The Mexican

Language : English / Spanish

Year of release : 2001

Run time : 2h3m

Genre : Comedy / Crime

Cast : Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfili, Gene Hackman

The movie opens with the traffic lights turning red, while we hear a crash happening.

5 years have passed since the incident, and we find out Jerry has been working ever since for the imprisoned mob boss Margolese, who is supposed to be released after serving a 5 year sentence for being found with a dead body in his car, when him and Jerry were involved in the crash .

Because he apparently effed up his last mission, Jerry is being given another, by Margolese’s second in command, to get an antique gun from a man named Beck from Mexico.

This doesn’t sit well with Jerry’s girlfriend, who seems to like drama, and fight with him all the time, for the smallest to no reason (My God, she was exhausting!). She wants to go to Las Vegas, as she wants to work there, but Jerry tells her he needs to travel to Mexico for his last job, or they’ll k1ll him. So..she breaks up with him. And leaves for Vegas.

Jerry flies to Mexico, finds Beck, and while drunk, going to the bathroom on the street, the man is shot in the head by a bullet which ricochet from the gun of the men shooting in the air at a street festival.

Jerry seems to be the unlukiest person, as when he calls his boss to tell him this, his car is stolen with the dead body and the pistol inside.

While traveling to Las Vegas, Sam is followed by two men, one of them sho0ting the other, and taking her hostage. The man tells her he works for Margolese’s second in command, and he wants the pistol. He tells her he holds her hostage until they get the pistol. Sam tells him they broke up, but he doesn’t care, thinking she’s lying.

No matter, because Sam talks so much about her problems, mostly Jerry, the two befriend, and he seems like a nice guy, once you get over the kidnapping thing.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it was funny.

The movie is filmed on colors which look as if burnt by the sun (I think it’s called overexposure).

Jerry seems to be an accident prone, or if he isn’t he always ends up in the most effed up situations. I also like the way he acts, he’s sweet and funny. I also liked his interactions with the dog who’s obsessed with a deflated ball and the pick-up truck Jerry rents.

Although she says Jerry is all about himself, his girlfriend, Sam, seems to be the one self centered, and always looking for a fight.

Everybody seems to have a different story about the legend of the gun, called The Mexican, as it was made by a craftsman who wanted to gift it to a noble man’s son when he married his daughter. Everybody seems to agree with this part, the rest is a bit blurry, as there are different versions, involving a forbidden love story. The bottom line is, the gun is not working, or if it does, it backfires, sho0ting the one firing it.

The acting was good.

Gene Hackman plays a small role towards the end.

The soundtrack has Latino music, and sometimes it’s funny due to what’s on the screen. The rest of the time it seems to be Jazzy, and I don’t like it.

The movie was directed by Gore Verbinski, who directed the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and The Ring (2002).

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a C, while on IMDB it holds a score of 6.1.

The movie grossed almost 148 million dollars at the box office, against a production budget of around 57 million dollars.

You can find the movie on the Ok.Ru platform in English, with Romanian subtitles, or dubbed in Russian or Spanish.

Rating : Worth a watch !