I agree 100%. That's exactly the kind of "fun" that I think is missing from Once Upon a Time.

It kinds sucks that a movie starring The Rock was a better movie than OUATIM.

Here's my vote:

Although I would have to disagree with this being his "epic".

you have to get your love for men in underoo's and the stifler out of the way since that might taint your image of the films.

haha, mutha ****a. Seriously though, OUATIM just didn't cut it for me. It was too dissapointing. I wanted it to have a more epic feel.

Finally saw this the other night. I'm surprised Ruben Blades hasn't gotten more attention because he was the ONLY character I liked in this film. Everybody else was unpleasant, uninteresting and unlikeable; just like the plot.

This past spring I would never have dreamed there'd be a movie this year I disliked more than Hollywood Homicide, but here it is. I haven't been tempted to walk out of a movie so badly since Armageddon. (For the record, I loved El Mariachi and liked Desperado.)

I thought the movie was great. I thought Johnny Depps character was cool and the plot was mindless but hey i wasnt expecting oscar winning performances or to see this running for best picture.......It was just entertainment.....

One big problem...... not enough Hayek.........She is freaking out.

In Desperado, its the song that Bucho teaches El Mariatchi when they were young. El also teaches it to that kid in the streets. In Once Upon A Time..., El plays it when he and his buddies are entertaining Mexico's president.

My question is, what guitar tune is that? Did Robert make it up? How do you play it on a guitar? I dig it. Thanks!

anyone?

As far as I recall, Robert made it up.

BUMP........since the film was just released on DVD.

Just watched the film. Generally speaking, I prefer to remain quiet if I don't like a film that is being discussed but I just found this film to be so without merit - a complete mess on almost every level (story, action, performances, production, editing, directing, etc.)...........and this is coming from someone who really liked "Hulk", "Bad Boys II", and enjoyed "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman".

To preface, I enjoyed both "El Mariachi" and "Desperado" but don't consider myself to be a huge fan of either one. As far as this film goes, Banderas was fine, though his screentime seemed rather less than I would have liked. Hayek was fine in her very limited appearance. Danny Trejo and Ruben Blades have no reason to hang there heads either.

I loved Johnny Depp in "PoTC" but his scenes did nothing for me (especially in the first hour or so). I'd go so far as to say whenever he appeared an already slow-moving film nearly stopped dead in its tracks.

I stayed away from a lot of the reviews and I wasn't expecting anything great but I was surprised at how dull this film really was. The "action" scenes (and there was a lot less action than I was expecting) did nothing for me either; I found a lot of the action to be - more than anything else - just plain silly. The film was a colossal failure as even a mindless popcorn entertainer; premium cable offers many B-grade no-name action films that are better than this. Man 'o man was it a bore. What was Robert Rodriguez thinking?

And someone please keep Enrique Iglesias far away from any future roles in film. I like Mickey Rourke........but what the heck happened to his face! I seriously thought he was wearing some sort of mask in some of his scenes.

2 reviewers I generally follow (Ebert and James Berardinelli) both gave this films 3 stars; I just don't get it. When it comes to "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", proceed with extreme caution. Rant over.

Just watched this for the first time as well. It wasn't what i expected, but i still enjoyed it quite a bit. The action just seemed less polished then in Desperado. Johnny Depp was marvelous though, and it was cool hearing him say "savvy" But reading through this thread, i agree with a lot of the complaints, although they weren't bad enough for me to ruin my enjoyment of the film.

That is pretty much how I would sum it up... It does seem the movie could have used "something" but I can't quite put my finger on what. Certain parts just seemed flat. Still I liked it though. 3/5 stars for me.

I had the exact same reaction to the "LXG" discussion. I guess my luck just ran out this time.

Just a few more thoughts on "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" now that it has had overnight to settle. It just came across to me as cheap and rushed film-making by (for the most part) disinterested parties operating under a "let's get this over with" and "collect our paychecks" attitude. The result to me felt like a series of disjointed, one-take scenes that were cobbled together into a movie. I seem to recall the word "epic" being bandied about in regards to this film, yet in reality I would say it is far, far, far from such. Frankly, it felt more like a weaker episode from that old TV show "The A-Team", albeit with R-rated violence. Anyway, I've vented enough on this subject.

To close with something positive, the forced (though you can bypass it) trailer for "Hellboy" was pretty cool.

I liked OUATIM, but it felt like they lost interest halfway through. It's like there's no middle. You've got a long introduction of all of these characters, as if it's going to be an epic. Then instead of developing them any more (or at all), suddenly it jumps to the big ending battles and betrayals. What the hell?

The film seems like strong support for the idea that Rodriguez should just quit it with all of the "studio rebel" folk hero stuff and just focus on the damn movie. Didn't he film bits of it between the TWO Spy Kids movies??

I passed up buying this because as a huge fan of the first two, this was just such a letdown. I may pick it up in the future if I find it in a $5.88 bin (where it belongs, though most of the movies in there are probably more coherant). This is one movie I'd love to see a Non-Directors Cut. Cut out the dozen pointless characters and make it a simple fun movie and it might be worth my time. Rodriguez lost me when he did the faculty. Then he made 3 annoying kids movies and then failed to make a comeback with this. Rumor has it that hes working on a new series of kid films so my interest in him as a filmmaker, or crappy digital videos made on his laptop maker, is about equal to my interest in McG.

I really loved this movie, my favorite of the series. I thought it was just excellent. I was never confused and it seemed to flow extremely well. I loved all the action and the characters, Sands being the man. El was was great, of course, but Sands just had that extra charisma. I thought it was hysterical in parts and Depp's Brando inpression was a fantastic little scene.

I must say, I'm very surprised by many of the comments. It's really making second guess my love for this film (well not really). I hear many opinions from posters I hold respect for (Sessa and Tarantino, specifically) and it makes me feel out of place. Did I miss something? I just loved this movie all around. I thought it was better than Desperado and just a little better than El Mariachi. I got more of a El Mariachi feel than a Desperado, and that was very surprising. It seemed much more guerilla than Desperado did. I think the Digital shoot had something to do with that.

I'm also a bit shocked by the people who think that no one cared about making this film. I hope you people can watch some DVD extras and you'll see everyone had a whole lot a fun making this one, especially Rodriguez. He even said digital film making is what allowed him to have fun making films again.

I guess maybe I just have other opions than most of you when it comes to this film. But like i said it is surprising, I usually agree with many of you.

is this movie any good? i see blockbuster already has it for sale in the used dvd bin! i habe heard nothing on this movie.

thanks for any input

We have a whole forum devoted to movie discussion.

Click here

And you're welcome

Before it gets moved, I'll try to answer your question.

It's decent. I can't hold a candle to the two previous films in the Mariachi trilogy (El Mariachi and Desperado). I enjoyed OUATIM, but some of the acting seemed flat (I guess I was spoiled by Depp's performance in PotC).

If you enjoyed the first two films you may like this one. As a stand-alone film, I wouldn't suggest it.

Depp stole the show when he was on screen.

It seemed like it tried to hard to squeeze so many stories into a single film.

The word that comes to mind is convoluted. Like jack said, it just had way too much going on. It lacked the tightness and conciseness that made Desperado so good.

It's the weakest of the three, but still a decent movie.

its a terrible movie...

I agree with Jack, Depp holds his own, but the movie is too convoluted for its own good.

It's ultimately forgettable.

I agree with others that the movie was unnecessarily complicated. There are too many characters with shadowy agendas, flashbacks, double-crosses, and too many things going on.

Had Rodriguez been a better writer, he probably could've juggled all of the elements, but as the movie stands, there really isn't a lot for the viewer to latch onto. He should've either uncomplicated the plot and characters, or hired an outside scriptwriter.