It’s a tale of El Mariachi (The Guitar Player) also known as “El” meaning “the” in spanish. His legendary reputation warrants his nickname. Everyone knows about him mostly through 5th hand accounts of something overheard which was relayed by a sketch of an idea someone had while conceptualizing the concept on a paper after overhearing some else’s conversation through a glass of water. So maybe he really didn’t shoot one hundred guys with only a manually reloaded sawed off shotgun… but he probably shot 97! Those crazy villagers, they tend to exaggerates these stories you know.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is supposed the 4th in the El Mariachi series yet is only the third movie. Desperado being the second and yes you guessed it, El Mariachi being the first. Parr said that the director couldn’t really make part three and thinks a lot of the jumpy flashbacks in the this movie try to tell the story of the missing 3rd. It’s a story of love, revenge, double crossing, action, more double crossing, drug cartels, betrayal, vengeance and um… more double crossing.

Actually I had quite the hard time knowing who was working for who or who was even working towards what goal. I was pretty sure El Mariachi was the good guy but that’s about it. Well, truth be told I even had some doubts about “El” in the beginning. Wowsers!

The entire movie, like the plot, if filled with quick movements. The camera work especially in earlier parts of the movie is extremely fast cutting. Quite possibly the fastest and most frequent changes I have ever seen and that’s saying something since I’m part of the zero attention span mtv generation.

The camera work was so fast in fact that it gave me an impression that the director was either trying to rush through action scenes or… and here is the interesting bit… trying to show the action in the same way a story would be told. You know that really unbelievable story that was told and retold and embellished started out in a bar by a drunk sailor who was dizzy because he woke up spinning on a ceiling fan in the middle earthquake which was actually a rather large lady sitting down on the bench next to him.

The movie, much like the last sentence, is rich with a tapestry of interesting and eccentric characters. Johnny Depp who plays a CIA agent (or an insane person masquerading as one) does a particularly great job of portraying his character. He somehow manages to be evil, approachable, funny, shrewd and gullible at the same time. It’s truly a delight to see his performance and even if you didn’t like the story of the movie it’s worth watching just for him.

Other characters in the movie include Cheech Marin, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, Salma Hayek and of course Antonio Banderas. They all perform a great job a representing their characters but they all almost seem like a back story to Johnny Depp who was far more interesting.

All in all I enjoyed watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico in the theatre although I wouldn’t want to buy it on DVD It’s is a fun ride it does get some extra brownie points for actually using the very excellent Pistelero music by Juno Reactor in a fight scene and not just in the movie preview.

This movie would be best enjoyed on a relaxing sunday afternoon.

(The following contains no spoilers, just my emotions and feelings after seeing this, one of the best movies I have ever seen)

Words escape me. My arms feels numb like they are not really part of my body, mere tools I use to type. The movie, the story was like a religious experience for me.

It’s rare that I get that into something but when it happens my whole reality suspends and I can question my own existence. In more simple terms, I’m lost, so pleasantly lost from the day to day humdrum. It’s a feeling of euphoric emptiness. Am I human? Am I a machine? Am I a set of random occurrences. Am I the result of fate? Can I make choices? Are they already made? Why am I here?

My god, any movie that stirs such questions and emotions deserves something much than an emmy or other such nonsense. It deserves a commendation for it’s service to humanity for asking us to question our own existence.

This very question, that has spawned religions, countries, countless wars and the drive to help other things. It’s a question we have been asking ourselves since the dawn of time. It’s one that might never be answered or perhaps is different for each person and their version of reality.

My god… what a movie. I’ve always had a weak spot for the whole concept of fate and destiny perhaps this is why I like the Dune series so much. I can’t express in words all the emotions, feelings and intuitions going through my mind now. I can only tell you that my current state is thanks to this, one of the best movies I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I don’t know what to say other than, you must see this movie. Meld into it, enjoy it and come join me in our time in infinity.

I haven’t truly enjoyed a Bond film since the old Roger Moore series of the 70′s and 80′s. Classics like Moonraker had the a wonderful combination of comedy, action, gadgets and yes, a mandatory plethora of beautiful women. The latest Bond film titled Die Another Day stars Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and is actually good!

I have to say I’ve never been truly happy with Pierce as James Bond but this film is different, the movie starts out in with our hero surfing into the coast of North Korea. After looking cool, using a few gadgets and issuing a couple of suave hand signals, James meets up with a helicopter during an unscheduled stop and switches places with a bad guy inside. James gets in the helicopter which takes off and he goes on to conveniently place a package of C4 into a briefcase filled with diamonds. He adds some finishing touches to the explosives with a flashing LED peg stuck through it, making mandatory “beeping explosion in a later scene” noises of course.

After the Heli lands, James meets up with some unsavory North Korean military personnel. The deal is simple, trade a whole bunch of diamonds for a whole bunch of weapons. Should be a easy trade except Mr. Bond is discovered thanks to a henchman’s digital camera and probably someone doing a google image search in a back room. The situation gets worse when the main bad guy demonstrates a new weapon on the heli that originally dropped James Bond off. Ka-Booom! (Depleted Uranium shells are really effective BTW). The situation quickly turns into chaos as the bad guys father, the true general of the North Korean army, radios in wanting to know why there is fire and smoke eminating from his base. He informs his son that he was already enroute and that he will be there in five min to inspect the area.

Our main bad guy then orders the super cool hovercrafts to leave the area. (Quick everyone mom is coming, hide the comic books and pixie sticks). James of course, facing certain death, sets off his previous C4 laden briefcase, gets on a escaping hovercraft, knocks out the driver and proceeds to cause some major havoc.

In the escape and chase sequence that follows, hovercrafts are skirting over mines, vehicles are blowing up, chain guns are trimming down trees and flamethrowers are making everything extra crispy. The chase is technically well done and ends with James Bond slugging it out with the main bad guy. They eventurally crash through a temple gate with the entire hovercraft going over the side of a waterfall to certain doom. Our hero james of course survives by hanging onto a bell hammer (horizontal asian style) as the bell rings over and over with his momentum.

All this commotion attracts the real General of course. James, surrounded and blamed for the death of the generals son is sent to prison, the special “torture you kind” that are becoming so hard to find in our western civilization nowadays.

All this and we haven’t even got to the main credits yet!

Well, I don’t want to ruin the movie for you but lets just say if you have ever liked any of the Bond films in the past, do yourself a favor and go to the theatre right away. This latest film is an action packed, visually diverse, bad pun filled, love fest extravaganza! Plus, any movie with John Cleese as an excellent M should probably be a mandatory film to see anyway.