Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)

Regisseur:

Robert Rodriguez

Drehbuchautor (WGA):

Robert Rodriguez (written by)

Premierendatum:

12. September 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Krimi | Thriller

Werbezeile:

The Time Has Come.

Plot:

Hitman "El Mariachi" becomes involved in international espionage involving a psychotic CIA agent and a corrupt Mexican general.

Plot Keywords:

Neo Noir | Gore | Violent Movie | Pistolero | Beautiful Woman

Filmpreise:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

An entertaining mess of a film

Besetzung

Antonio Banderas	...	El Mariachi
Salma Hayek	...	Carolina
Johnny Depp	...	Sands
Mickey Rourke	...	Billy
Eva Mendes	...	Ajedrez
Danny Trejo	...	Cucuy
Enrique Iglesias	...	Lorenzo
Marco Leonardi	...	Fideo
Cheech Marin	...	Belini
Rubén Blades	...	Jorge FBI
Willem Dafoe	...	Barillo
Gerardo Vigil	...	Marquez
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	El Presidente (as Pedro Armendariz)
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Advisor
Tito Larriva	...	Cab Driver

Alternativ:

El Mariachi 3 (USA) (working title)
Irgendwann in Mexico (Österreich) (Deutschland) [de]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, and for language.

Länge:

102 Min | Italy:101 Min (Venice Film Festival)

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch | Spanisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

1.78 : 1

Tonverfahren:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Altersfreigabe:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Italy:T | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 (DVD rating) | Norway:18 (original rating) | Philippines:R-18 | Poland:18 | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38421)

Drehorte:

Guanajuato, Mexico

Firma:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Dies und das:

The scene where Fideo shoots the soldier and causes him to fall over the railing was improvised.

Pannen:

Abfolgefehler: When Jorge uses white out to cover the INVALID stamp on his FBI badge, it is a sloppy job that will pass only the most casual inspection. Later, when he flashes the badge to Billy it looks perfect with no indication of alteration. When Ajedrez subsequently has the badge, the white out is once again very visible.

Dialogzitate:

[first lines]
Agent Sands: I never heard of him.
Belini: Who?
Agent Sands: The man you recommended.
Belini: The guitar fighter?

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweist auf/spielt an auf/erwähnt Brazil (1985)

Soundtrack:

Cuka Rocka

An entertaining mess of a film

The third film in the Mariachi trilogy manages the impossible and outdoes Desperado in the excessively silly stakes. This is a mess of a film; an entertaining one, but a mess all the same. If Desperado had absolutely no plot to speak of, this almost has too much, with characters and sub-plots thrown about, forgotten, then dragged up again out of the blue. I didn't really know what was going on from start to finish, except that characters wanted other characters dead. Cue an awful lot of action and gunplay, most of which is highly enjoyable. A gunfight that moves onto a motorbike chase around two-thirds in is superb, over the top and breathlessly staged.

The performances are fun, though Antonio Banderas is clearly no longer the main star of the show this time, this film is more of a showcase for Johnny Depp's bonkers government agent Sands who seems to have a costume change in-between every scene and overplays it to very amusing effect. Usually Depp can get on my nerves when he hams it up (Pirates of the Caribbean being a dreary example), but here he's a riot. Mickey Rourke and Willem Dafoe also appear, the latter sadly wasted with very little to do, though at least Rourke gets lines of dialogue now and then. Danny Trejo, a familiar face from lots of Rodriguez's films is entertaining as one of the bad guys, and it's always good to see Cheech Marin, here appearing as an informer.

This film is probably the slightest and most forgettable of all the Rodriguez films I have seen, but the director is so good at making purely cinematic entertainment that it's simply a joy to watch him have a laugh.