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Once Upon a Time in Mexico - 9/17/03 - R - 102m
Antonio
Banderas - El Mariachi
Salma Hayek - Carolina
Johnny Depp - Sands
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Written by: Robert Rodriguez
Studio: Sony Pictures
Official
Website
ROBLYN
El Mariachi (Banderas) and Carolina (Hayek) reprise their roles
in this third instalment of the Mariachi series. We are introduced to
a psychotic CIA agent who hires El Mariachi to kill a Drug Lord. As the
story progresses, you don’t know who is backstabbing who. Sands
(Johnny Depp) is relentless but with humour (he speaks more in one scene
than Antonio does in the entire movie). Other appearances from an all
star cast including Willem Dafoe (drug lord), Mickey Rourke (Willem’s
“gopher”), Enrique Iglesias (yes, the singer as a gun happy
friend of El Mariachi), Cheech Marin (as a money hungry know-it-all),
and Ruben Blades (retired FBI, who I think may be going senile).
There is a lot of body count in this movie (that shouldn’t be a
surprise), and because I was prepared for that, nothing surprised me or
disappointed me. There were some scenes that blew me away (hint: cars
and people). I think Johnny should have got top billing as he IS the movie,
but because of the history with Antonio, Salma and Robert Rodriquez, I
guess that’s fair. I actually laughed quite a bit during this movie
(more than other people in the theatre…..I don’t think they
got the jokes 
. I
would actually rate this as a comedy (killing and explosions aside). There
were a lot of one-liners and subtle humour that made it hilarious. Although
the plot line may seem confusing at times (who’s trying to kill
who), there is no shortage of action.
I remember seeing the original El Mariachi only because I had read Robert
Rodriquez’ book on how he made a movie for $7000.00. The original
was in subtitles (which normally I can’t bare to watch as it takes
away from the picture) and I was actually impressed. I’m strictly
going by memory (as I don’t really have a good one). I’m not
sure if I saw Desperado…..if I did, it doesn’t stand out in
my mind, but because of the original, I wanted to see this one. If it
wasn’t for Johnny Depp, it’s hard to say if I would have gone
to the big screen to see it. Either way, I was glad. If you go to this
movie knowing that there is A LOT of shoot-em-dead and not a lot of intelligent
conversation (except for Johnny), you will enjoy yourself. If you’re
looking for Oscar contenders, sorry folks, it won’t happen here.
Bottom line, I enjoyed it for the humour and action.
Roblyn
