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Once Upon A Time in Mexico

Saturday, 15 January 2005 |   Written by Dave   PDF Print E-mail Post a Comment

Movie: Once Upon A Time In Mexico
Reviewed By: M

Cast:

Antonio Banderas....El Mariachi
Salma Hayek.... Carolina
Johnny Depp.... Sands
Mickey Rourke.... Billy
Eva Mendes....Ajedrez
Danny Trejo.... Cucuy
Enrique Iglesias.... Lorenzo

Summary:

The film is based on the story of a drug lord Barrillo, who pretends to overthrow the Mexican president. Within the drama, another of the principal persons is a corrupt CIA agent Sands who at that time, demands retribution from his worst enemy in order to carry out the drug lord's uprising against the government. Mariachi is recruited by Sands to take out Gen. Marquez (has a huge score to settle with the Mariachi), who has major beef with Mariachi to begin with. He sends Cucuy (the muscle for Sands) to shadow and keep tabs on the Mariachi. Marquez is working with Barrillo, and is about to assassinate El Presidente and assume power. Sands also convinces Jorge Ramirez (retired-FBI, has old scores to settle with Barrillo) to come out of retirement and take out Barrillo and Dr. Guevera (personal Dr. to Barrillo, killed Jorge's partner a long time ago), who brutally tortured and killed Ramirez' FBI partner.

Critique:

2003 marks the end of 3 trilogies and "El Mariachi" trilogy is the first one to be concluded. Robert Rodriguez created the trilogy in 1992 with "El Mariachi" then fallowed it with 1994's "Desperado." After the relative success of the second film it was known that a sequel would be made but after a lot of troubles it was finished in 2001 but the released was pushed back to 2003.

Antonio Banderas reprises his role as "El Mariachi" in this film but doesn't get as much screen time as he did in "Desperado." . Johnny Depp stands out yet again after some good performances lately. Playing a CIA agent that plays both sides and has a cool hand trick, he makes a nice addition to the movie. Training Day's Eva Mandez has a small role in the movie playing a sexy cop. Enrique Iglesias makes his movie debut in this film playing Lorenzo one of the Mariachi friends and does ok playing a character opposite to his public image.

The problem with "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It tries too hard to be a good movie and not just another pop corn flick but the action scenes makes it to be one. It has a quiet complex plot for someone who just wants to watch gun fights and some rather exaggerated action scenes for someone who wants to enjoy a good movie. "Desperado" didn't try much to be a "good movie" but it was a decent pop corn flick.

Another thing I disliked was the absence of Salma Hayek for most of the movie which was a little disappointing. I still think that this film is better because of the performances by Johnny Depp and Eva Mandez and some great gun fights throughout the movie. It had a conclusive ending to the series which i thought was satisfying.

Fans of "Desperado" and "El Mariachi" will definitely enjoy this film and anyone who likes gunfights should check it out.

Rating: 6.5 / 10

MPAA: Rated R for strong violence, and for language.
Runtime: 102 min.
“Once Upon A Time In Mexico” opened Friday, September 12, 2003.