| The Mexican |
 |
 |
|
| 1/2 |
| Rating: Mixed Distributor: Dreamworks Rating: PG-13 Genre: Action/Adventure Running Length: 2 hours, and 3 minutes Release Date: March 2nd, 2001 (wide) Director: Gore Verbinski Cast: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, Castulo Guerra, Micheal Cerveris, Bob Balaban, and J.K. Simmons. |
| picture above from us.imdb.com |
 |
| Plot: A clumsy idiot (Brad Pitt) is forced to do one last job for a criminal organization. His girlfriend (Julia Roberts) tells him that if he does it she is leaving him. He decides to do it, and she leaves him. The job is to recover an antique gun, The Mexican, from Mexico. Two hitmen know about the job, and try to kidnap the girlfriend in order to hold power over the clumsy idiot attempting to recover the gun. One hitman (James Gandolfini) is move successful, as each hitman has a different boss. The hitman ends up being very nice, and considerate. Further journeys reveal the hitman is also gay, and yearns for companionship. Alternately, the hitman kills without evident remorse. The clumsy protagonist has terrible difficulty not losing the gun, heating up the situation. Also, it becomes uncertain who the protagonist should give the gun to. |
| Critique: The Mexican has enjoyable moments, but does not supply enough enough entertainment for a furfilling experience. The films has numerous flaws. Perhaps the most significant flaw is that the film is terribly overlong; the last half hour is tiresome. The conclusion is especially ludicrous. Another flaw, is that even though Pitt and Roberts share little screen time, when they are together they have painfully little chemistry, and worse lines. For that matter, for very popular and respected actors Pitt and Roberts put out bland performances separately. Also, director and cinematographer employ an excessive ammount of closeups. It lost the personal edge a close up should give, and eventually made me merely want to back up a bit. It was unintentionally claustrophobic. Also, but more minor, the gun discussed in the film is given many beautiful adjectives, yet in the film it does not look particularly impressive. The film has strengths too. It has a slight, but effective atmosphere. Furthermore, the supporting acting is all exceptional. Perhaps the director felt humbled by the popular leads and was not able to operate as efficiently as he could with the supporting actors. Another theory could be that Pitt and Roberts were lazy, and didn't put out their best efforts because the film was not ambitious so they had no need to work with all their tools. Although some of the screenplay is weak, especially in dialogue between Pitt and Roberts, there are good segments too. Interplay between Roberts and Gandolfini is strong, and some concepts and conflicts are interesting. The Mexican wasn't a total loss, providing some slight enjoyment and stimulating action. However, it's overwhelming flaws prevented a consistently enjoyable experience. The film cannot maintain interest, as from scene to scene attention may vary due to weak spots in script. review by supernothingman |