i have hear so much about a day without a mexican before it release and but i never get a chance to watch it in the theater . now that i have see it on video and i get an idea of why it be go from theater so fast . they take a great idea and go nowhere with it . in fact and the movie be so unambitious that in retrospect i be amaze i ever think it be an interesting idea at all . it be no secret that the immigrant workforce in california and indeed of much of america be the foundation of our economy and which be why it should have be so obvious of how little there be to do with the premise of mexican disappear and leave all of the poor and helpless american to pick their own lettuce and tomato . the result that we get be a preachy joke of a mockumentary that take america tendency to look down at immigrant and turn it around and augment the snobbish tone that this place on american so much that it remove any sense of realism from the story and turn it into a schoolyard lecture pepper with stupid joke and shallow stereotype . maybe it because i live in california and but i like to think that the vast majority of american with two brain cell work at the same time already know everything that this movie have to say . the only way you could not know the importance of the migrant workforce in this country be if you have live on mar for your entire life . in a cave . with your eye close and your finger in your ear . it clear how strongly the people behind the film felt about how overlooked migrant worker be in america and especially in california . i completely agree with them and but it doesn not change the fact that the movie be an absolute mess . it badly write and badly shot and and full of cheesy caricature of american and each one design around a single common prejudicial view that so many american tend to have towards mexican and like that everyone who speak spanish be mexican or that anyone who refer to themselves a latino be mexican . the people behind the film feel so strongly about the point that theyre try to make that they can not help scrawl little factoid across the screen like this be an informational film or an educational film or one of those pop up video on vh 1. remember those . the problem be that this extra effort to slap the audience over the head with individual fact that point to a large truth that the vast majority of the audience already know cause the film to fall on it face . i have always say that i be amaze at how the migrant worker be force to work brutal and manual labor for wage that barely allow them to survive and while people like lawyer and actor be pay million and million of dollar . it not that i think actor be overpay and on the contrary and really and i think their salary reflect the amount of money that they personally be able to generate and but if every actor in the world go on strike or if every lawyer go on strike and the vast majority of u would be unaffected . but if migrant worker all go on strike or all decide to go to their home country ( like so many bigot in america stupidly wish they would ) and the country would almost immediately fall apart . look at it this way and if truck driver stop drive and los angeles would be out of food in six day . maybe that would have make an interesting movie and to have all of the migrant worker band together and decide to do something active to benefit themselves and each other . to leave the country that so misuse them and leave u to figure out how to fill the job that and ah and what be it bush say . the job that american would not take . instead we get this stupid and stupid premise about all of the mexican simply disappear without a trace and only to magically reappear at the end unaware that they be ever even go . it a ridiculous way to bookend what could have be a valuable and introspective film . and do not get me start on the fog that surround california . no phone or internet or even short wave radio could penetrate it and so californian be leave completely on their own . what about car . could those penetrate the fog . how about airplane . oh wait and the talk head on tv tell u not to approach the fog and so i guess that be out of the question . the movie place that little warning in there just as conveniently a it forget about how many million of people be enter and leave the state of california at any give moment by countless method of transportation . sadly and the movie have a great point to make and but it be a point that need to be make in a way that can not be so easily write off a a stupid and childish joke . and a mysterious fog and the mysterious disappearance of million of mexican be a stupid and childish joke . the only good part be how the movie show that if million of people disappear all at once and those jerk in the little toy cart would still be drive around put park ticket on the windshield of the mysteriously disappear . evidently the filmmaker have a bone to pick with meter maid and too .