El Gringo

'EL GRINGO': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Eduardo Rodriquez directed this Scott Adkins action vehicle for After Dark Films (as part of their expansion into the action genre). It was written by Jonathan Stokes and produced by action master Joel Silver! It costars Yvette Yates, Erando Gonzalez and Christian Slater. The film is a great throwback to spaghetti westerns and other old school action films and continues to showcase the remarkable talents of Scott Adkins as a new leading man action hero.

Adkins plays a DEA agent (who is never named, in true spaghetti western fashion) who is setup and attacked in the middle of the dessert. His partners are killed but he manages to escape (after killing the gunmen who attacked him). He stages his own death and flees into Mexico with a bag full of drug money. He runs into hostility there wherever he goes as the locals don't seem to want him in their town. He finds a little help from a local bar owner (Yates) but soon finds a ton of opposition from the local corrupt sheriff (Gonzalez), and his drug cartel thugs, as well as his old DEA boss (Slater), who tracks him down.

The movie is a pretty impressive style over substance indie action film. Rodriguez's directing is cool and the script is fun. There's of course not a lot to the story but the action is almost nonstop and Adkins really shines as an action force to be reckoned with. It's nice to see someone other than Jason Statham still consistently making cool B action films. The movie was made for just $7 million but it's definitely not short on explosions or gun battles. This is the stuff that the action films of yesteryear were made of; just good old action loving fun!

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/Ie33IbZzmi0

First of all, I haven't seen Get The Gringo, so I won't compare the two. Now, El Gringo has a small plot; Man has a bag, hides in Mexico, and once people find out there's a large amount of money in the bag, they hunt him down. There's a couple of twists and turns, which are poorly executed. The acting isn't Oscar worthy, the dialogue is pure cheese, the humor feels out of place, the editing is effed up choppy, but the action sequences are awesome and was enough to hold my interest. I'd say it's the type of movie I'd have playing in the background while I'm doing other things. Just because I'm giving it a low rating doesn't mean it's bad.

4/10

This action movie is centred on an unnamed American policeman who, following an operation that goes badly wrong, crosses the border into Mexico with a large bag full of money. He makes his way to the town of El Fronteras where he gets a very frosty reception. He can't even buy a glass of water. The town is run by a corrupt sheriff and a criminal gang; they don't want strangers in their town and the rest of the population are too scared to confront them. Our protagonist's only ally is the woman who runs the bar and even she will be pleased when he leaves. Things get worse when people learn what is in his bag.

This film was never going to be in contention to win any awards but if you are looking for action you can do a lot worse. The rudimentary plot might not be the most original but it provides a good excuse for plenty of stylishly shot action. Scott Adkins does a solid job as our protagonist and other notable performances come from Yvette Yates, as the bar owner; Sofía Sisniega, as a would-be gang member and Christian Slater as Adkin's boss. For the most part the film is near non-stop action or moments where action could erupt at any moment. There is also a degree of humour at times and an unnecessary, but fairly tame, sex scene. Overall I wouldn't say this is a must see film but it is worth watching if you are a fan of action; it was certainly better than I expected.

The most interesting thing about EL GRINGO is that it was shot in Sofia, Bulgaria which successfully stands in for Mexico. I would have thought the two countries couldn't be further apart but they do a pretty convincing job here. A shame, then, that the film itself is so pedestrian, with a lack of story really slowing things down. Some shaky, bleached-out cinematography doesn't help much either. Scott Adkins plays the usual drifter type who arrives in a corrupt town and soon finds himself battling a criminal gang. There's a fair bit of action, some of which is quite good, but it never really burns up the screen as a good action movie should. If you want to see a great Adkins movie from this era, check out UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING.

Personally i am not a fan of these type of movies usually, the "desperado" style. But as a Scott Adkins movie, i had to see it. It was released under Bullet here in quebec, don't know why, as its so generic of a title... Anyway took me a couple weeks after the DVD release to finally watch it, the reviews had me nervous, but I'm glad i decided to watch it anyway.

Scott Adkins can't be Boyka in every movie, and as much as i love that character, it would be bad for him to just play it again and again. Here he is a more ordinary police officer on the run and pretty much fight like your usual big guy hitting hard. A lot of gun fights also but there is enough hand to hand to keep the fans of it satisfy.

The movie has a couple jokes and funny lines, i really laugh hard at one scene in particular, and the "cheap filming" style didn't bothered me too much, even tough its made like that for artistic purpose.

It will not be remembered as Scott Adkins best movie for sure, but its a decent enough action movie in the no brainer category. It serve its purpose well.

One thing i find funny tough, Christian Slater is on the cover like he is some major character but he is not... not at all, really its kind of funny to see they almost blocked Adkins to show him because at one point he had Star Power... but nowadays he just play in low budget movies and get crappy roles, more or less always a wimp...