the audience applauded

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Mi Familia is a mini masterpiece. It uses all manner of genre styles to tell its story and amazingly it works. This is a film with so much passion and significance it is almost tiring to praise it for fear of running out of breath. You could call this film an epic or a saga since it deals with many generations of the same family. The film never shies away from making a social comment or two and deals directly with the issues at hand in whatever time period it happens to take place in. The family has never had an easy life, but the closing statement rings true in that despite the hardships they have been made to endure they have lead an incredibly good life. More than twice this family is broken up by the racial hatred and civilly unjust policies of their times, but they always stick together and no matter what happens or who does what this family is truly unbreakable. All performances are fantastic but there is one the really sticks out. Jimmy Smits has proved time and again that he is a capable actor but his work in this film is simply amazing.

Contains Spoiler I really love this movie so much I bought the DVD. Edward James Olmos is so good as the father of the family. He acts just like my father used to when we were that age of the people in the movie. In fact, all the acting is really very good. The music in this movie is very authentic. The struggles of the family over so many years really made me cry at times -- what they went through was really so tough. The Mexican countryside is also very authentic too from what I can remember of it. Also, the part where the mother was having a baby, only she died instead -- that was really very good too -- and also reminded me of some people I used to know back when we lived in Mexico. This is a really terrific movie especially if you are also Latino actually.

This is one of the best Latino movies I ever see. Story is great and the problems are real. The characters are well played. If you like "the goodfather" here's the hispanic version!

This is a wonderful and moving picture. Even the hardest person will shed a tear. Edward James Olmos is a great narrator. The accents are great, as well as the multi-lingual conversations.