The Mexican (2001)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are a few reasons this movie didn't resonate with the culture. 1. Stereotyping of the stars. When you pair two huge movie stars (Roberts & Pitt) this comes with baggage. People, especially Roberts fan want to see her in specific movies playing certain roles to make themselves feel better. Movies are an emotional art. Break this mold, and disappointment. Roberts playing in Oceans 11 brings her back to that safety/comfort zone. This role had F-bombs, violence, and Julia was less than glamorous. Women like to see their star in a pretty dress "red carpet" syndrome, but driving around with some guys in a 1974 El Camino on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.Pitt came out of Fight Club in 1999 and there was still a buzz about that. He doesn't do comedy much (and is good at it) so this was not really a guy flick per se. The casting of the two might be the big blunder but they worked well together IF people could let go.2. The Title. Titles and album covers count! Hang with me here...one of the best pop groups of the 70's was The Babys. Every Journey fan should love this band, but four guys named their band, The Babys! Great music, lousy name. The Mexican, even back in 2001, was weird. I felt a disconnect when I saw the poster driving. The Mexican--Brad Pitt & Julia Roberts...hmmmm. They should have called it The Pistol or The Magic Pistol or something else but The Mexican over a gun with a unique history. Fail. This was a relationship movie, a road trip movie, an escape movie to test a relationship! OMG...how could they not get that!3. No Internet back then...really. People make gut decisions to see a movie. That is why they have movie posters to advertise when you drive, a 2-3 second opportunity to capture your attention to make a decision. Hit or miss. Desire or pass. If the movie trailers had Brad Pitt in close-ups, shots of his pretty face, typical Hollywood fare to market, they should have gone this route to get people in the theater. This is really a movie about relationships and that always sells IF lame suits knew what they were doing which is incredible--all that effort to make a movie and the suits don't even know what it really is about working in the business sector of the "biz"This move also has a great B class of actors; James Gandolfini, Gene Hackman, a new character actor J.K. Simmons, Bob Balaban (people would recognize from a Seinfeld episode)Good movie--see it!

This could have been an adult Bob Hope and Lucille Ball movie. It was as fractured as Pulp Fiction but without any of the reality. If it was intended to be a tongue in cheek spoof, that much was accomplished. I don't remember if the actual age of the pistol was mentioned but it was obviously a cap and ball pistol. No explanation as to why a pistol that old and treasured as an heirloom, was loaded. Julia Roberts pulled the trigger and "bang", the bad guy is hit in the thorax at point blank but, in typical Hollywood fashion, stands around just looking shocked. In real life he would have dropped 1/10th of a second after being shot. That is just childish.James Gandolfini's talent was not just wasted, it was thrown away. He played a great part for nothing. Hackman's character could have been cut out of cardboard. He looked like he was thinking, "Why the hell did I agree to do this?" Might be easier to endure with an occasional shot of tequila and a Dos Equis chaser.

The Mexican (2001): Dir: Gore Verbinski / Cast: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, Bob Balaban, Gene Hackman: The running joke is the constant misinterpretation of a story of a gun called the Mexican and those who fired it. Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts have broken up after she learns that his life of crime isn't over. He is assigned to travel to Mexico to obtain the legendary gun but everything goes wrong. Interesting setup becomes uneven and pointlessly violent. Director Gore Verbinski handles the humour and action well but the screenplay is a mess. This is a set up from his previous junk Mouse Hunt. Pitt never seems to be in the same movie as he is constantly messing up and proving to be the screw up Roberts claimed that he was when she tossed his clothes out the window in the opening. Roberts is in better form due to her kidnap and amusing dealings with her captor. Why we are suppose to care if she and Pitt get back together is beyond me. James Gandolfini delivers the best performance as a gay hit-man sent to kidnap Roberts and then learning a bit about himself and forced to soul search. Bob Balaban also makes an appearance in cardboard fashion. Gene Hackman is a great actor and he appears briefly in a key scene and steals the moment. Well crafted film about misinterpreted information as stories become warped through each passing voice that delivers it. Score: 6 ½ / 10

The Mexican (2001)A crazy, fun, off-the-wall, slightly indulgent spaghetti western styled would be Tarantino farce. It's great and it's lame compared to what it could have been.Brad Pitt makes it work most of all, and his half of the movie playing off of clichés of Mexican life, especially as seen through the movies, is funny and whacked. The other half of the movie features, somehow, Julia Roberts and that's the wimpy boring half of things. You sense even an attempt at some "Pulp Fiction" stuff in general, even with the dumb thugs and witty conversation, and in fact it sort of works. But not compared to Tarantino.It's fun to see what might be a whole new genre of movies developing over the last 15 years--camp excess, part comic part grotesque, and playing off of movie and storytelling clichés. Call it postmodern if you want, but it's mostly a different kind of parody than previously.One weird part of the billing of the movie is the two leads, who are together at the same time for only a few minutes in first half of the film (which gives nothing away). Later they have some screen time at once and are maybe less charismatic together than you might have expected.The director, Gore Verbinski, might have little to show for himself up to this point--but this might be watched as a turning point for him since he went on to further campy fame with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Not so bad.The fact is, it's a comedy (a black comedy, maybe, but not so dark in tone). Pitt is a natural for this kind of humor--notice that Tarantino picked up on this himself and so Pitt appears in "Inglourious Basterds" to great, similar effect. Here he's attractively boyish at times. Gene Hackman shows up in "The Mexican," by the way, and he's always effective. If brief.You do eventually wonder how it's all going to work its way together, the two very separate plots. The writer needs some credit for audacity but there is a longer term problem of development--taking a great idea and complicating it, making it matter, something beyond this great set of basics. You'll see how it goes, and you'll wonder how something so outrageous could actually get sluggish after awhile. And after an hour of more or less sluggish sameness you'll be frustrated.