This is the “based on a true story” tale of a U.S. government agent who bends the rules and launches his own mission to rescue hundreds of Central American children from sex traffickers. Because God wanted him to. 

All well and good. No one would argue that rescuing such kids is less than a noble pursuit. But there’s an axiom in the film industry, one that is spectacularly lost on Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde, that says, “A hot-button theme does not excuse shitty filmmaking.” Or something like that. 

Jim Caviezel has never been the most electric of screen presences. The deeply religious actor’s most notable performance was getting the bejesus beat out of him for two hours in Mel Gibson’s awful 2004 The Passion of the Christ. But here it seems like he is being repeatedly instructed to tone down any emotions he may have. 

It gets worse. Virtually every frame of this religious right’s wet dream screams, “look how important we are!” accompanied by almost comically momentous music and meaningful glares by Caviezel. The script is ponderous, the acting’s awful, the “action” scenes are exaggerated and contrived, there’s a glaring lack of procedural logic, and it has no business being over two hours long.  I’m all for saving kids from malodorous, drooling pederasts, but you can do that without suffering through this Big Fat Bore. (131 min)