Once Upon a Time in Mexico Movie Review:

Persuaded out of retirement by CIA Agent Sands (Depp) with the promise of revenge, El Mariachi (Banderas) has to break a promise and take up his gun again. Cartel leader Barillo (Defoe) wants the President of Mexico dead after he announces a war on criminals and has hired a power hungry, corrupt General to stage a military take-over of the presidential palace. On learning this, the Mariachi’s mission is not only to seek retribution but also to save the future of the Mexican people.

Prolific moviemaker Robert Rodriguez goes back to the franchise that started his career and eleven years since his first appearance, the man with the guitar case returns.

The El Mariachi series becomes a trilogy and credit has to go to filmmaker Robert Rodriquez, emphasizing the word filmmaker. The man is unique in the world of movies. He directs, writes, produces, operates the camera, edits, supervises the special effects, edits the sound and now has added the new skill of composer to his extensive list of expertise. He has to be one of the most talented people working in film today.

Antonio Banderas returns to the action role he made his own. As the guitar playing killer, he deals out justice with his usual flare and extreme violence. The body count is huge as Banderas and his fellow mariachi’s fight to save Mexico. It almost harks back to the excesses of the late 1980s, early 1990s but saying that you won’t have expected less from a Mariachi movie. This is stylised violence but with a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek humour that means you never take it too seriously.

Most of the humour is provided by another scene-stealing turn by Johnny Depp. He is cornering the market in strange characters, with a slightly mad disposition and his Agent Sands is another classic, quotable creation. Everything he does is hysterical, to the point that you long for his character to have more screen time than he actually has.

The star-studded cast provides great support for the two main players. Salma Hayek is as beautiful as ever and is now just as deadly. Willem Defoe is suitably over-the-top as the crazed cartel leader. Mickey Rourke’s career might be taking a change for the better. Enrique Iglesias shows he is much more that just a singer. Eva Mendes is becoming a young actress to watch and Rodriquez stalwarts Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin are as good as ever.

What lets the movie down in comparison to the previous two is the lack of a comprehensible story. While the main Mariachi story is explained and executed well, it is the subplots that are not drawn out enough or satisfactorily concluded. Agent Sands’ motivations are never really explained and the final part of his story is just plain bizarre. The reasons behind Barillo’s plan are never really clarified. Who is the FBI Agent speaking to all the time or is he just mad? These subplots and the questions from them tend to get in the way of the main story.

The action and excessive violence distract you from the plot shortcomings as Rodriguez really goes to town with the set sequences, gunplay and great dialogue, especially from Depp. Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a fun finale to a tongue in cheek homage to the western. While it isn’t the best of the series, it is still a far better sequel than many other offerings. Now where is that Mexican chef?

Star Rating = * * * *

Jamie Kelwick
The Usher

“So tell me are you a Mexi“can” or a Mexi“can’t”?”, Johnny Depp’s anti-hero Sands sputters to bad guy Cucuy (Danny Trejo).

That lone quote sets the tone for the latest from self-styled director Robert Rodriguez who continues his series of the legendary guitar-player with heavy artillery, El Mariachi.

This third film in the series finds El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) reflecting back on his life when he is coaxed out of retirement by deep CIA operative Agent Sands (Johnny Depp) to help stop the assassination of the Mexican president by a sadistic General who El Mariachi has a vendetta upon. Thrown into the mix are a troubled FBI Agent (Ruben Blades), a United States fugitive (Mickey Rourke), a mad drug kingpin (Willem Dafoe) and some of Mariachi’s gun toting buddies (one played by singer Enrique Igelsias).

This film is the perfect example of flash over substance. The direction of Rodriguez is flashy, gutsy and flourishes in a lot of areas but leaves the story cold in its conveyance. In other words the plot details and subplots become muddled and are utterly useless in the barrage of stylized direction. We want this to be an action thriller with smart dialogue and shocking subplots but instead we get none of that. Rodriguez instead uses humor as super-glue to hold his film together.

He also uses the charisma of Depp to give the film some credibility. Depp is charming, devious and an utter delight to watch but it’s a shame the film doesn’t capitalize on his amazing performance. The junk around Depp still makes me scratch my head. Who was Eva Mendes playing and why did she fit into this mess? Were any of the plots really solved except for the Mariachi story?

I can’t say that I enjoyed this film but rather enjoyed slivers of it. For me Depp is the only reason to watch this. He is amazing but one performance in a losing cause isn’t worth it.

3 out of 5

Dean Kish

Once Upon A Time In Mexico-Movie Review-Columbia/Dimension-2.7 Stars

Sometimes sequels make a lot of noise without delivering all the goods expected and that is what happens with the third chapter in the El Mariachi series called Once Upon a Time In Mexico.

With a convoluted plot about a CIA agent named Sands (Johnny Depp) trying to execute a plan to change the president of Mexico, it includes a corrupt general, a retired FBI agent, a drug lord and El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas).

Between Sands trying to manipulate the key characters for his own sinister purpose and Mariachi seeking his revenge, a lot of shooting takes place and the bullets start flying almost immediately.

It seems every few minutes another massive gunfight erupts with plenty of bloodshed and bullet-ridden bodies to fill a stadium by the time this movie is over.

As in Desperado that came before this film, Mariachi and his pals have weapons hidden in their guitar cases and they sure know how to use them. They are so accurate with their weaponry that every time they shoot another bad guy falls. Even drunk or shooting backwards they dont miss.

The complete opposite is true of their enemies who cant seem to hurt let alone kill Mariachi and his two associates at point blank range with automatic weapons firing non-stop.

Director Robert Rodriguez tries to copy Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns of the 1960s such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but falls way short of capturing their unique style and impact.

Although there are lots of dramatic poses, action and camera play, the film quickly falls into repeating itself to the point of blandness instead of realizing its potential to be spectacular.

There is not enough variety in the gun fighting scenes to keep you motivated or interested and the redundancy gets tiresome quickly.

One Upon A Time In Mexico mixes some fun moments of humor, over the top action, shallow underdeveloped characters, cheesy dialogue and a weak storyline that is mildly amusing.

Gil Benzeevi

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