Not especially bad, not especially good, just solid blah.

The premise is "borrowed", and that's fine. But Weitz doesn't do anything particularly interesting or emotionally hard-hitting with it.

a very enjoyable and poignant film from director weitz. worth seeing for ... 1. demian bichir's performance. 2. the no cop-out ending.......

Manipulative? Yeah, maybe, but also undeniably affecting and empathetic, anchored by Bichir's ultra high-quality performance.

Oh lord, I can´t believe this piece-of-sh*t-movie made me cry....that´s just embarrassing...and Enrique Iglesias wasn´t even on the soundtrack. I have no excuse.

It's not bad, but it feels like the filmmakers were going for a hard-hitting exposé of life as an illegal immigrant in the U.S. and it's just too fluffy, generic, and stereotypical to be taken THAT seriously. Nice lead performance from Demian Bichir if a bit overstated at times. The acting from the kids was pretty bad.

The film's heart is in the right place, and there are several well-done visual compositions. The scene at the rodeo works best to illustrate the culture clash going on within the family, while the regular shots of East Los Angeles serve to show us a world not often presented in the movies. All that said, the film relies far too much on words to express its ideas, especially working hard to build sentiment to such a degree that it becomes off-putting rather than as it should be--affecting.

"A stale but scrupulously structured anecdote, A Better Life seems intended as an eye-opener for the send-'em-back American racist." - Ed Gonzalez

It's essentially Bicycle Thieves, except swap out the bike with a pickup truck and the poor Italian with an illegal immigrant. Not bad, not really good. Feels a bit too politically motivated.

I have never seen The Bicycle Thief but.....it has been a long time since I have been so emotionally involved in a film. The scene where Carlos hops the fence into the lot had my heart pounding and my hands shaking. Wow. I'm glad Demian Bichir was nominated for an Oscar. It is a deserved nomination. Sadly this film does have other issues, but I was really affected by some of the scenes that come later in the film.

A modern Ladri di Biciclette? Well at least it tries. Do yourself a favour and watch the supperior movie of the two...

Even though it's not a remake of The Bicycle Thieves it shares the general thematic arc with a few more side-plots mixed in. I probably would have been against the similarities going in had I known about them, but they ended up doing a very nice job with it. Demián Bichir steals the show and takes this movie to another level. I seem to rate this higher than most but that's probably because I'm a bleeding heart liberal.

There are basically three reactions you can have to this: 1: "Hey, this is just a remake of Bicycle Thieves! Booo!" 2. "Hey, they remade Bicycle Thieves in today's LA. That's clever." In which case you'll probably enjoy it for what it is: a still-relevant story that tugs a bit at the ol' heart strings, adds a few little touches of its own, and doesn't take easy ways out. Or in. 3. "What's Bicycle Thieves?" In which case you have better things to do than reading this.

The modern day Bicycle Thieves works well for an hour but then drags heavily for the last half hour.

Ladri di autocarri, but in a much different context, adding another problems. Here, they're not just poor, they're also in a country illegally, and the risks for the youngsters can be more dangerous. Interesting, maybe a bit light, but that can also be considered good if you think it's not one of those movies that try you to feel sympathy for people just because writer is making everything worse and worse every minute. Main actor Demián Bichir deserves a great merit in the success of the movie.