 |
  
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
|
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
| Subscribe
About Us Features News Album
Reviews
|
Once Upon a Time in Mexico Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez Starring Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe Rated R Like Quentin Tarantino before him, Robert Rodriguez deserves both praise and blame. Praise for bringing the devices of John Woo and classic Asian cinema to the international screen. Blame for corrupting it with unnecessary sex and gore. His first installment in what has become a trilogy about a guitar-playing pistolero, El Mariachi, was corrupted with neither. Every element in the film helped to develop the central characters like El Mariachi and Azul. The second, Desperado, was corrupted with unnecessary sex, although not nearly to the level of From Dusk Til Dawn. Nevertheless, he still preferred suspense to gore. Even in the opening tale of El Mariachi’s bloodbath at a bar in a nearby town, “The bartender got it worst of all” is left at that. In Once Upon a Time in Mexico however, Rodriguez feels the need to have one character’s eyes drilled out for no logical reason (though, ironically, shortly earlier, he shows less than Woo does in a comparable scene in Face/Off). He then takes the situation to Camusian extremes by having the victim apparently unconcerned about the tragedy and joking about it. The Asian technique is to demonstrate the machismo of the instigator—sword-fighting with a hand behind one’s back or, as Woo did best in The Killer, carry on a calm conversation with guns pointed at one another. Rodriguez continued this tradition in El Mariachi with Azul stirring his drink with one hand as he shot up a bar with the other. In Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Rodriguez makes the victim nonchalant as well. It’s just like Camus’ Stranger who not only doesn’t care about his crimes, he doesn’t care about being punished for them either. The other disappointment was that this third installment isn’t really about El Mariachi per se. His background story between the second and third film is uncompelling because it’s almost exactly what happened to him at the end of the first film. Antonio Banderas (Desperado, Assassins) does not even appear enough in this film to warrant, if you will suspend belief temporarily, an Oscar for Best Actor. The rest of the supporting cast, including Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean, Sleepy Hollow), Eva Mendes (Training Day, 2 Fast 2 Furious) and Ruben Blades (The Milagro Beanfield War, The Super), who delivers probably the best performance here, all have promising story lines themselves. But few are satisfactorily developed and they end up supporting not much at all. Sure, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” has some of the great elements of the first two films. But the Rodriguez film repertoire is beginning to look like a bar with no liquor in stock but piss-warm chongo. He’s starting to look less like a Mexican and more like a Mexican’t. Dan Singleton September 23, 2003
Deep in Mexico, a stranger has come to look for a legend. The stranger is C.I.A. agent Sands (Johnny Depp), and he is seeking the legendary El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), a man of legendary and mythical proportions who is known for his battles against evil. With a military coup brewing, the Mariachi is sought to eliminate the cause of the threat and ensure stability to the nation. The coup is arranged by a general who killed the wife and child of the Mariachi and a deadly drug dealer named Barillo (Willem Dafoe), and with this scenario, the stage for conflict is set. What follows is a violent yet very entertaining series of events as the coup unfolds. Depp is amazing as his character blends the insane with the absurd and creates a character who is equally deadly and funny without ever losing the ambiguity of the character or his motivations. Banderas is solid as the Mariachi, who is driven by his desire for revenge while doing what is best for Mexico. His character is a folk tale that dispenses justice while fighting for honor and virtue like a modern saint. The intense action is handled well by writer/director Robert Rodriquez as he blends humor into the mix to create a solid third chapter in the El Mariachi series. While not perfect, Once Upon a Time in Mexico is an entertaining romp. Gareth Von Kallenbach September 23, 2003
|
|
|
|
