. Will Jose Gutierrez be rescued on time?"Hacia la Oscuridad" is a film with a messy non-linear story with terrible camera work and edition. The plot has the intention to show how dangerous is the life in Colombia but neither the story nor the screenplay are good. The action of Luiza is absolutely unreasonable and incoherent giving a ridiculous twist in the plot. The car chase is awfully filmed and edited and the boring flashbacks break the tension of the lead story. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "A Um Passo da Escuridão" ("At One Step from the Darkness")

lastliberal Being a fan of "Man on Fire," I decided to check out this film produced by and starring America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty") to expose the problem of kidnapping in Columbia. She says, "The rate in Colombia is awful. More than one person a day is kidnapped there." It is not just a problem in Columbia, but in many places in the World.Roberto Urbina (Che: Part One) as Jose is the victim, and spends his time thinking about his ex-girlfriend Luiza (America Ferrera). Of course, the film flashes back and forth from real time to the time of the kidnapping.Jose is not too smart. He sees some thugs in a bar that earlier pulled a gun on him on the football field, and he stands there downing shot after shot. Did Luiza set him up? He sure wasn't sober enough to see it coming.It did have a great car chase when Charlie (David Sutcliffe), the ex-FBI agent helping to deliver the ransom steals a car after getting stuck in traffic.An interesting film on the subject, but didn't set me on fire.

stephflores84-1 I am Colombian, from the north coast and was excited to stumble upon a colombian movie. it was showing in HBO Latino and I said what the heck I recognize some of the colombian actors so it might be good. WRONG. America Ferrera doesn't speak Spanish well enough to be in this movie, they should have looked for a native actress and not her. She wasn't even cute enough for the main actor, anyways back to the point. The flash backs were too many, some of the stories surrounding were dumb. What was the point of showing the guy pulling a gun in a soccer game? Most colombians that get kidnap don't have access to an ex FBI agent helping out and best of all no colombian cop will know how to speak English (like the guy who spoils the delivery of the money.)I gave it a 6 rating because it was filmed in Colombia, used mainly colombian actors (america ferrera was horrible stick to ugly betty and shes not even from colombian decent)and gave an insight into the struggles of millions of colombians living in fear of terrorist groups. One more thing they changed the licence plates of all the cars, in colombia license plates are yellow. I know I know, but I noticed. If this was the directors first movie, he's going to get only better. Hope you enjoyed this comment!!

thetravelmom Wow, that's this director's FIRST film? I'm shocked. Felicitades!During the car chase scene I was on my feet yelling "HURRY!!!!!!!" at the top of my lungs. The tension and suspense is sublime. Very nice twist ending. A director once said, "give the audience 1 plus 1 and they'll figure out two" and this director did just that. Except I never saw that ending coming.Devil's mask scene and commentary about "buying your way out of hell" was perfectly placed. The bank manager father is excellent in his role. Nice cemetery scene, and interesting director's comments about the gunfire that actually occurred while making that scene. Backstory of former FBI agent was poignant; his desperation in the chase scene was palpable but not overdone. I'm not sure why the ransom money was left blowing around ... wouldn't the police have made sure it was all tidily collected? It was fascinating to watch the bare-bones "short" (on special features,) and to marvel at the masterpiece that was born OUT of that short.