The Mexican

DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: March 2, 2001

8.4	USER SCORE Universal acclaim based on 113 Ratings

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MovieMasterEddyApr 3, 2016

'The Mexican': Brad and Julia Misfire!

So Brad and Julia finally coordinated their schedules so they could be in the same movie! As mere mortals, we can only humbly imagine the awesome alignment of personal managers, agents, casting'The Mexican': Brad and Julia Misfire!

So Brad and Julia finally coordinated their schedules so they could be in the same movie!
As mere mortals, we can only humbly imagine the awesome alignment of personal managers, agents, casting directors and studio executives (and let's not forget their message-taking, coffee-getting underlings) it must have taken to make this event take place. I mean, people should win Oscars for that stuff, right?

But for now, let me take the time to analyze the movie in which these legends have agreed to appear as characters. This terrible movie in which they have agreed to appear, I should add.

It's called "The Mexican" and features Pitt and Roberts (oh dear, am I listing them in the right order?) as two misfit, offbeat lovers. He's Jerry Welbach, a bagman for a crime syndicate who is trying to get out of the business. She's his girlfriend, Samantha, who's dying to be a Vegas croupier and wants Jerry to quit his dirty work.

Unfortunately, Jerry runs a red light, causing an accident, which indirectly sets into motion a whole series of connected events. His boss is sent to jail, leaving the second-in-command, Bernie (Bob Balaban), to give Jerry an ultimatum: complete one more assignment or get killed.

Jerry goes with the life plan. He agrees to go to Mexico and retrieve a priceless collector's item, an antique pistol known as "the Mexican." This gun has a heartbreaking story behind it, which we learn about over the course of the movie.

Samantha is not happy about this extra mission, and she breaks up with Jerry, whom she considers selfish and incompetent at running his life. She splits for Vegas to realize her gaming dream.

Both run into complications. In Mexico, a freak accident leaves Jerry bearing the blame for a dead man.

This makes his bosses even angrier. En route to Vegas, Samantha runs afoul of two hit men (James Gandolfini and Sherman Augustus), who are battling each other to hold her hostage.

The one who calls himself Leroy (Gandolfini) wins the bloody contest and keeps Samantha prisoner until Jerry brings back that gun. Samantha, who's big on the science of romantic relationships, becomes friendly with her captor. And they bond, despite the situation.

There's much more to this, but I would tax your patience and mental energy to describe it all. On the Mexican side of the border, the movie rolls out the familiar cliches: sullen Mexicans sipping tequila in bars, cars being hijacked under gringos' noses, extended scenes of desolate landscapes, Spaghetti Western guitar licks here and there. You get the idea. Pitt has some very funny moments, but he's the only attraction in a pretty mediocre sojourn in Mexico.

Meanwhile, in the gaming state, it's time for Julia to be Julia, playing cute, crying, smiling, widening her eyes, puffing out that Firestone upper lip and occasionally dipping into that basso profundo voice for comedic effect. It's a familiar routine, which she can do in her sleep; she almost does.

She's not nearly as funny or appealing as Gandolfini, the star of "The Sopranos," a truly funny guy. It's his hangdog, deadpan performance that makes her character look better, which makes his look even better. When Samantha asks Leroy if he's going to kill her, he replies: "Depends on too many variables to answer right now."

Of course, much of the credit for the funny nuggets must go to J.H. Wyman's script, which makes "The Mexican" much more tolerable than it deserves to be. But for the most part, the movie – thanks to the uber-presence of Pitt and Roberts – feels patently inauthentic. For one thing, both stars spend most of the movie apart. Perhaps this is where all those agents and personal managers exercised their "talents," by making sure their clients got to strut their stuff individually, while smaller marquee names provided ego-less backup. The result: At no point do Jerry and Samantha seem romantically connected at all. And what is meant to be the movie's biggest concern – together or not – becomes its smallest.… Expand

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amheretojudgeNov 25, 2019

The film has an extremely tedious routine that it begs us to go through. All the amazing fireworks moments are just not amazing enough to distract us.

The Mexican To call the director Gore Verbenski's "adventurous" film an oddball is..The film has an extremely tedious routine that it begs us to go through. All the amazing fireworks moments are just not amazing enough to distract us.

The Mexican

To call the director Gore Verbenski's "adventurous" film an oddball is.. actually, perfect. You wouldn't get more "out of the box" version of a textbook con-this-con-everything film. The script feels improvised in every sense. The storyline follows a familiar, expected, often dull structure and the elements spiraling out the treats of the film or the originality- if we can call it that- of the film through adding a punchline to that very scene. Every scene, in fact, is staged and written in a form that looks like it is trying to dodge an unmentioned bullet. And that bullet is not shot out from the gun The Mexican but their own version of police from the subconscious department that never allows them to state what is in front of them. The physical sequences along with the verbal too, then goes round and round, making a tomfoolery out of it- that by the way is the joke of it all, especially Brad Pitt's character who as always is amazing in such sketchy roles- rather than confronting its fear. And when it finally accepts what it has to do, that it is time to be itself, completely, naked and upright. Those moments is what you will cherish. Fortunately, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini have those moments in their pocket. Their eerie bonding and the nature of feeding on each others' incompetence makes this drive safe and fruitful. Gandolfini shines from all corners commanding the screen like never before. You have got to have something special when you come out as the star from a project where Brad and Julia are at the helm of it all.… Expand

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