Plot: What’s it about?
As a fan of mindless action/adventure movies, my eyes lit up when I heard about a sequel to “Desperado” and with Robert Rodriguez returning as director, it only added to the excitement. Rodruguez is a rather interesting director. Like his friend, Quenten Tarantino, he isn’t a traditional director in the sense of the word. He kind of goes with his gut and if the audience likes it, great; if not – that’s cool too. He’s had his share of commercial success with the “Spy Kids” movies, but his first “major” movie was 1992″s “El Mariachi. The served as a prequel to a more studio-oriented film titled “Desperado”. It was with this movie that Rodriguez found his calling and with a much more star-studded cast, the movie delivered on all levels. The two films eerily reeked of another Director who started out with two low-budget films and then went on to become one of our most admired directors. Sergio Leone, the man behind “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” went onto bigger Hollywood projects, one of which was “Once Upon a Time in the West”. That film, though much better, was the inspiration for the latest installment in the “El Mariachi” trilogy, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”.
As far as plot goes, well this is more of a style and substance movie, so if you’re looking to think while watching the film, you might watch another movie. But essentially, we see El Mariachi (Antonio Bandares, complete with long hair that falls over his eyes in most every scene) as he has gone into exile after the death of his wife (Selma Hayek) and child. Agent Sands (Johnny Depp, in his second best performance this year) is somewhat of a corrupt CIA agent who, in order to thwart an assassination attempt on Mexico’s President (Pedro Armindariz), enlists a retired FBI man (Ruben Blades), an informant (Cheech Marin), and a small army of mercenaries led by Cucuy (Danny Trejo) to uncover information about his adversaries. These include an ambitious general named Marquez (Gerardo Vigil) and a ruthless drug dealer named Barillo (Willem Dafoe). Sands starts to learn that the people he so carefully chose to manipulate have taken upon themselves to do what they think is right. Fueled by numerous motives, boredom, ambition or just because they feel like it, the players are thrown into a final battle (shot in a way only Rodriguez could show it) that could decide the fate of the entire country.
For those that check their brains at the door, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” is grand fun. Naturally, those that enjoyed the first two films will enjoy this one. I’d have to tip my hat to “Desperado” for two reasons: first, the appearance of Tarantino. He brings such an element of comic relief to the movie that you have to love him. He’s suspiciously absent here. And second, Selma Hayek does a topless scene in “Desperado”, but not here. Yes, those are the two reasons. Johnny Depp delivers a performance to prove that “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl – wasn’t just an accident, he’s truly talented. And to say that he steals the show here is simply an understatement. The ensemble cast does a great job and though it’s not too thought-provoking, it doesn’t matter – it’s not supposed to be. Save those portions of your brain for movies that your girlfriend will make you watch, at least this way you get to have fun, and most of all, see Eva Mendes in a black leather jumpsuit for the majority of the movie. Now who can argue with that? Bottom line, if the previous two movies are in your collection, this one should be as well.
Video: How does it look?
As the featurettes will certainly attest to, the movie was shot with new High Definition cameras, so in the spirit of “Attack of the Clones”, we have this movie. Rodriguez evidently loves the way the cameras work and will be doing more work with them, what we get is a great-looking (and stylized) 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It’s really kind of hard to describe the look and feel of the movie; it’s on par with “Desperado”, to be sure. The look of the film is that of very saturated colors, deep blue skies, reddish-brown ground and the mainly Latino cast adds to the overall color scheme. Artifacting isn’t a problem, though there is some but I feel it’s by the Director’s choice and not a fault of the transfer. There is no edge enhancement to speak of and when you’re working with a digital source, the end result will usually look like this ” great.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was mixed as Troublemaker Studios, located in Rodriguez’s house! We get a very interesting soundtrack with plenty of gunfire and lots of explosions. In fact, nary a scene goes by that someone isn’t killed by gunfire, a car or by blowing up. The dialogue is clear, clean and consistent with no distortion. The sound is mainly located to the front stage, but the surrounds kick in plenty of times to add some more depth to what we hear. This isn’t so loud that it’s just mindless action, but in the spirit of Rodriguez’s other movies, this holds true here as well.
Supplements: What are the extras?
I found the supplements on this disc to be among the most interesting that I’ve ever seen. Though that might be because of my interest in the movie. Rodriguez gives us a personal tour of his company (located in his house) in “Inside Troublemaker Studios”. He shows us how the effects are added digitally, how sound is made (he even gives us a demonstration and he makes it look so easy) and eventually makes it into the final cut. “Ten Minute Flick School” shows us a bunch of scenes from the movie before the editing process and then how they do simple little tricks that we see in the end result. Again, he makes it look way too easy and for any aspiring filmmaker, this might be a good place to start. Digital is the word and Rodriguez is evidentially a true believer in HD. “Ten Minute Cooking School” is more of a laid back feature, but he shows us, step by step, how to make that infamous slow-roasted pork that Johnny Depp’s character so loved in the movie. Just don’t shoot the chef if you make it too good! “Film is Dead: An Evening with Robert Rodriguez” shows him speaking at the Cary Grant theater to an audience. He tells how he got started in films and how he evolved into the filmmaker that he is today. Amazingly enough, his secret is shooting fast and getting in under budget. Simple enough, I suppose. “The Anti-Hero’s Journey” shows the course of his character, El Mariachi, as shown in the three movies. The roots of the original character and how this has all come full circle in some ten years. “The Good, The Bad and The Bloody: A Look at the Special Effect” concentrates on the actual dummies used for the movie. Depp’s fake arm, the bullfighter and Cheech’s body are three of the examples used and how they made the effects work for the film. Add to this two audio commentaries, the first with Director Rodriguez is insightful and informative. Once you see him talk on the featurettes, you get an idea that he has everything in his mind visualized and he runs about 90 miles per hour all the time. It’s a great track and though a bit repetitive once you’ve watched all the extras, it’s still the best one to listen to. There is also a sound and design commentary that concentrates on the aforementioned two areas. This isn’t quite as fast-paced as the other, but a lot of information is learned. Some DVD-ROM supplements are in place in the form of a trivia game, as well. There are four deleted scenes shown in non-anamorphic widescreen and available with or without commentary from the Director. He essentially tells why they were all cut. Four cast bios are also shown as is the original theatrical trailer. For fans of this series, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” is the perfect ending to the “Desperado/El Mariachi” trilogy, highly recommended.
