Official Once Upon A Time In Mexico thread

[Despair]

Well, Since nowdays I have all free time in the world, and I frankly needed some cheering up, I caught the first showing of OUATIM today. It was one of my most anticipated films of this Fall, and I had high hopes for it, especially now in my harder days. So how was the movie, you ask me?

DAMN ! It kicked ASS.

Seriously, it was alot of fun. I had a great time, and for almost 2 hours it made me forget about real life problems and just enjoy the mayhem Robert Rodriguez brought to the screen.

Even if you dont remember Desperado, the film does somewhat frivolous recap of the story, but we can forgive the changes. Since its almost folk tale, with every episode facts change and more touches added to the fable. And then you get plunged into a new, even bigger and somewhat convoluted storyline, full of double crossess, intrigue, revenge and cool music and guns Dont go in expecting serious drama or acting, its not this kind of tale, but if you looking for flash and bang you will get your hands full.

Its a treat to see Rodriguez do an action films for adults. He is definately having fun with characters, new toy(he shot the film entirely with DV camera, simular to what Lucas does with SW now), and it looks phenomenal. As the opening credits tell you - its Rodriguez Flick, and its right. He also Chopped, Scored and Shot the film, and most of it done quite well. Film is full of style, cool touches and references. And actors having just as much fun with it as director.

And what actor ansamble it has - Banderas, Depp, Dafoe, Haek, Rourke and even Cheech Marin and Danny Trejo make come backs, but in different roles. Too bad Steve Buscemi wasnt in it, it would have made great reunion project.

Jonny Depp, steals the show(just like he did in Pirates of the Carribean) as CIA agent Sands. He has great presense, as mysterious and deadly agent, scheming and planning. And in later half, he's better, and shows off the strenght of the character in 2 extremely cool scenes(I will talk about them in Spoilers section).

Not to say that Banderas is not as good. He lives El Mariach role, and I loved the scenes he has in the movie. Sad and tragic family scenes, cool and andrenalin pumping action moments, and music, music music.

Unfortunately it smaller role for Haek this time, but every time she is on screen, its hot She is much more deadly than how we saw her before, and her little opening number proves that quite effectively.

Rest of the cast does a great job as well. Marin and Trejo have fun with their roles but both share unfortunate outcomes. Eva Mendez adds some sex appeal and tittulage as deadly and well bulit special agent. Dafoe plays Evil kingpin. Evil but not campy ala Green Goblin, so he is good. Mickey Rourke part of home sick thugg, who carries his little dog everywhere was quite odd, but he did it well.

The movie is filled with action scenes, and while some are bigger than other, many will have you gigle in excitement. El puts his trusty sawed off to plenty of use, and some moments will have you go DAMN. There is a great escape sequence where Banderas and Haek escape military assault, while being chained together, very cool motorcycle chase, and more. Action is filmed straight and bloody. Just like it should be. No slow motion or bullet time in sight And damn, if it didnt compete with Bad Boys 2 for 2 coolest and bloodiest head shots ever.

And as I said before the music. I loved it, it adds alot of sad and tragic tones to the story, and melodies work very well.

Now some spoiler time, so dont read if you havent seen it

Damn, Now I can talk about all the cool shit that happened it

I loved Depp here. His use of 3rd arm. The love for pork and tequila and lime and demise of the Cook lol. Great bit with Cheech Marin, and what little coffee spill might cause. Or how about C"an you hear me now", cellphone bit. Priceless. And whole BLIND gunfight moments destined to be classics. Just plaint cool shit. When Sands gets the Bitch with his hidden hand, it was perfect. And him and thick lensed cabby. Fuck Wook !!!

Banderas and his character did plenty of cool stuff as well. How about general 2 shotgun kneecaps shot OFF !!! BAM !!! Or guitar stairs slide. Or fight and what he does to guards BALLS !!! Just damn.

When Salma got to knife throwing and then proceded to kick ass of 6 guys it was the riot.

Sure its not flawless, and you can complain about unecessary convoluted story, campy characters, fake looking explosions, and such, but how about just have fun with the film? I honestly had an awesome time with it, and I would love to see it again.

It gets Despair Highest stamp of approval

[Gonzo]

I just watched this and I must say to quote one of Molly Shannon's characters on SNL, "I love it, I love it, I love it." This is a must see if you like Desperado or El Mariachi. Unfortunatly, Salma Hayek is not in it as much as you would think but you kind of forget about that with the rest of the cast being at the top of their game. The action scenes are unreal and must be heard in the theaters. Go see this.

[Rumpy]

Simply a wild ride. Full of twists and back stabbings and lots of guns. That sawed off is fucking serious. I had really shitty seats (2nd row from front) but it was still a fun flick. Being so fucking close I think I missed some shit (had to look left and right to see everything) but there is some quality violence in there. Nothing over the top and no major gore, but that sure as hell doesn't mean you don't see people getting shot. People dropping left and right in this flick. I loved all the acting and Depp continues to be the man.

Question: Was it ever explained how El and Hayak were chained together?

[Sqoon]

Did it surprise anyone that Hayek was dead? Everyone seemed really nonchalant about it.

[Korly]

This movie did an excellent job of "putting over" it's characters, or, making every character seem very important.

I enjoyed it.

[Dolemite]

*sigh*...sadly, it's no Desperado. Not even close.

Hmm...I seem to be in the minority here- I didn't like it. It's wasn;t horrible, but I did find it to be a big dissapointment. Why? Here's what I liked and disliked:

The story was a convoluted mess. Sure, I understood it just fine, but it was needlessly cluttered. Desperado was so perfect in it's simiplicty. Here, Rodregiez seems to want to be more epic, but throwing 300 characters and vague little subplots in doesn't make a movie epic. Plus, there were so many characters and Rodregiez tried to spend so much time with each of them that you'd almost forget about certain characters. There was a part near the end when El Mariachi shows up and we were like, "Oh, yeah, he's in the movie". And the ending with all the Mexican patriotism just seemed out-of-place. And Mariachi's sidekicks were pretty lame. The drunk guy's remote-controlled guitar was pretty stupid but the flamethrower was cool.

Overall, the movie totally lacked the sense of style that Desperado had. Antonio himself lacked the intensity and fire he had in the previous movie- here, he came across as a tired, sad, pudgy-faced old man. Not the same El Maraichi we all know and love. Also, Desperado had tons of merorable lines. Other than a few lines from Johnny Depp, Once Upon a Time in Mexico didn't have any.

Overall, the movie was pretty boring. It had lots of long scenes that dragged on, and Rodgrgiez spent so much time concentrating on the damn guitar theme that it got annoying. When an action scene DID come up, they tended to be sloppy and poorly edited, unlike, once again, Desperado. The opening shootout in the bar was classic (the rolling bar ruled), but the action scenes fell apart after that. It was very dissapointuing because the opening action scenes were so good, but they decreased in number after that and grew increasingly lame. Teh camera work featured so many fast and sloppy cuts that it got very annoying. the action started becomming disjointed. I know Rodregiez "directed, chopped, and scored" the movie. Perhaps he took too much upon himself. He really needs to hire an editor.

And how would a crime boss's daughter be able to get to high in a law enforcement agency? Don't they do background checks?

The advertising was so misleading about Selma Hyak's character- she was barely in the movie 10 minutes, and she was only in flashbacks. It would have been so much cooler if here and Mariachi teamed up together- they made a good pair in Desperado.

I kept hearing about Johnny Depp's character "stealing" the movie. Depp's character was very cool, but he in no was "stole" anything. He had some cool lines, and he had that arm thingy, but it wasn't a big deal. He was probably the most enjoyable charater in the movie, however. Depp's a great actor.

The whole revenge aspect in Depserado was the driving force behind the entire movie. Here, it just felt tacked on, forced, and pointless. It's like, what, AGAIN?!?

Well, that's most of it. I'm sure I'll come up with more comments, pro and con, later. But I'm very let down by this movie, as were the firends I saw it with, as they were big Desperado fans too. But if you liked it, more power to you. I wish I did.

[Despair]

Too bad you didnt like it D. I dont know, maybe me being in the bad mood lately, made me open up and enjoy it more. I honestly had fun with it, and didnt see that many flaws.

I liked revenge story here, it was more tragic then it was in Desperado, and while I agree that not all action scenes were great, there were few that stood out. Not every action scene Desperado was great either, and just like here, they were better at the beginning.

Maybe you had all too big expectations for it?

Hmm, I thought that Depp character was great, in almost every scene he had. I agree that it had too many characters, and we could have lived without some of the subplots, but the pace was good.

And come on, the remote controlled bomb/guitar was so campy it was great

Sure Haek wasnt much in it, but I still enjoyed all the scenes she was involved in. Again, what happened to her, added more to the way Mariachi story was played out. It was modern western at the core, with politicians and drug cartels added on, some unnecessary.

And how would a crime boss's daughter be able to get to high in a law enforcement agency? Don't they do background checks?

Well, Money can buy anything, especially in corrupt Mexico That is actually one of more belivable parts

Overall, the movie totally lacked the sense of style that Desperado had. Antonio himself lacked the intensity and fire he had in the previous movie- here, he came across as a tired, sad, pudgy-faced old man. Not the same El Maraichi we all know and love. Also, Desperado had tons of merorable lines. Other than a few lines from Johnny Depp, Once Upon a Time in Mexico didn't have any.

I think it was full of style. Some of it was different from Desperado, and maybe its because you expected it to be just like Desperado was, you were more dissapionted? As for El being sad and tired, it was just like his character supposed to be, he lost his family, things he loved and almost has no desire to live. As he says he already dead. But at the end, when he gets the revenge, you can see him change again.

Overall, the movie was pretty boring. It had lots of long scenes that dragged on, and Rodgrgiez spent so much time concentrating on the damn guitar theme that it got annoying. When an action scene DID come up, they tended to be sloppy and poorly edited, unlike, once again, Desperado. The opening shootout in the bar was classic (the rolling bar ruled), but the action scenes fell apart after that. It was very dissapointuing because the opening action scenes were so good, but they decreased in number after that and grew increasingly lame. Teh camera work featured so many fast and sloppy cuts that it got very annoying. the action started becomming disjointed. I know Rodregiez "directed, chopped, and scored" the movie. Perhaps he took too much upon himself. He really needs to hire an editor.

Again, Did you expected all through action film? I remember Desperado seriously slowing down in some parts too. Sure I would have loved all wall to wall action too, but.....

And as I said above I loved guitar themes But thats the matter of personal taste I guess

[Dolemite]

I liked revenge story here, it was more tragic then it was in Desperado

True, because we actually knew Hyak's character. Still, I liked her in this movie, and would have liked to have seen more of her. Plus, she's fucking hot.

Still, the plot revolving what happened to Hayk seemed to tacked on, as did the villian that did it to her. He was barely in the movie, he only showed up in the end for the showdown with El Mariachi. No reason was given for "El" and Carolina's conflict with this man, other than perhaps that he loved her or something, since he was walking around with her locket on or something. They just woke up with chains on and people started shooting that them.

Maybe you had all too big expectations for it?

Very possible, yeah. But a movie as good as Desperado can do that to you.

Well, Money can buy anything, especially in corrupt Mexico That is actually one of more belivable parts

Hmm...good point!

[Despair]

It was cliched movie love triangle: two man love one woman, but she chooses the hero, and the villian goes for revenge, and tries to kill them both. He only succedes killing a girl, and takes some sentimental object to wear. But hero who is usually thought to be dead and has nothing to live for anymore, comes back for vengeance, and at the end, beats the villian, retrives the object, and now has some hope in his life.

We seen this plot before(at least I did ), so it was nothing new here. Still I thought it was done in a good way, and it was better than anti-president conspiracy, anyway.

[Dolemite]

For a guy that just had his eyes gouged out, Johnny Depp didn't seem all that bothered by it. He also got a lot of headshots considering the fact that he was blind. Still, that whole part was pretty cool.