Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a 2003 action film written, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which also includes El Mariachi and Desperado. Antonio Banderas reprises his role as El Mariachi. The film also stars Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes and Rubén Blades.

The film received positive reviews but was criticized for reducing El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy, and also for having a convoluted plot. In the special features of the film's DVD, Robert Rodriguez has explained that this was intended, as he wanted this to be the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the trilogy.

The film holds the box office record for being the most improved second sequel of all-time grossing 122% more than Desperado. This film was shot before Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. It was the first film Rodriguez ever shot in HD.

Reception

Once Upon A Time in Mexico was released on September 12, 2003 in 3,282 theaters with an opening weekend gross of USD $23.4 million. It would go on to make $56.4 million in North America and $41.8 in the rest of the world for a combined total of $98.2 million, well above its $29 million budget.

The film received a generally positive reception with a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 metascore on Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story". A.O. Scott, in his review for the New York Times, wrote, "But in the end, the punched-up editing and vibrant color schemes start to grow tiresome, and Mr. Rodriguez, bored with his own gimmickry and completely out of ideas, responds by pushing the violence to needlessly grotesque extremes". In her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig wrote, "In Mexico, Rodriguez has fashioned a swaggering fantasy that pays homage to spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Plenty of blood is shed, lots of powerful artillery is fired, and action sequences provide astounding car crashes and fiery explosions". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and praised Johnny Depp's performance with its "winking grace notes of Brandoesque flakery ... is as minimal and laid-back as his Pirates of the Caribbean turn was deep-dish theatrical".

Cast

• Antonio Banderas
• Salma Hayek
• Johnny Depp
• Willem Dafoe
• Mickey Rourke
• Eva Mendes
• Danny Trejo
• Enrique Iglesias
• Marco Leonardi
• Cheech Marin