Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a review
Once Upon a Time in Mexico review written by Polish Film-expert Marek Martowicz
Death of the legend.
"Once Upon a Time in Mexico" stimulated great emotions and anticipation when its realization was announced. The cast, which consisted of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and newly added Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe or Mickey Rourke gave hope for a solid production. Promising were also first photographs of certain characters. Apetites grew with time.
I won't hide I gave myself away to euforia of anticipation aswell, being a fan of Rodriguez previous films from the "trilogy". Unfortunately, despite all sincere desires & positive attitude I felt completely disappointed with the film. For Rodriguez created totally messed up "shooter" lacking fineness of "El Mariachi" or "Desperado".
Action takes place in present Mexico. El Mariachi, the man who destroyed Bucho's drug gang all by himself, is now a legend. People tell stories about him, about his adventures but none of them really knows how or where is he now.
El Mariachi is finally found by CIA agent named Sands (Johnny Depp, who ain't spectacular here but it's nice to see him in a "bad guy" role nonetheless), whose main mission is to prevent drug baron Barille's troops from taking-over the Mexico. Agent Sands gives proposition to El: he will help Sands accomplish his mission and in return he'll get to take his revenge on general Marquez (the man who killed El's family few years back).
Basic problem with "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" is its script. The movie is simply a mess. Rodriguez made up so many motives, characters and happenings that a common viewer gets lost in the story after a while. What's worse, many of these elements simply lack any logic (altough, maybe it's an intended manipulation ala Bond movie, where main goal is to keep audience with action instead of making them try to find/figure out logic?).
In interviews, Rodriguez often said that he aimed to make a film which would resemble Sergio Leone's spaghetti trilogy in its construction ("A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"). Hence many references and kind of flashbacks from previous installment. Altough "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" is a continuation of "Desperado" it's not exactly consequent: people who were killed in previous film appear again or actors, like Danny Trejo, play completely different characters. Scenography didn't change though. Action is set in little Mexican town, firing guitars appear and sometimes quite pleasant guitar solo melodies. Everything might look OK at first glance but the ideas don't really grip your heart. I watched this film with indefference which turned into boredom & somnolence after a while, and not even constant explosions or shootings were able to break it.
Knowing "Desperado", I wasn't expecting that continuation will surprise me with complex and smart script. I was rather expecting simple story but served in light and effective way. Of course, I was disappointed. And even action sequences didn't impress me at all. Yeah, there's a lot of action but it's all old and used. Rodriguez juggles with succesful ideas tried in "Desperado". You liked shooting guitars? Lets mix it with machine-gun, flamethrower and remote bomb. Banderas and Hayek (who appears only for few moments with perfectly shaved legs btw) looked cool licked by flames of explosion? Lets repeat that sequence. And so on & on. It's a kaleidoscope of fireworks. Scenes full of brutality are mixed with grotesque ones. Finally, the very same violence takes a mask of comedy. Action sequences, stunts become very cartoonish & uneffective. Just like the characters. I don't know, maybe Rodriguez spent too much time making "Spy Kids" serie? Because I can swear I saw a lot of influence. If only you could erase all gore this would make a perfect film for kids. With cool gadgets, stunts taken right from "Daredevil" movie and Johnny Depp looking like Mexican version of Brandon Lee from "The Crow".
At some point, even the music began to irritate me. Sure, previously mentioned guitar solos were nice but symphonic parts become tiring after a while. I know Rodriguez wrote some of the score, he also directed the film, wrote the script, made photography, edited it and worked on some action effects. And maybe that's the whole problem? Maybe this one-man-orchestra wannabie couldn't bear such big production? He gave actors a lot of freedom, he couldn't concentrate properly on certain aspects trying to work on all of them and lost control at some point? The film took its own way.. into nowhere. Because when you're trying to out-do everything you're not great at anything in particular. And it's like with the story of "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" - it's about everything and therefore about nothing at the same time.
It's sad. Could be great film. This, I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Instead, go watch "El Mariachi" or "Desperado".
Summary