Once Upon A Time in Mexico

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.