Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

600 MILES

A Mexican teenager winds up kidnapping a U.S. border official (Tim Roth) after a gun run goes wrong, and he flees for home with his unexpected hostage, straight into a world of drug cartels and violence. It’s an exciting premise that is decidedly unex-citing in this film, which focuses mostly on the tenuous bond the two men develop as they drive through endless deserts. A few explosive scenes (including a smartly shot opening as the two gun smugglers procure their weaponry) cut into the slow-burn inaction, but it’s too little, too late by the time things spring to life in the final act.

Plays at 11:45 a.m., 3:15 and 6:45 p.m. July 18 at the Movie Museum

THE INFILTRATOR

Based on the true story of Robert Mazur, a U.S. Customs agent who poses as a money launderer to get close to drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s network of Colombian cocaine, this film is … fairly conventional, as far as undercover ops flicks go. Watch the web of conspiracy grow, and watch it come apart in time for a triumphant (albeit pyrrhic) denouement. There are holes in the plot, as expected, but on the whole it manages to make a lot of exposition dynamic. Where this movie does stand out, however, is in its on-point casting, as Bryan Cranston shines in this Breaking Bad-esque role of duality and deception. Diane Kruger and John Leguizamo assist him as fellow agents. Opens July 13 at Kahala Theatre

MY LOVE, DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER

This snapshot of a golden love story focuses not on the blush of young love or contented partnership, but on the end of a 76-year marriage. Jo Byeong-man and Kang Gyeyeol are inseparable and happy, until the 98-year-old Byeong-man sickens and dies, leaving his wife behind to grieve. It would be simply a sad story if that were all it was — but My Love is a documentary, about a real couple who rose to fame via Korean reality TV and allowed cameras to document Byeong-man’s last months. It whiffs of exploitation, but the unaffected poignancy of the graying lovebirds is hard to resist.

Opens July 15 at Kahala Theatre