Once Upon a Time in Mexico is sometimes enjoyable to watch but it gets a little cheesy and idiotic. Haunted and scarred by tragedy, El Mariachi has retreated into a life of isolation. He is forced out of hiding when Sands, a corrupt CIA agent, recruits the reclusive hero to sabotage an assassination plot against the president of Mexico, which has been conceived by the evil cartel kingpin, Barillo. But El Mariachi also has his own reasons for returning--blood revenge. The desperado returns with his two capable cohorts Lorenzo and Fideo. And the legend of El Mariachi reaches new heights of adventure. The first two were good but I felt that this sequel wasn't really needed. This film is pretty much plot less as it was just a bunch of different action sequences. The story was weak and it seemed like this film was only run by star power and gory action scenes. It works a little for this film since the actors on screen actually do a good enough job. Not all the actors are strong though but most of the important characters are. Antonio Banderas did a pretty good job which is surprising since I don't really like him. Salma Hayek was pretty good eye candy but gave only a mediocre performance. Johnny Depp gives a really good and funny performance. He probably did the best and he was really entertaining to watch on screen. Eva Mendes isn't in the movie very much and even though she usually is pretty good, I couldn't stand her this time. There are also a lot of other smaller roles played by talented actors like Danny Trejo and Willem Dafoe. Robert Rodriguez does a good job of directing really gory action but pretty much leaves out everything else such as character development. The action is done well and its pretty entertaining to watch. The film is very gory well not over the top gory but it sometimes becomes unnecessary. The movie is cheesy as the story is kind of dumb and so is the dialog. The film doesn't really get dull though as the 100 minutes running time feels short. This isn't really a film worth watching but its somewhat of a fun experience. In the end, this may be worth checking out on video as long as you don't want a good story but just gory action. Rating 6.8/10
