Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring:
Antonio Banderas - El Mariachi
Salma Hayek - Carolina
Johnny Depp - Sands
Mickey Rourke - Billy
Eva Mendes - Ajedrez
Danny Trejo - Cucuy
Enrique Iglesias - Lorenzo
Cheech Marin - Belini
Rubén Blades - Jorge FBI
Willem Dafoe - Barillo
Was it wrong of me to expect the third film in the El Mariachi trilogy to feature the El Mariachi character? Should I have put my expectations aside and said "it doesn't really matter who's the lead character as long as it's a good movie"? Well, both of those hopes would have been dashed because there is no real lead character in the film, which is just one of the reasons Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a bit of a disappointment. After the wild comedy of the low-budgeted El Mariachi and the damn fine action and creativity of Desperado, Once Upon a Time fails to deliver as both the complex character drama and the fun action flick it sets out to be.
The film begins in a similar fashion to Desperado: someone is describing the myth of the Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to someone uninitiated with the character. Cheech Marin (who played a character who was killed in the previous film, but that doesn't seem to matter, as there's also the re-emergence of the also-murdered Danny Trejo) relates the tale to corrupt CIA Agent Sands (Johnny Depp). Sands is planning to use El Mariachi to kill the general of a coup. The coup hasn't taken place yet, but it will in a few days. After the general takes out the president and wreaked havoc, El can then take out the general.
But that's just Sands' angle. You see, El wants revenge on this particular general anyway because this general killed his pregnant wife, Carolina (Selma Hayek in what amounts to a cameo role). El hasn't sought revenge because he thought enough blood has been spilled. For no reason other than Agent Sands proposing it, El changes his mind and decides to go do Sands' dirty work.
But that's just El's angle. There's also Barillo (Willem Dafoe), who's pulling the strings behind the military coup. There's also Eva Mendes as a cop trying to prove her worth. There's also Rubén Blades as a retired FBI agent who wants to avenge his partner's death at the hands of Barillo. There's also the President who thinks that the people of Mexico will stand by him, but his weasel of an adviser doesn't think so. Everyone has an angle and no one has enough screen time to make it compelling.
There are two elements which keep this film from being complete and utter crap: the action sequences and Johnny Depp's performance. Depp's Agent Sands is one of those fun slimeballs who never comes off feeling slimy. While Sands is obviously a bad guy, Depp carries the character with such confidence and style, that you can't help but cheer for him, despite his various evil acts throughout the film. And when you can say the line "Are you a mexiCAN or a mexiCAN'T?" and still sound cool, then you will be a great actor.
Aside from Depp, the film does have a few good action scenes. Both action sequences with Hayek are nice and there's a cool one in a church, but half of the action scenes fall somewhat flat. 
Director/Writer/Producer/Editor/Cinematographer/FX Supervisor/Composer/and most likely, uncredited caterer Robert Rodriguez has a lot of success in getting a lot of good shots in this film and the music is fantastic, but some of the action scenes, especially one set to the music of Juno Reactor's "Pistolero" are just badly chopped together. There's no real feel of kinesis and movement from the battle. For the most part, a lot of the action seems to be Banderas firing a sawed-off shotgun at bad guy, sparks and/or blood fly out of the bad guy, and then the bad guy launches backwards about thirty feet. It's fun the first few times that happens, but when just about every henchman death occurs in that manner, it gets to be a little tiring.
The sad thing about Once Upon a Time is that it could have been a great film if Rodriguez had allowed perhaps a few people to help him out with the writing and the editing. There's nothing wrong with having a complex character drama where everyone's playing an angle. It's just that Rodriguez's script collapses under the weight of what he's trying to accomplish. Rodriguez is so concerned with pushing the film forward that he barely allows anytime for the characters to breathe and be more than just figures who push the action forward.
Along with the poor plot construction, a bunch of minor problems hobble the film. Barillo's plan is muddled at best and it seems like the reason he wants to take over Mexico is because he's an evil drug lord. In a silly, action film such a non-reason would be fine, but it's hard to sit back and laugh in a film that, for the most part, takes it self way too seriously. The general is almost a non-character, so it's difficult to invest in El's revenge. The hidden motives of a lot of characters are weak, tired clichés. Oh, and the fact that Rodriguez manages to get Willem Dafoe in his film as a criminal drug lord and then hardly uses him is absolutely criminal.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico sat on the shelf for over two years as Rodriguez worked on the Spy Kids films. Unfortunately, the film wasn't worth the wait.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
9.17.03