Kill the Gringo

Though Get the Gringo is communicative in a post-modern way, it very much comes across as a standard (chili) western. The nameless gringo finds himself in a strange environment, with offscreen exaggerated commentary reminiscent of Anthony Bourdain talking about his foreign adventures in No Reservations, and inserts himself into a conflict between two opposing factions for his own benefit. Instead of Gibson, Eastwood in the lead role would surely have known what to do thanks to his “Italian jobs”. Unfortunately, the impactfulness of the clearly readable western formula is undermined by (co-screenwriter) Gibson’s self-serving attempt to return to the big leagues, which fully corresponds to the “cynical asshole” category (in which he has placed himself many times in the real world). Though the family storyline exhibits an unusually large percentage of scenes in which violence is inflicted on a woman and child (just as socially inappropriate smoking is often shown in the film), the adoption of the role of surrogate father doesn’t fit very well with the tough-guy essence of the film. The unreadable protagonist, who came from nowhere and should go back there, begins to get emotionally involved from the beginning and suddenly the same is expected of us. But why root for a guy whom we actually know nothing about? Also, in light of the number of people whom he kills in cold blood, I would rather stick with my initial impression that he’s just as much a bastard as the others, but slightly more cunning. In non-Hollywood westerns based on the Italian model, that worked superbly, so why drag emotions into it now? 60% (10/05/2012)

Mixed feelings. An average action flick that looks like made for TV with cool moments, wannabe cool moments, smart moments, dumb moments, thrilling moments and boring moments alternating at irregular intervals. Overall, it’s not bad, the last remaining fans of Mel Gibson (both of them) will be happy, but I’m surely not going back to it. (12/05/2012)

Gibson is back! A strange combination of a farce and a tough prison drama. The fact is that Get the Gringo revolves around Mel’s pretty face, his ability to get to grips with any problem and a good balance of humor and gloom. The action here is uncompromising blood splatter with a few nice ideas. This untraditional insight into the Mexican prison system would be a shame to miss and for Mel’s fans this is a balm to sooth the soul. Now what we need is a screenplay for Lethal Weapon 5... directed by Shane Black and everything will be fine. There's nothing worse than a sad clown... unless it's a clown bleeding internally and coughing it all over your money. (20/05/2012)

Good old Porter, albeit unacknowledged and named differently in the film itself, in a Mexican mode (even with a pinch of umbrella Eastwood style on top). A likable, uncompromising and straightforward old-school genre movie that doesn't reveal or innovate anything, but what it comes up with is just damn good and absolutely functional in every way; even as far as the relationship is concerned. (29/05/2012)

Mel Gibson manned up and prepared an unorthodox drama from the prison environment in Mexico for his fans. A lot of things are hard to believe, but on the other hand, the movie is really nice to watch. Mel is properly macho, although he can show his emotions pretty well, too. But his schizophrenic character didn’t stop me from enjoying this well-made American-style action movie like from the good old 1990s. I thought it was a great throwback, and I’d love to see Mel in many more movies like this one. (23/03/2014)