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Once Upon a Time in Mexico
(Reviewed September 12, 2003)
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Offbeat, fitfully charming but just a little bit...shoddy.
Writer/director Robert Rodriguez gets points for being a creative, DIY kinda guy (as the poster says, he "shot, chopped and scored" this one, in addition to writing the thang and pulling various
other duties). And there definitely are things to like here: Johnny Depp assaying his second ingratiatingly off-kilter good/bad guy of the year (following his swishy pirate of the Caribbean), Antonio
Banderas radiating south-of-the-border studliness with a smile, and super-sultry Salma Hayek steaming up a showdown scene (in a role so brief it is barely more than a cameo).
But the storytelling is confused and redundant, things go on a little too long, and some of the violence seems out of place in what is basically a tongue-in-cheek affair. For example, at one point
Johnny Depp announces that a dish he is eating at a restaurant is so delicious and perfectly prepared that he has to shoot the chef, then he proceeds to do so. Something about that killing came off as
gratuitous; I mean, just about everybody else in the movie that gets blown away at least has a gun in his hand. Color me constipated, but for some reason the killing of the cook came off as a tad stupid and
didn't make me laugh.
It did, however, seem to amuse Elijah Wood, who was sitting one row in front of me. Which reminds me of something more amusing than the entire "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" script: When
I pointed out Mr. Wood's presence, a journalist who was two seats down from mine leaned forward and tapped Frodo on the shoulder. "Elijah?" he said. "I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your
performance in `Seabiscuit.'"
Honest to God, I didn't know whether to bust out laughing or crawl under my seat. Instead of calling the guy a brain-dead moron, Frodo calmly (and somewhat apologetically) replied, "Sorry,
but I wasn't in that movie."
True story!
Back Row Grade: C+
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