Overall Rating
  Awesome: 24.83%
Worth A Look: 30.34%
Just Average: 17.24%
Pretty Crappy: 19.31%
Sucks: 8.28%
7 reviews, 103 user ratings
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| Once Upon a Time in Mexico |
by Brian McKay
"And they all died messily ever after . . ."
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Having enjoyed both of the previous films centering around the character known as "El Mariachi", I hate to admit that ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO will be a bit of a letdown for most of the fans. While it boasts the requsite number of action sequences and plenty of Latino bad-ass hipness, the only thing more unwieldy than its title is the number of characters and subplots that director Robert Rodriguez tries to keep spinning like plates on broomsticks in-between the shootouts.Hopefully you will have seen El Mariachi and Desperado before you set foot in the theater for Mexico, but I suppose neither of them are really mandatory viewing. Suffice it to say that all three films have the same basic plot - the guitar-playing drifter known as El Mariachi (or simply "El") hates drug lords - especially ones that kill his women folk. This time he's after a corrupt Mexican General who is in cahoots with the drug lord Barillo (Willem Dafoe, whose performance as a mustachioed Mexicano surprisingly adds little to the film). Barillo and the General want to stage a coup and kill the President of Mexico. However, psychotic CIA agent Sands (Johnny Depp) has other plans. He hires El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to stop the conspirators - but only after they have succeeded in killing El Presidente, allowing Sands to take advantage of the subsequent power vacuum. El Mariachi agrees to go along with the plan at first, but when he decides that the President is in fact a good man, he makes plans of his own for the impending coup.
Meanwhile, the film indulges us with numerous flashbacks of El Mariachi's lost love, Carolina (The hotter-than-ever Salma Hayek) and introduces us to a barrage of minor players. These include a Mexican federal agent (Eva Mendes - also hot) struggling for respect amongst her macho male peers, A retired F.B.I. agent (Ruben Blades) who still wants to bring down Barillo, and an aging small-time hood (Mickey Rourke, looking more and more like James Caan) in Barillo's employ who just wants to get the fuck out of Mexico and back to the States - even if it's in a prison jumpsuit. Perennial Rodriguez film favorite Danny Trejo also shows up (even though they killed him in Desperado), only to have his character abruptly dismissed in a rather disappointing manner.
The biggest problem with Once Upon a Time in Mexico is that it is, as a friend of mine described it, "too plotty". Segments between the action tend to meander for too long, and the film's annoying habit of expository dialogue is only offset by Rodriguez's brand of humor. And while Mexico is overall an entertaining film, the whole thing feels rushed - from the juggled subplots that are wrapped up in a quick, haphazard manner, to the lack of post-production polish on a number of scenes, it feels as if Rodriguez was in a hurry to get this one out the door before it got lost amid all of the fourth-quarter mega-blockbusters.
Still, while Mexico gets bogged down in its own busyness (and the occasional lack of continuity), it brings plenty of good things to the table. Both humor and music have always been crucial elements of the the Mariachi films, and neither of them disappoint here. And while some of the action sequences feel a bit perfunctory, most of them deliver, with Banderas tossing his long hair about wildly as he makes good use of his guitar case full of automatic weapons and the trusty double-barelled sawed-off. If I do have one major bitch, however, it is that the nickel-plated and spring-loaded .45's that El Mariachi kept tucked up his sleeves in the last movie are nowhere to be seen here. It's a trifling matter, I suppose, but now I want to rent Desperado again just to see him make those pistolas jump into his hands as he mows down a bar full of generic villains.
If there's one thing that safely elevates Mexico from three to four-star status, it's Depp's performance as the highly eccentric and morally ambiguous Agent Sands. Just as he did with Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp manages to pull a sizeable portion of the film's ass out of the fire. Is he a good guy? Bad guy? Complete nut job? Who cares, he's fun to watch. Acting a bit like Cap'n Jack Sparrow and wearing bad disguises and what look like Hunter S. Thompson wardrobe leftovers from the set of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Depp's particular brand of nuttiness keeps Mexico from becoming mired in the stagnant realm of the formulaic actioner.Although it lacks the creativity of EL MARIACHI and the polished slickness of DESPERADO, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO is still an enjoyable cap to the Mariachi trilogy that occasionally disappoints, but never mars the good name of its predecessors. I wouldn't mind seeing El Mariachi return for a fourth outing - but next time, he'd better bring those wrist-pistols to the party.
link directly to this review at http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=8131&reviewer=258
originally posted: 09/13/03 14:02:40
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USA
12-Sep-2003 (R)
DVD: 20-Jan-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
26-Feb-2004
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