ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO

By: Abbie Bernstein
Review Date: Friday, September 12, 2003

Once upon a time, director/writer/producer/editor/cinematographer/ lots-of-other-positions-too'er Robert Rodriguez shot to fame by making EL MARIACHI for next to no money. Even if the meagerness of the reported $7,000 budget was slightly exaggerated, as some journalists have claimed, it was still an impressive achievement on its own terms, let alone in terms of bang for buck. EL MARIACHI begat a sequel, DESPERADO, which established Rodriguez (again filling many of the crucial creative positions) as a filmmaking force to be reckoned with and made Antonio Banderas as a star in the U.S. The reason was simple: DESPERADO is a near-perfect low-budget action movie, full of flourishes, insane, nonstop kinetic action and black comedy, with a completely captivating performance by Banderas as an itinerant guitar player wandering Mexico as he seeks vengeance for a crippling injury to his hand and the death of his girlfriend.

Eight years later, Rodriguez who here has directed, written, produced (with Elizabeth Avellan and Carlos Gallardo), "shot, chopped and scored" has turned the MARIACHI saga into a trilogy with ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO. MEXICO is reasonably good fun, but there's a slightly distracted sense to it Rodriguez has so many plot threads here that simply introducing all the different elements slows things down. He's clearly enjoying playing with some of his new narrative toys, especially Johnny Depp as rogue C.I.A. Agent Sands.

It's actually

easy to understand Rodriguez's fascination with Depp's character, who is as droll a scene-stealer here (albeit a considerably more vicious one) as he was in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. However, illustrating the machinations of Sands and his various cohorts and rivals the C.I.A. agent wants Banderas' El ("as in 'the'," we're told) to assassinate General Marquez (Gerardo Vigil) once the warlord has overthrown the President of Mexico (Pedro Armendariz), while we meet drug lord Barillo (Willem Dafoe), a wanted U.S. criminal (Mickey Rourke), a former F.B.I. agent (Ruben Blades), a hired thug (Danny Trejo), a wily information broker (Cheech Marin) and a sexy law officer (Eva Mendes) takes what feels like a goodly amount of time. We should be primed for major clashes, but because we aren't invested in most of the characters, their interactions sometimes don't pack enough punch to justify the amount of set-up involved.

Banderas, however, easily holds the screen when he's on it, and there's a wonderful humor in seeing him, Enrique Iglesias and Marco Leonardi doing their deadpan mariachi trio act in between shootouts. When Rodriguez is into it, his action sequences are great there's a funny, furious one with Banderas and Salma Hayek, reprising her role as his lover, trying to flee gunmen while shackled together, and Depp exudes such pleasure in embodying his cool, bemused killer that he's instantly engaging every time he turns up. His riffs are worth pausing for, but the jockeying between the other villains makes us itchy for the next shootout.

MEXICO has more plot complexity than DESPERADO, but its heart is clearly in seeing its heroes blast their way into and out of dire straits. The film is fine when it follows its instincts a little more of the lightning pacing and fearless lunacy of its predecessor would have made it still better.

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