Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Tonight's episode:
In the never-ending quest for vengeance can anyone ever stop this guy?

Or

When good style goes bad because you sold out to do Spy Kids.

Boys and girls I just returned from the theater, having just seen "Once Upon A Time In Mexico." Now, to say that I was disappointed is, well, true. However, it was not such a monumental failure of a film that I hated everything that came on the screen.

In the past I have enjoyed Robert Rodriguez's films. Desperado was fun, the first of many filmmakers foray into stylized violence, the same can be said for From Dusk Till Dawn. Being just a youth with my experiences into the film industry I valued these films more than they deserved. Now, after having spent some time learning what makes a film bad I can see that Rodriguez is still a very young director. Never more is this seen than in tonight's little Cineplex filler.

Rodriguez seems to be quite full of himself, hey, I would be too if I just cashed a fat, fat, fat studio check for pumping out three family friendly films in the last four years. The first mistake he makes is writing the film on his own. Banderas returns as the gun toting man known only as El Mariachi. However, he has now become so uber-cool he is only known as El… Yes, "The." El is hired by a crooked CIA agent (Depp) to stop the assassination of the president of Mexico. Beyond that there is no story, oh he'll try to make you think there is, but don't be fooled, there really isn't. El's continued motivation in the film is vengeance. An old archenemy is brought back by Depp's character to roust El out and help him fight. Now, a revenge flick is fine now and then, but don't build a trilogy around it as the main source of motivation. The same conceit should not be used over and over again within the same set of films. Things go much better and look more developed when you begin to create situations that are splintered off of the main character's motivations, not just simply giving the same character the same motivation except under a different set of circumstances.

The rest of the characters have their own motivations, which spins the movie into nearly hundreds of double crosses. Seriously, there were way too many double and triple crosses to count, I think it got well past ten. You may think it funny that I am about to compare this movie to Attack of the Clones but I have my reasons, just hear me out. I felt that episode 2 was not a complete waste of time, only half of it was. Ewan McGregor is an excellent actor and did his best to keep from ruining the film. The same applies to this film, Depp, and a handful of other actors put in good performances just because they are really good actors. Many played their characters for what they were, mostly just shady Mexican stereotypes, but others saw something in their characters to cultivate and use to better the film. Ruben Blades, playing a retired FBI agent, Cheech Marin playing the stoolie for Depp's CIA agent, and Depp having as much fun as he could with his character.
The rest of the people cannot act to save their lives. Banderas, well, I never had all that much faith in him, Enrique Inglasias can only pout and coo for the camera, and fan and director favorite Danny Trejo (Razor Charlie in From Dusk Till Dawn) still can only play himself in every film.

The direction of this film is very lacking, it seems to be just about all over the place, as with the writing. Rodriguez needs to stop relying simply on his ego driven subjective view of his own visions and learn to make good movies again. I mean, the man couldn't even rip off his own directing style which he used to have before he lost it making Spy Kids. Rodriguez was once known and made popular by his gritty, earthy style of film. It may be the saccharin getting to him but this film really was not all that violent. Yes, this film was comprised of so many gun battles that it almost melded into one big one, but it was not violent in the least. Each gunshot was so over the top that it brought it into the realm of the video game. Where there should have been blood there was an explosion and the carcass flying backwards through the air roughly 20 to 30 feet. Call me desensitized but that just does not hit me in the violence reaction center of my mind.

Then, if there was any blood it looked purely like corn syrup. This movie was laughable at best. Speaking of which, the truly funny parts Rodriguez used to write are nil in this flick. You can see he is trying but every single one falls completely flat.

Back to the idea of the video game level of violence, in the field of dodging bullets, El is somewhere between James Bond and Neo. Actually he may be even beyond Neo because not once did this man get hit, it was ridiculous. At some point you just don't care because no one will never kill this guy. I actually think El is some kind of a magic user, he climbed a church wall at one point just as well as spider-man, and never have I seen so many guns appear out of nowhere in this "man's" hand.

The only point of focus for Rodriguez came in the form of Agent Sands (Depp). This was the most intriguing character by far. He had is hands in the most action, was the most stylish, and had much to lose because he is not the god-like El. If he had made the movie about this guy he could have had a great film on his hands. Sands actually gets shot, fumbles, and shows signs of human weakness, god forbid.

It is too bad that Rodriguez lost something in making the Spy Kids films and it hurts the rest of his projects. There are parts where he returns to what used to be his gritty style, but compared to the rest of the film these scenes are out of place and draw the viewers' attention to the fact that they are "gritty director scenes" and the mystique is lost. I now worry about the imminent return of Tarentino to the theater, as he is another auteur of violence, but has been out of the loop for about seven years now.