Gringo (2018)

GRINGO, a dark comedy mixed with white-knuckle action and dramatic intrigue, explores the battle of survival for businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) when he finds himself crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal.

Director:

Nash Edgerton

Writers:

Anthony Tambakis (screenplay by), Matthew Stone (screenplay by)

Stars:

Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joel Edgerton	...	Richard Rusk
Charlize Theron	...	Elaine Markinson
David Oyelowo	...	Harold Soyinka
Thandie Newton	...	Bonnie Soyinka
Bashir Salahuddin	...	Stu
Glenn Kubota	...	Shigetoshi Yasumura
Melonie Diaz	...	Mia
Amanda Seyfried	...	Sunny
Harry Treadaway	...	Miles
Theo Taplitz	...	Justin
Paris Jackson	...	Nelly
Yul Vazquez	...	Angel Valverde
Hernán Mendoza	...	Celerino Sanchez
Hector Kotsifakis	...	Roberto Vega
Ricardo Esquerra	...	Sanchez's Brother in Law

Storyline

An exhilarating mix of dark comedy, white-knuckle action and dramatic intrigue, Gringo joyrides into Mexico, where mild-mannered businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) finds himself at the mercy of his back-stabbing business colleagues back home, local drug lords and a morally conflicted black-ops mercenary. Crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal, Harold battles to survive his increasingly dangerous situation in ways that raise the question: Is he out of his depth - or two steps ahead?

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Plot Keywords:

american abroad | american in mexico | drug kingpin | drug cartel | drug mule | 

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Taglines:

When you're in bed with the cartel, everyone gets screwed.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

rated R for language throughout, violence and sexual content

Details

Country:

Australia USA

Language:

English Spanish French

Release Date:

9 March 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gringo

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,722,420, 11 March 2018, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$4,969,853

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,001,627, 22 June 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amazon Studios,Blue-Tongue Films,Denver and Delilah Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Harold is told two allegorical stories about gorillas, one by his wife and one by his boss, he asks why everyone is suddenly talking about the animal. He is later told a story about a black bear by Mitch Rusk, which closely resembles the attack by Travis the chimpanzee on Charla Nash in 2009. This would make the third story about great apes that appears in the film.

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Goofs

When the bartender calls Black Panther to come after Harold, his phone's screen stays on, showing the actual time, instead of going blank.

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Quotes

Harold Soyinka: [Referring to Peter and Judas from the Bible] One was a man who had a crisis of faith and the other was a man who sold his soul for personal gain. So, you have to decide which one you want to be.

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Screenings: A Wrinkle in Time/Gringo (2018)

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Soundtracks

Rastaman-Dita
Written by Miky Huidobro (as Miguel Huidobro)
Performed by Molotov
Courtesy of Universal Music Latino
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

I wasn't feeling it

A straight-laced, play-by-the-book, honest Nigerian named Harold (David Oleyowo) is getting dumped on by everyone he knows: his boss Richard (Joel Edgerton), his wife Bonnie (Thandie Newton) and even his boss's partner Elaine (Charlize Theron). If you want to call him a good man that wants to do the right thing and please everybody then you can call him that. If you want to call him a sap that is ninja level naive then I would say that's a better description. He is so trusting and naive it's nauseating. The company he works for is involved in some illegal dealings and things go awry when he and his superiors go to Mexico.

To put it simply: I wasn't feeling this movie, not even from the beginning. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it an action? Is it a crime mystery? I was lost hence I didn't know how to treat the movie. One thing it wasn't, it wasn't good. It was full of hyperbole characters that you were supposed to love or hate: I hated them all--including the main character. Harold was so gullible he bordered on special needs. His boss, Richard, possessed every trait that you'd hate in a person which made him uber-unlikeable. His boss's partner, Elaine, had an ambiguous role in the movie but she certainly was a living, breathing setback for the #metoo movement. And Harold's wife, Bonnie, seemed to be in the movie only to complete the picture of how naive and pathetic Harold was.

The plot was not much better than the characters. It was a David and Goliath/Little Engine that Could/Underdog story that wasn't told any better than the millions of movies with such a plot before it. I think if the movie went all out comedy it would have been so much better. They were already using caricatures for the characters and there were a few funny scenes so they should have gone even more extreme with it and then we'd have something. But instead they were stuck somewhere between "to be funny or not to be funny? That is the question." So they just failed.