Once Upon A Time In Mexico: Critic Reviews

It's pop filmmaking at its headiest, maybe because it never quite gets outside the filmmaker's head.

A noisy, unholy mess, with moments of wit and surprise that ultimately make its brutal tedium all the more disappointing.

Depp tosses off nearly as many deadpan quips as he did in Pirates and steals the movie from everyone else in the cast, including a rugged Antonio Banderas, who is perfect for the role of a man haunted by grief.

A whiz-bang kick in the pants.

Depp, a mere two months after his scene-stealing turn in Pirates of the Caribbean, once again is the best thing about a very silly movie.

A movie with that many freaks and creeps should be a lot more exciting than this one actually is.

Having already looted the Peckinpah and spaghetti-western archives, the director now quotes his own quotations, in service of not a sequel but a vociferous reiteration.

Paying homage to Sergio Leone, Mexico aims too high and, in the process, becomes more like every generic, overplotted drug-cartel- and-revenge flick out there.

Depp, who looks and dresses eerily like Michael Jackson near the end, has an appealing breeziness.

Maverick Robert Rodriguez gets back to his old R-rated tricks, but this time he's more mature, stylish and bloody inventive.

Shamelessly violent and shallow.

I understood the general outlines of the story, I liked the bold strokes he uses to create the characters, and I was amused by the camera work, which includes a lot of shots that are about themselves.

Though this wild and woolly movie will please its core audience well enough, Rodriguez has the chops to do much more.

After a while, Once Upon a Time in Mexico starts having the same effect as one too many tequilas: the Hong Kong-style stunts, the goofy wisecracks, the foxy presence of Eva Mendes -- all of it becomes blurry and numbing.

Just as there are some sports teams you watch for the brilliant efforts of one star athlete, there are movies that rivet your attention when one performer is onscreen and go slack when he's gone.

Just another stunted-up silly blood bath with no real passion, intelligence or wit.

Dazzling visuals, ambitious stunts and enough raw action to please the most demanding fans.

A heady mix of Tarantino-esque pulp.

A winking exercise in actors acting cool and the amoral joys of trigger- happiness.

It's at once busy and lacklustre, intricately plotted yet indifferently paced, handsomely mounted but made from plastic.

Make no mistake, this movie is a mess. But, wow, what a mess!

A mess of a movie that nevertheless entertains because each individual piece stands high enough on its own merits that it's not necessary to look hard at the nonsensical linking material.

Affectionately conceived, imaginatively staged and highly entertaining.