Hard to believe the guy who played Bryan Mills hasn't had SOME authentic military training, but I suspect the cross-gaze just looked better on camera.
As for plot holes, the cartel guys clearly had a lot of cops on their payroll, not only the sheriff but also the border guard who waved them through based just on their tattoos. I just assumed they bribed the Mexican police to claim they'd found a relative for Miguel.
I suspect that Sarah herself may have been corrupt in some versions of the screenplay, which would at least explain how they found him at the motel.
Lacking that, the cartel guys seemed to be pretty orderly in their search. Once Jim stopped using his credit card, they started asking about a man and kid. Not hard to imagine they spent the night going motel to motel (the film mostly took place in small towns). I didn't think it was unreasonable to assume the cartel guys eventually reached a desk clerk who answered "yes" and beat him up for the room number. After all, Jim & Miguel were in the motel long enough to relax, wash up and watch the Clint Eastwood flick ("Paint Your Wagon"?).
I also don't see the problem with dropping the map - they were running from a crooked cop and in a hurry. How's that a plot hole?
Finding the kid on his own land likewise shouldn't be a head-scratcher. After that, the kid was mostly finding him.
It was a surprisingly slow and indie-feeling flick though, about a surprisingly low-key guy, which almost feels like false advertising if they're going to cast Bryan Mills and include a "if he finds you" line.
Frankly, the biggest problem for me is believing a cartel with those kinds of resources wouldn't still be able to find and kill Miguell in Chicago.
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