Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245955 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 123 minutes

Amazon.com
Part road movie, part romantic comedy, part thriller, and a whole lotta fun, The Mexican could get by on star power alone, but it offers Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and a clever plot full of delightful surprises. It's a thoroughly enjoyable shaggy-dog story in which the downtrodden Jerry Welbach (Pitt) copes with a dual dilemma: his girlfriend Samantha (Roberts) has just dumped him to pursue solo ambitions in Las Vegas, and a manipulative mobster has ordered Jerry to Mexico to retrieve a coveted antique pistol (the "Mexican" of the title) that carries a legacy of legend, death, and danger. Jerry soon has his hands full with bandits, bloodshed, and a grizzly hound dog that vanishes and reappears with amusing regularity. En route to Vegas, Samantha's taken hostage by a burly assassin (James Gandolfini) who's attached to the gun-fetching scheme and is, in more ways than one, not who he seems to be.

Like a good magic act, J.H. Wyman's original screenplay distracts you from its gaps of logic, using unexpected revelations to fuel its strategic vitality. It also provides a wealth of character development, and director Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt) gives his stellar cast equal time to shine. It hardly matters that Pitt and Roberts spend most of the film apart; their time together is worth waiting for, and the machinations that separate them play out like a cross between vintage Peckinpah and Romancing the Stone. And why is the accursed pistola so valuable? That's just another surprise, setting the stage for the arrival of yet another big-name star, whose motivations are pure in a film full of double-crosses and darkly shaded humor. With a giddy plot like this, star power is just icing on the cake. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
A shaggy-taco story-one of those south-of-the-border romps in which many people die in odd ways and the Mexicans are either gap-toothed cretins or unspeakably dignified grandees. Brad Pitt is Jerry, a small-time loser sent to Mexico by Los Angeles gangsters to retrieve a fabled handmade pistol; Julia Roberts is his girlfriend, Sam, who loves Jerry but is disgusted with him and flounces off to Las Vegas, where she's kidnapped by a sensitive gay hit man (James Gandolfini). Pitt and Roberts appear together only at the beginning and end of the movie and spend all their time engaging in the kind of noisy, shin-kicking squabble which must be fun to perform but does nothing for the audience. Roberts works much better in her heart-to-heart chats with Gandolfini about life, love, and sex. The writer, J. H. Wyman, and the director, Gore Verbinski, may have been trying for the multilevel playfulness of "Pulp Fiction," but the production veers haplessly between facetiousness and solemnity. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A good mix
'The Mexican' has a good mix of comedy, romance, action, adventure, drama and suspense. Very enjoyable movie. Julia plays a wonderful quirky, smartypants, sensitive, woman in love. Brad does very well as a slightly lost, good hearted semi-boyfriend just trying to keep himself alive while hoping that his semi-girlfriend will somehow understand. James puts in a stellar performance as the guy who is "very sensitive for a cold-blooded killer".

I recommend giving this movie a shot. Leave your expectations at the door and just enjoy the show for what it is ... a quirky kinda dark romantic comedy. It is well done, combining romance, action and emotional impact with comedy.

There are some very funny scenes, a few somewhat deep scenes that deal with relationship issues and some dramatic scenes that are sad and some that are happy, all of them touching. There are also some subtle jokes, so keep your eyes and ears open!

Admittedly, there was a point where I felt that the movie was going on a bit long, but it quickly became interesting again and I forgot about that.

When you watch this movie, I recommend taking special note of the three main character's eyes. The actors very effectively express their character's emotions and thoughts with their eyes.

Enjoy!

It's like juggling Mexican jumping beans!
Boy has girl. Boy tries to keep girl by severing his connections to organized crime but has to do one more job of retrieving an antique Mexican pistol which is cursed. Boy loses girl. Girl gets kidnapped to insure that the Boy gets the job done. Lots of people try to make sure the Boy doesn't get the job done. Mayhem ensues.

If you like sequential movies, if you don't like movies that jump back and forth in time and place, if you are a parent that must leave the room constantly, do not get this movie. If you want to live in a vicarious boy/girl relationship with Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt then do not get this movie.

Cinemaniacs and filmography sickos (such as myself) that watch a movie 5 times to figure out that "cool camera angle" or particular acting dynamic, come on in. The water is FINE!

If you want to see a good but strange movie that truly shows J.R.'s subtle but amazing breadth of ability then see "The Mexican". Brad Pitt also gives a good performance. The production stands on its own as suitably weird, trust me, but if dropping acid were legal I'd make the suggestion just because it couldn't get any more bizarre. Warning: you may feel tempted to adopt Leroy (played by James Gandolfini), the hit man reluctantly getting in touch with his true self. Absolutely fantastic. He plays this with more realism (if anything in this movie could be considered realistic) and balance than Robert DeNiro in Anaylyze This. I really look forward to seeing more of his work.

I only gave it 3 stars because I felt that the plot device (the cursed pistol) was a bit meaningless even in farcicle mode, and the movie doesn't seem to hit its mark squarely or successfully as some hybrid cross between a continuous story and a contiguous collection (ala Twenty Bucks or Four Rooms).

The acting alone is worth seeing this film. J.R.'s snap switch between angry girlfriend to scared hostage is very good, but it's her subtle shift between hostage to guidance counselor that I really loved. It's a lot of jumping around and she doesn't lose you. THAT'S what makes Ms. Roberts a great actress.

Brad Pitt also did a credible job. I just don't think the story shifts or dialog had the same opportunities to show off his virtuosity in the same way as he did in Meet Joe Black.

Far too confused and underdeveloped to be entertaining
"The Mexican" wants us to believe that since we've got Brad Pitt and Julia "White Teeth" Roberts in a movie, a coherent script is optional. Sadly, only the most passive of viewers will find this an acceptable mix; not only is this film incredibly overlong for the material, it ends up being boring and closes with an overwhelming sense of futility and will leave most questioning, "So...what?"
Pitt does his best spastic loser impression, bumbling around the movie and trying to fix things with his girlfriend, an often-hysterical Roberts. Wyman's script is a lot less fun than it seems to think it is; attempts to make this a condensed "Way Of The Gun"-style gritty adventure as well as a comment on the dynamics of two people in impossible love fail horribly. In fact, since neither concept is properly developed, moments of startling violence look like a gimmick, and it's hard to believe for one frame of the movie that Pitt and Roberts' characters are/were ever/will ever be in love.
The one bright spot of the movie is Gandolfini, whose complex (or at least moreso than any other character in this mess) hitman is brought to life by his trademark mix of warmth and alarming force.
Unfortunately, he can't come close to saving the movie; "The Mexican" is a pointless and meandering movie so set in trying to be five or six other movies that it can't make its own name for itself.
Interestingly, the deleted scenes on the DVD fill out some substantial plot holes, but otherwise don't explain how with two hours of screen time (and nearly 140 minutes with deleted scenes in the mix), a promising crew and two of the biggest stars in America today can accomplish nothing and have you caring much less than you did when you walked in.