Opiniones de usuarios

Being quite a harsh critic myself, I was surprised to see how badly recieved this film was. Admittably the film tended to drag a little length and was missing something to make it a little more entertaining.

But the film has some interesting characters, situations, and scenery to make this film highly watchable. Pitt and Roberts are good, but have put in much better performances elsewhere. And spend the majority of the film apart. I suspect the main criticisms of this film are mainly to do with high expectations: in having Pitt, Roberts and the Sopranos guy in. But in summary, an alright film - but nothing special.

Take "All About Steve" (cute dysfunctional romcom), toss in "3 Days in the Valley" (gritty crime drama), a little bit of "Silver Streak" (roadcom) and a hint of "Deathtrap" or possibly "Fargo" (dark comedy), then whip them all mercilessly with an eggbeater until it's unrecognizable, bake at 425 degrees for 2 hrs 3 mins, and there you have "The Mexican".

If you enjoyed all the films I mentioned above, you'll like this. It's polished, as any Hollywood flick with Brad Pitt & Julia Roberts would be, but it's quirky and odd enough to set itself apart from the others. The story is about a lovable loser (Brad Pitt) and his crazy therapy-inducing girlfriend (Julia Roberts) who end up trapped in a bloody battle to get a cursed gun known as "The Mexican". The plot has plenty of twists & turns to keep you entertained on the surface. But the real story is about unlikely relationships: not just Brad & Julia's bipolar romance but also unlikely friendships & loyalties that spring up between kidnappers & kidnappees, assassins & victims, American profiteers & Mexican defenders... like a good Clint Eastwood movie ("The Unforgiven", "Gran Turino"), the point is that it's easy to apply labels, but how often do you get a good look at what's underneath?

I mentioned that this is a dark comedy, and indeed there are about half a dozen killings. What makes it different from, say Pulp Fiction or Heathers, is that the film doesn't gloss over the deaths with comedic gags. That's where this film is unusual... It has a place for comedy, and it has a place for tragedy. It doesn't really mix the two. Thus you may find your emotions wrenched around a bit, and that may be disorienting to some viewers. But if you're ready for a wild ride (exactly what this movie claims to be), you'll love it. And it has a cool dog in it too.

Other good movies in the same genre include "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie), the hilarious "My Cousin Vinny" (Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei) and the classic "Foul Play" (Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn).

I'm genuinely surprised at the number of people who disliked this movie. Perhaps because it was a bit disjointed, chaotic, uneven, unpredictable and even incoherent at times. And that's just why I loved it. It's life. Yes, it's the crazy, seedy, shady lives of these people (the main characters being Pitt's and Roberts' characters), but at least it's honest... and darned funny. I thought the self-deprecating jabs at how most Gringos view Mexico/Mexicans were priceless. Raul!! The grainy flashbacks had my sides splitting.

People, this is a classic melodrama told in today's yucky, dirty, gritty, ugly times. A beautiful (if you look closely) story that doesn't take it self seriously at all. This is anything but formula Hollywood hype. It is a genius inside-joke that sandbagged most of the people hoping to come out and see a Pitt/Roberts version of Sleeping in Seattle or some similar chick-flick dreck.

When is enough enough? Never.

The Mexican really has it all. It has the feel of an old Western, mixed with gangster flicks and a nice romantic comedy. It's really entertaining and pleasing.

Pitt plays a bumbling slacker gangster criminal dude who makes a mistake on a job, and is forced to undertake one last job. The gig is retrieving an ancient pistol. Little does he know he will have to go through great lengths to retrieve that pistol, and everyone around him may be feeding him lies to attain it as well.

Pitt plays his character so well. It's fun watching him throughout the movie. He is what the slackers should look upto, and it's his best role yet. I couldn't suggest a better time in the cinematic world.

Spend some time with this movie. You may regret it, but I liked it at least.

7 stars

The story about the pistol is far from interesting. The continuous flashbacks are very boring and make the movie move in an even slower tempo. Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts who play the lovers Jerry and Samantha have absolutely no chemistry together. Julia Roberts usually isn't believable as someone's love interest so I'd blame it on her. How she became part of the A-list is beyond me. She's not Oscar-material (Hollywood obviously disagrees) but I guess one could call her an okay actress. However in this movie Roberts' character Samantha is such a dislikeable person that I have trouble watching any scenes she's in. In all fairness I guess the writers' are more to blame for the character's flaws than Roberts. Throughout the movie Jerry and Samantha fight constantly. Now, I do think that a quarrelling couple can be sexy, passionate and interesting but that unfortunately does not include Jerry and Samantha. I just can't see them either have a past or a future together. Luckily enough Pitt and Roberts only have a few scenes together. However even though Roberts have better chemistry with James Gandolfini her character Samantha is so annoying and boring that I never stand watching their scenes together. Despite Gandolfini's wonderful acting. What I find entertaining (yes, there is actually some good moments) about this movie is Jerry's and his partner Ted's run in with the locals. Brad Pitt's Jerry is a charming fool and J.K. Simmons is perfectly cast as Ted. My favourite scene is the conversation between Jerry and the car thief (Rochard Coca) when Jerry has to shoot him in the foot. The funny moments are unfortunately few and far between and I'd rate this movie a 5 out of 10 or a weak 6.

Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) is a gangster who has recently received two ultimatums. The first from his mafia boss, who gave him the mission to travel to Mexico in order to bring back a priceless antique pistol, called "the Mexican", which carries with it a legendary curse. The second is his own girlfriend, Samantha Barzel (Julia Roberts), who urges Jerry to quit his gangster job and get honest employment. While Samantha threatens to dump him, Jerry's boss threatens to kill him if he doesn't retrieve the pistol. Between the two threats, Jerry decides to go to Mexico to bring "the Mexican", especially after learning that Samantha will be held hostage by the mobsters until he returns with the legendary pistol.

Mixing several characters, director Gore Verbinski weaves together a complicated script, full of subtexts, and knows how to efficiently balance comic and violent scenes. Not bad for someone who had only directed one feature film before, the fun "Mouse Hunt". This large number of plots, reminiscent of the style of Games, Traps and Two Smoking Barrels, makes The Mexican a film that demands a lot of attention from the viewer.

"The Mexican," manages to assemble its dream team of box-office heartthrobs Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, seems to promise a captivating romantic comedy, but what it really delivers, however, is an offbeat road-movie type that keeps Roberts and Pitt apart for nearly all of its lengthy runtime, during which time it rambles unevenly over the same ground as better films like "Raising Arizona," "Midnight Run" and "Romancing the Stone," accompanied by a nostalgic soundtrack in the style of Tarantino, composed by Alan Silvestri, incongruously marking moments of high tension or violence.

The elements are all familiar: a perilous quest into unfamiliar territory, a clueless foreigner in a hostile environment, a tough guy burdened with a reluctant locale that drives him crazy until they start to bond, filled with shady characters and, course, a series of twists. There's some freshness here amidst the formula, but mainstream audiences might find "The Mexican" a long, slow, too violent and off-putting film. Some movie fans and critics might find it a wonderful find. But only the absence of worthwhile competition -- and an excellent performance from "The Sopranos' James Gandolfini (who spends far more screen time with Roberts than Pitt does) -- qualifies this middling effort as a modest success by any means. Pattern.

Director Gore Verbinski says his "concept for the pistol is simply that love is worth fighting for". The movie contains a lot of fighting, mostly shooting (virtually every character in the movie fires a gun, gets shot, and several people are killed); and some of them are motivated by love. Still, none of this can really be described as "fighting for" love, unless you think of it as "fighting for love" when, after someone kills your lover, you either kill that person or yourself.

The "Mexican" is the McGuffin of the film, the one everyone is looking for. Jerry (Pitt, displaying real comedic talent) is after him because his accidental involvement with an underworld figure has made him a reluctant mobster, and despite his abysmal record, his bosses have decided to entrust him with the task of going to Mexico to recover the priceless firearm. Jerry's bosses have their reasons for seeking the weapon, but there are also others who want it for reasons of their own. Samantha (Roberts, also funny, but who also has some great, more emotional passages) is one of the few characters in the film who isn't after the gun - yet, being Jerry's girlfriend, she's involved whether she wants to or not. Furious with Jerry for his involvement in yet another mission for the mob, Samantha leaves alone for Las Vegas, where two rival gunmen are vying for her kidnapping. The survivor (Gandolfini) tells her that her name is Leroy and that he is taking her as collateral to ensure Jerry hands over the gun.

James Gandolfini has a formidable presence and great comic timing, and he almost steals the movie. He also has some of the best lines. My favorite moment with him and Sam involves a gas station women's restroom, a locked door, and a back window: In a way, I feel like I've been waiting for years for some movie to show me that exact scene. And the sensitive "girl talk" quality of her exchanges with Sam puts a new spin on the familiar device of the Stockholm syndrome bond between abductee and abductor.

Still, one can't help but wonder: did the film help by making Gandolfini's character a homosexual and by making such a fuss about his homosexuality? Is the concept of a gay killer supposed to be inherently funny? Does the fact that he's gay make your girl talk with Sam funnier? Couldn't he be straight and still be sensitive - and wouldn't that be arguably funnier? Finally, is even gay viewers likely to appreciate another gay character who is also a cold-blooded killer (and worse)? Perhaps the thinking was that he had to be gay to avoid sexual tension with Roberts (who at first wonders if he's going to rape her, and then, when he shows a distinct lack of interest in the possibility, is offended until she imagines he finds out that he is gay). However, Roberts' character is so abrasive that it's not hard to imagine a straight man not interested in her. Either way, there's a tiresome and unpleasant subplot with the killer making out and sleeping with a gay postman (Michael Cerveris, displaying none of Gandolfini's charisma), as Roberts looks on with glowing approval. Would she have thought it so wonderful if he was a straight man who had gotten a woman?

There are two questions that "The Mexican" keeps coming back to in its narrative: first, if you really love someone but you just can't make it work, when do you get to that point where enough is enough? And second, do you like sex and travel? To its credit, the movie knows what the right answer is to the first question - and what the wrong answer is to the second question, which shouldn't have been asked in the first place. The plot is about fidelity, about never giving up on love, about forgiveness and sacrifice. But it's also about shooting people. Gore Verbinski, who previously directed the slapstick comedy "Mouse Hunt," successfully balances action with romance and dark humor. While the movie appears to end on three separate occasions, two of them are too Hollywoody for eccentric partners in a low-budget movie. But the point of the exercise is to bring Brad and Julia together.

I actually liked this movie. I think it's a little underrated if you ask me. The movie had good actors in it such as Brad Pitt,Julia Roberts, and James Gandolfini. Brad Pitt was pretty funny in this movie and James Gandolfini was really good as the bad gay guy with a pretty good heart. It had a pretty good story to finding the ancient gun before another guy gets it. Some ppl can think its pointless and boring but I thought i was pretty entertaining. It's a good western type of Mexican movie. The script was written pretty well and the action was good also. The story of the gun was pretty cool about the beautiful bride and poor boy.

7/10

GOOD - Story was interesting the first time around.....loved the cinematography; nice Mexican scenery.... liked Brad Pitt's dialog and his character was fun to watch.....enjoyed the few side-bits with the dog and was surprised when Gene Hackman showed up late in the film.

BAD - Julia Roberts ruined this film, at least by the second viewing. She was either yelling at Pitt all the time or gushing over a hit-man who admitted he was gay, and both routines wore thin. She thought (being gay) that was just the greatest thing and really overdid it.

Overall, if you modified Roberts' character into someone less abrasive this might have been a "keeper."

Director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter J.H. Wyman open and close their character caper "The Mexican" atrociously...but there are some appealing scenes in-between for those who can stay the course. Julia Roberts isn't convincing for a second squabbling with boyfriend Brad Pitt over a balcony in a parking lot (he's involved with mobsters and is assigned to track down a priceless antique pistol they covet; she disapproves). However, both the film and Julia temporarily improve (she is particularly good in her chatty moments with gay hitman James Gandolfini, who's the real star of the picture). Nearly every scene that pairs Roberts with Pitt are weak, which could be the fault of the scattershot script. Wyman tries combining too many different elements into his mix, eventually leaving one character shafted far too early. This leads to an elongated finale stretched 20 minutes beyond the breaking point. Too bad: this might have been a wonderful black comedy, but the filmmakers didn't bother to take audiences' feelings into consideration. *1/2 from ****

Personally I had a very good time watching this movie, but it seems like I'm one of the few. I don't know why, but the voters on this website always seem to hate comedies if they aren't from the hand of some cult-director. Does a movie always have to be a great drama or an exciting thriller? Not if you ask me, but I'm only one of many over here of course.

It's true, the movie is a little chaotic from time to time. It isn't an overproduced Hollywood movie that takes itself too serious and that's exactly where its charm is in it for me. I loved to see Brad Pitt as the clumsy criminal who always is able to do something wrong. The same for Julia Roberts as his hysterical girlfriend and James Gandolfini as the gay hit man who has kidnapped her.

I know, it's not done to say that you liked to see Julia Roberts play a certain role and Brad Pitt can never be good as a comical actor... Well, perhaps it is time for some people to broaden their minds. Don't believe what everybody says, watch it for yourself and form your own opinion. I liked it and I give it an 8/10.

It's a comedy, it's a slim drama, it's an adventure tale, with an amusingly presented Mexican legend inserted every once in a while.

You have to wonder whether there's enough room on the big screen for two megastars such as Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. The truth is you have Brad on the one hand who's cool and even fairly talented. Yet on the other hand there's Julia Roberts, lacking much talent and losing her appeal on the big screen at an accelerating rate. Well it seems to me the director has taken this into account and has left Julia out of most of the movie, and thankfully spared us slotting the two together in too many scenes.

With movies about Mexico the flavour of the month this movie does little to inspire you, and gives even less of an insight into Mexicans and their way of life. Big Brad will entertain the ladies though, and with a few blank expressions and appropriate comments, most of the audience seemed to go home happy.

I have heard a lot of criticism (sp?) on this movie for various reasons. I have to say that I agree to pretty much every one. The plot is sketchy and incoherent at times, it crosses too many genres, etc. etc. The characters don't fit together right, but that's alright. For me all the flaws are what makes me want to watch The Mexican. For some reason I love this flick, even though I don't really know anyone else who cares for it! Why do I like this movie? I haven't figured that out yet, but I believe it's because I never tried to read that much into it, just sat back and took the trip. It will never make my top 10, but that doesn't mean its not worth repeated viewings. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot.

This is not a bad movie. Good cast with an original plot. Some comic moments as well as a western gangster feel to it. Entertaining.

GOOD POINTS

*** The fact that, despite expectations, The Mexican avoided to be a soapy romance comedy, relying only on the relationship between Pitt and Roberts.

*** The story - pretty complex and well written, also very original, something you don't see too often nowadays.

*** Brad Pitt. Although his character isn't too great, and he can't act like he did in 12 Monkeys, Fight Club or Snatch, he is really good as Jerry, the guy that goes to Mexico to recover the priceless gun.

*** Julia Roberts. She is again terrific, managing to give depth and value to her absolutely annoying character.

*** Some scenes in the movie - eg: the ones with the dog, especially when Pitt threatens him with the gun.

*** Some lines in the movie. I ain't gonna stay here and tell you the lines i liked, you'll find that out by yourselves if you Forrest Gump your way through the movie.

*** Gandolfini. Great actor, as he always was.

BAD POINTS

*** The fact that during the whole movie you have the feeling that you're watching a low class film. I don't know why is that.

*** Some parts of the action, totally unappropriate. Eg: the 3 different stories around the gun.

*** the ending. Well not all the ending, but the part after Roberts says "Wrong answer" and then... BANG!!!

*** Some plot holes - including the fact that american citizens don't need passports to get to Mexico, which is an important part of the film.

All in all, an enjoyable watch, but nothing out of the ordinary. Vote: 6.5 out of 10.

Funny, I laughed a lot. Mostly because of its reality. Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts were so funny, no glamour just real people. I just enjoyed it. No it is not rocket science as far as films go but it was just entertaining. The chemistry is there and I could not help but really like Jerry. He was plain cute.

On the surface this might appear to be a relatively entertaining film since it stars two big names , but stop to consider the careers of both Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt . Roberts was unbelievably lucky to have won the Oscar for ERIN BROCKOVICH while Pitt is obviously a film star due to his sexy boy looks . You're right i'm slightly jealous of Pitt's physique and his face and even more jealous still that he's made a massively successful career out of it and like everything else he's appeared in THE Mexican shows Pitt is not much of an actor

The plot revolves around gangster Jerry Walbach being sent down to Mexico by the mob to collect an antique firearm called " The Mexican " and while he's away his girlfriend Samantha is kidnapped by a hit-man called Winston Baldry who also wants to get his hands on The Mexican . I'm not sure if the premise would have allowed for many laughs but what's obvious on screen is that Roberts and Pitt try and milk the humour for all it's worth . This is a mistake because the comedy should come out of the situations the characters find themselves in not by Roberts and Pitt mugging for the camera , shouting or waving their arms about trying to convince the audience that this is a funny film . Even worse is the casting of James Gandolfini as Winston since he's written as a gay version of Tony Soprano , effectively we've got Gandolfini playing a distractingly similar role that he's best known for . Thankfully we don't see JK Simmons playing the head of The Ayran Brotherhood but his character is such a wimp I found myself wishing he'd say something like " From now on Jerry your ass belongs to me " while craving a swastika onto his victim's flesh . It's probably also a mistake to have Gene Hackman in here since his scene seems to have been written just so we'd get a cameo from a living legend . Anything that prolongs the running time of this movie receives harsh judgement from me

THE Mexican is a comedy that I found to be far from entertaining . The casting of such big names must have cost a lot of money and more time and attention should have been taken with the script and you do get the irritating feeling that the producers thought having a couple of big names in the movie everything would have taken care of itself . Obviously it didn't . Some people on the message boards have complained that this is the worst movie ever when in fact it's not even the worst movie Brad Pitt has appeared in , but unless you're a die hard fan of either Roberts or Pitt there's not much point in seeing this amigo

Gore Verbinski's "The Mexican" (2001) attempts to blend a quirky road trip comedy with a crime thriller, but ultimately falls flat, delivering a lukewarm and utterly unmemorable cinematic experience. The film suffers from a severe lack of narrative cohesion, meandering aimlessly between its comedic elements and moments of genuine peril without ever truly committing to either. The supposed "charming" interactions between the characters, despite the star power of Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, feel forced and contrived, lacking the genuine spark necessary to engage the audience. The dialogue, often laden with repetitive bickering and uninspired attempts at humor, feels painfully artificial, as if the writers simply strung together a series of disjointed scenes without any regard for natural conversation or consistent tone. Instead of a fresh and engaging genre blend, it offers a superficial and often irritating spectacle of mismatched intentions.

Is it worth watching? No, unless you have an exceptionally high tolerance for tonal inconsistency and a desire to see talented actors wasted in a meandering plot. There are far more cohesive and entertaining crime comedies available.

This is one of those movies, I guess that some people love and most people hate. I am the latter of the two people. The trailers do this film no justice at all since they imply that it will be another 'Pulp Fiction' type movie with stylish characters, witty dialogue, dark humor and over the top violence played for sinful pleasures and shock value. This film contains the last of these promises, and that's about it.

My roommate and his girlfriend, who love this movie made me watch it one night. Being a huge movie buff, and a fan of Brad Pitt, I had incredible expectations for this flick, but they were all shot down, beginning with Julia Roberts' annoying scene where she tosses all of Brad Pitt's stuff out a window in a fit of rage. As I sat there watching this film, the other couple in the room kept laughing hysterically at the jokes and slapstick in this film. Needless to say, I sat bewildered as to how anyone can think this movie is funny, let alone enjoyable. Now, I am one of those people who enjoy most movies with over the top silly humor like Monty Python, Road Trip or Deuce Bigalow, and I love to laugh for the simple point of laughing, even if the material isn't exactly up to Python brilliance, but how can someone think that "I need a ride-o in your truck-o to the el town-o" is the least bit funny? There's a fine line between juvenile humor (which even the most serious of us enjoy, even though they don't admit it) and a pathetic attempt at juvenile humor (Enter "The Mexican"). Trust me, this is coming from a guy who finds humor in almost anything. This movie had me sitting there, hoping that something entertaining would happen. No such luck here.

With a film with Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini (and though I don't like her, Julia Roberts) one would think that the movie would be good, if not great. But once again, Hollywood proves that even big budget stars 'owe favors' to producers from time to time (In other words, if the script is bad, the 'bigger' the movie, the harder it will fall). Pitt is an incredibly annoying and incompetent wannabee gangster who tries to provide humor for the film, but fails miserably in perhaps his most embarrassing performance to date. James Gandolfini was probably the best part of this film, though not saying much as the hitman with hidden secrets. Julia Roberts made me want to take the television and throw it out the window, she played the most annoying character I have seen in quite some time. The acting and the script are so awful, it will bother you for a while afterwards and leave a bad taste in your mouth. It's one of those films that tries too hard to be good, and wants you to want it to be good or hopes that the viewer will be incompetent enough to think it's good as well thinking that big budget stars and a misleading trailer will make up for a cheesy plot, bad acting, a horrible script and bad direction. Come on guys, believe it or not people are not stupid. All in all, this is a flick that is a total waste of time. This movie sucks so bad, it draws all the air out of the room and then closes all of the walls around you until you suffocate from the suckage, as well as the large quantity of cr@p that is hurled at you from your television set. I have said this for maybe three or four movies in my life, but this film is pure torture to watch, it provides no entertainment, and leaves you upset afterwards, after you were looking forward to a nice evening at home with a fun movie. I rarely say this on IMDB, but AVOID THIS MOVIE AT ALL COSTS!!!! 1/10.

A couple working on the give-and-take aspects of their relationship, an exquisitely crafted antique pistol with something of a diverse history and some questions concerning who is working for whom, all figure prominently in `The Mexican,' a black comedy directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Jerry Welbach (Pitt), a somewhat less than astute young fellow in thrall to a criminal currently incarcerated, is given a seemingly simply assignment: He is to go to Mexico, where he will rendezvous at a bar in a small town, at which time he will take possession of an invaluable hand-made pistol; he will then transport the item to the States and deliver it to his boss. But there's a problem; his girlfriend, Samantha (Roberts) expects to go to Las Vegas at the same time, and their plans were already made and set in stone. So what is a guy to do? After Sam throws him out of their apartment and Jerry tries to explain-- in a memorable scene with her on the second story balcony, he on the ground looking up-- that if he doesn't do this job they will, well, KILL him, it doesn't make any difference. After all, their trip to Vegas had already been planned, and he promised it would happen. Talk about a guy between a rock and a hard place. And it's only the beginning of a dark comedy of errors and circumstances that ultimately involves them with some double dealings and brings them into contact with a psychotic killer named Leroy (James Gandolfini). Director Verbinski lends a nice touch to the movie, eliciting noteworthy performances from his actors and establishing early on his method of using specific landmarks-- a traffic signal and a cross-roads in the middle of nowhere, for example-- that give context and definition to what is happening, sometimes off-screen (as in the opening scene, when you only `hear' a traffic accident that becomes a pivotal part of the story). He avoids slapstick and plays up the natural, subtle humor that drives the film. The characters are well drawn and the dialogue is clever and witty (`You ‘Forrest Gumped' your way through this...') and often very droll. And he maintains a pace and develops an atmosphere in which the unexpected can be expected that keeps it all moving along nicely and right on track. And there's a politically incorrect sensibility to the movie that is refreshing to see; in real life certain situations and cultures that are foreign to us are often viewed in stereotypical terms, so there is no reason to portray it otherwise in a film, especially when care has been taken to present it in an inoffensive manner, as it is here. Taking on a decidedly unglamorous role, Roberts nevertheless creates a lively character with Sam, imbuing her with plenty of spunk and, of course, that trademark smile. It's not a part that calls for a lot of depth, but she makes Sam likable and fun to watch, and she makes her banter with Jerry and Leroy credible and engaging. Credit goes to Pitt, as well, for making the most of what is actually a leading man/character role; Jerry isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he may be easily distracted, but-- like Sam-- he's not without some natural charm that makes him quite personable and interesting. And there is a chemistry between the two that makes their relationship believable, especially when the sparks are flying. Gandolfini, meanwhile, not to be outdone by his charismatic co-stars, makes an indelible mark as the sensitive, psychotic killer who turns out to be something of an enigma. The supporting cast includes Bob Balaban (Nalin), David Krumholtz (Beck), Luis Felipe Tovar (Luis) and Gene Hackman (Margolis). A lively romp that takes some unexpected turns, `The Mexican' has a dark side, but manages to remain uplifting and thoroughly entertaining. There's a natural flow to the film and the laughs, generated by both the situations and the characters, are never forced but prompted, rather, by the spontaneity of it all. It's a movie that never pretends to be anything other than what it is, which is pure entertainment. It'll leave you with a smile on your face, some chuckles and some great lines to quote. And that, my friends, is the magic of the movies. I rate this one 8/10.

I thought this movie was entertaining. Beyond Pitt and Roberts, you had James Gandolfini, Gene Hackman, Bob Balaban and the always-great JK Simmons. (Hackman was terrific in his one scene). Miles of legit talent here, all good. The story is a bit wonky at times, but overall it works. Apparently not arthouse enough for critics, who think it's a 43... which I think is shamefully low.

"But Julia Roberts is shrill and annoying and Brad Pitt is goofy and awkward." No, their CHARACTERS are, and they play them well. This is an offbeat love story slash heist-comedy with weird players, and it's not trying to be much more than that. Entertaining. I thought it succeeded.

The scenes with Gandolfini and Roberts are amusing and Pitt's antics in Mexico are borderline farcical at times. The locations are cool, the cinematography as well. Enjoyed the "movie within the movie" backstory on the gunsmith and the unlucky art he created. I did find the old stereotypes of local Mexicans to be a bit off-putting at times. But overall, it's a fun film on more than one level, and it's worth a watch. And as far as I'm concerned, the critics can go out into the Mexican desert... and kick rocks.

Luckless Brad Pitt can't seem to work off a debt that he owes crime boss Gene Hackman in an unbilled role. Four years earlier he got into a fender bender with Hackman right at the moment that Hackman was carrying someone in the trunk of his car. Only because it was a live someone, Hackman got off with a few years in the joint, but he makes sure Pitt pays and pays for that fender bender.

His last assignment seems simple enough go to Mexico and find a bring back an antique pistol, a real piece of craftsmanship that several legends have been told about. But even that last assignment is the last straw for his girlfriend Julia Roberts. She gives him the old heave ho as he leaves for Mexico.

But just to make sure Pitt follows through, Roberts is kidnapped and held hostage by James Gandolfini, a gay hit man with whom she bonds rather strangely with.

Of course you don't expect things to go smoothly for Pitt. The Mexican is one of those murphy's law films, if anything can go wrong it does go wrong.

The Mexican is a film that was made more than likely for no other reason than let's team Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts and get some real box office out of it. They seem to work well together, but this very quirky film just doesn't quite jell. Possibly it should have been played more as an out and out comedy than it was. James Gandolfini comes out best in this film.

Still fans of Pitt, Roberts, and the Sopranos might like it. Although if you go in expecting to see Tony Sooprano, fuggedaboutit.