Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
September 15th, 2003 at 6:46 am (Uncategorized)
I just watched Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) in a theater and I must say I was a bit disappointed. I believe that the disappointment is solely my fault, as the movie delivered everything it promised, lots of guns, people being shot and a touch of sex appeal. I do not know what it is that I was expecting from Writer/Director Robert Rodriguez, by now I should know that he is a good commercial director of action flicks, nothing more and learn to check my expectations at the door.
In retrospect I do know why I have unrealistic expectations of Rodriguez. When I first saw his no budget debut El Mariachi(1992) (original budget of just $7,000, the version you get on DVD has almost a million dollars of post production added, still less than a tenth of most movies) I thought “Wow, if he can do this with under $10,000, imagine what he can do with a full Hollywood budget!”. Well, I did not have to imagine for long because three years later he remade the movie into the half sequel, half remake Desperado (1995), this time with a few more zeros added to the budget for a total filming cost of $7,000,000. The remake looked exactly like the first one, only with more expensive actors and effects. Now you think that with this information in mind I would know exactly what to expect from the third movie in the series, but no, I was not thinking enough. Or rather, I was thinking too hard, which is something that you simply cannot do with this movie.
Trying to figure Once Upon a Time out will just give you a headache and keep you from doing exactly what you are supposed to do at a shoot-em-up flick: sit back, watch the action, then go home and not worry about it. The plot is unnecessarily complicated with Johnny Depp playing the part of a CIA operative trying to manipulate the war between the government and a drug czar to his advantage. You are never quite sure exactly who is working for whom and being set up by whom, probably because the point of the script is not to try and explain why but give our gun-slingers plenty of opportunity to empty guns at each other. Salma Hayek, who is prominent in the poster and trailer, makes only brief appearances in flash-back scenes (it seems her schedule shooting Frida (2002) did not mesh with Once Upon a Time’s schedule). There are also Mexican patriotic revolutionary undertones that while at times seem out of place give the flick a bit of a heart.
The best part of Once Upon a Time though is probably the clear understanding between Rodriguez and his audience that he has nothing to prove and you should expect exactly what he is offering. The opening titles say “A Robert Rodriguez Flick” instead of the most pretentious presentation of “A Film By”. A few credits later it states “Shot, Chopped and Scored by Robert Rodriguez” again making it clear that there is no pretension. With the relationship clearly laid out and understood the director is then free to just have some fun and play with the actors. Depp once again proves just how entertaining he can be when allowed to be a bit quirky, this time sporting an array of obnoxious American tourists getups including a ‘C.I.A Cleavage Inspection Agent’ T-shirt and a black sequined number with a marijuana motif belt buckle for the final show down. Antonio Banderas does not get a chance to do much more than look morose while remembering his lost love and ultra-cool while filling the air with led, but proves he can do both while still looking unbelievably sexy. I was curious to see how Enrique Iglesias performed and was pleasantly surprised to see that his charisma translates to the screen quite well. I am interested to see if he gets additional roles, hopefully with a bit more dialogue. There is not much to say about the rest of the cast, the bad guys look mean and the good guys… well there aren’t really any good guys but everyone pretty much gets a chance to shoot someone else, usually with plenty of blood squibs for a nice dramatic fall.
Production values seemed at times a bit relaxed. I was surprised to see that the movie had a budget of $30,000,000, specially with explosions that were clearly composited in, one assumes, to save money. The sound design was superb (you got to love the work done by Skywalker Ranch) and some shots had beautiful cinematography, but the overall feel was one of quick moving cameras being overused to help hide small production mistakes.
If you enjoyed El Maricachi and Desperado you should probably catch Once Upon a Time while it is in theaters with their glorious 8.2 surround sound. Just be clear what you are heading out to see: a lot of shooting and a lot of people being shot.
john said,
September 15, 2003 at 8:36 pm
I saw this yesterday, also with high expectations, considering what Rodriguez has done with the Spy Kids flicks. Those movies, while not being great films, have a a real flair and sense of wonder to them. You can see he deeply cared about those productions and was putting every penny of his budget on screen.
“Once Upon a Time in Mexico” was a disappointment in that regard. Chopped is the right term as far as the editing of this movie goes. In “Desperado” there were action sequences that were beautifully choreographed, and shot with long takes (unusual in action pictures) that highlighted how well the scenes were put together. “Mexico” on the other hand, resorted to that quick-cut MTV style editing that doesn’t allow you to focus on where actors are in the scene… kind of reminded me of the action sequences in “The A-Team” rather than a tribute to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone that Rodriguez claims to have inspired him. Maybe the constraints and stress of releasing 2 movies in the span of 8 weeks was too much to deal with.
Some of the cinematography looks very sumptuous, and I think makes a good argument for the proponents of HD video as the future of filmmaking. And, I did quite enjoy Johnny Depp, and wouldn’t mind seeing another film that focused on his CIA agent Sands character. Otherwise, I think we’ve been treated to (or exposed to… depending on your point of view) the worlds first $30 million home movie.
Leopoldo said,
September 15, 2003 at 8:46 pm
Very well put John. I quite agree with your review, thanks for the addition to the site!
Jate said,
September 16, 2003 at 6:42 pm
*SPOILER…well somewhat*
I myself am a purist. Upon seeing the trailer to movies I decide whether they are action, drama, comedy and what not. This movie looked like an action movie and it delivered. The storyline was a little too nostalgic of Desperado(If I was a woman I wouldn’t go NEAR El after what happened). I liked the dialogue (i love depp’s and trejo’s bantam) and i LOVED the action. I would recommend this movie to anyone.
Nick said,
September 16, 2003 at 11:21 pm
I think Leopoldo’s review is pretty on-target. I think the plot could have been whittled down and the number of characters whittled down to produce a more coherent story. I do think the editing and filming of many of the action sequences could have been filmed with more context, but I disagree that El Mariachi or Desperado did so. His style is not Leone’s style. It never has been. I watched both El Mariachi and Desperado the night before seeing Mexico. They’re of a kind.
I suspect that many of the issues with the filming came from Rodriguez filming in San Miguel de Allende rather than the small border town or whatever he used in the last two films. You can’t go around blowing stuff up in an historic city like that. And if you do, I imagine it costs a lot more to make sure nothing priceless gets destroyed. That’s my suspicion. I imagine a lot of the money was taken by salaries, too. Both Banderas and Hayek are bigger stars than they were. Defoe isn’t a nobody. And he had lots of other mid-level celebrities like Cheech Marin, Mickey Rourke, and Enrique Iglesias.
He needed someone like a Tarantino to come in and fiddle with his script, someone who has skills, especially with complex writing.
I think it’s the worst of the three, but still a fun movie, primarily because of the increased humor and gags. He’s not a Tarantino or Shyamalan. Both of those guys have more script mastery. But he’s still an enjoyable director with a good set of films under his belt. Even the Tarantino scripted From Dusk til Dawn was a fun horror movie, and I usually don’t like horror movies.
I hope this movie makes money because I trust that Rodriguez will at least make movies that are worth my admission unlike so many others who keep churning them out.
You should know going in that it’s the most graphic of the three. There are some nasty scenes.
Jate said,
September 17, 2003 at 11:15 pm
i agree the number of characters could have been cut way down. enrique iglesias had virtually no point in that movie really. he was kind of like the two guys from desperado but he didn’t have the cool quiet demeanor they posessed. instead i was just thinking to myself “couldn’t they give eva mendez that flamethrower…she’s hot”. although it could have been argued that mendez’s character could have been cut as well.
oh and nick i’d imagine johnny depp costing quite a bit himself. if he didn’t then he should have. he made up most of the humor and style of the movie.
Nick said,
September 18, 2003 at 2:24 am
Allegedly Depp is in semi-retirement off hating America in France, I think, raising a family to disdain America as well. However, he has a couple movies this year I think. Pretty active retirement.
I always get the feeling that Depp, whose work I respect — I never let politics or personality get in the way of the work if I can help it — does the films he wants more for fun and “the art” than the paycheck. For some people, once you make a million bucks or whatever for a couple months work it’s all gravy. I imagine he made big bucks for Pirates, another movie he stole (notice the use of the phrase “savvy?” in Mexico, just like Pirates?). Rodriguez had never really made a lot of money on a film before, so I don’t know how much the studio would have been willing to pay for talent. But he’s the type of director that talent probably wants to work with.
Linda said,
May 16, 2004 at 10:27 am
Antonio Banderas is the best!! He’s my favorite actor of all time!!
Ciao!!
Greetings,
Linda, The Netherlands
http://rossi_girl.tmf.nl
http://www.valentinorossi.italy.com
Brad Hause said,
May 19, 2004 at 2:16 pm
Sarah Afshar looks like a cross between Salma and Eva. She’s smoking. grrrrrrr, I love gorgeous women.
DeathDealer said,
August 2, 2004 at 2:07 pm
Why does this film always get so underrated?I think its great, especially with Johnny Depp as Agent Sands.
Caappy said,
April 29, 2005 at 7:00 pm
I want one of those dam Marijuana Belt Buckles, like in the movie!!!