Get the Gringo

Watched Get the Gringo tonight, it is on Netflix and it stars Mel Gibson, I've been liking Mel these days, sure he is crazy, and possibly a bit racist, and definitely has one of the bigger egos in Hollywood, but the dude can also act, his star doesn't seem to be in the ascendant at the moment so he has been taking roles that maybe he wouldn't normally, such as the villain who literally wants to rule the world in Machete Kills, and a ruthless arms dealer, also a villain, in Expendables 3, here he is a man who seems to have made some poor life choices, ending up in a Mexico prison and surrounded by people who really want to talk to him about the vast amount of money he stole during one of those poor choices I mentioned.

Mel Gibson wrote, and it shows, his character despite being a criminal, kind of has no flaws or weaknesses, and the tension mostly comes from who and how his enemies will die. But it is enjoyable for all that, this isn't a movie with deep thoughts to say or an ideology to push, it is a silly action flick in the vein of Desperado, and the world certainly needs more of those.

The supporting cast is quite able, the standout being a kid, credited as Kid, played by Kevin Hernandez, who was 15 at the time of shooting and looks about 12, the dude does really well with the character he has been given and is an impressive young actor, I hope he keeps getting roles.

The special effects, what there were of them, could have been better, the explosions in particular were nearly Asylum levels of bad, but I write that off as part of the lowish budget of the movie, only twenty million dollars, and I'd wager most of that paid Gibson.

This was director Adrian Grunbergs first and so far only time at the helm of a movie, but he has a number of Assistant Director credits to his name, including Traffic, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Sense8, which I have written of before. He seems pretty good and hopefully we'll see more form him soon.

All in all a good way to spend an evening with some friends and some crappy pizza, check it out if you get a chance.