The Mexican Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
love with the safety off
Jerry Welbach is given two ultimatums. His mob boss wants him to travel to Mexico to get a priceless antique pistol called "The Mexican" or he will suffer the consequences. The other ultimatum comes from his girlfriend Samantha, who wants him to end his association with the mob. Jerry figures that being alive, although in trouble with his girlfriend is the better alternative so he heads south of the border. Finding the pistol is easy but getting it home is a whole other matter. The pistol supposedly carries a curse - a curse Jerry is given every reason to believe, especially when Samantha is held hostage by the gay hit man Leroy to ensure the safe return of the pistol.
| Brad Pitt | Jerry Welbach |
| Julia Roberts | Samantha Barzel |
| James Gandolfini | Winston Baldry |
| J.K. Simmons | Ted Slocum |
| Bob Balaban | Bernie Nayman |
| Sherman Augustus | Leroy the Hitman |
| Michael Cerveris | Frank |
| Gene Hackman | Arnold Margolese |
| Richard Coca | Car Thief |
| David Krumholtz | Beck |
| Castulo Guerra | Joe the Pawnshop Owner |
| Mayra Serbulo | Emanuelle |
| Salvador Sánchez | Gunsmith |
| Alan Ciangherotti | Gunsmith's Assistant |
| Melisa Romero | Gunsmith's Daughter |
| Gore Verbinski |
5.90 out of 10 (21180 votes)
Visitor Reviews
As exciting as watching paint dry
posted on 16 Aug 2009The Mexican turns out to be quite boring. The writers forgot to give us any reason to care about any of the characters. There is no real chemistry between Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. I kept looking at my watch and was amazed at how little time had passed. In short, who cares?
well....uhhh
posted on 14 Aug 2009Alright, I walked into this movie with low expectations, but something tells me I should've walked in with even lower expectations.It seems that all the movies that look like blockbusters with big name actors, that are released in March don't seem to work as well, and that is true.To the point, the plot was a bit weak, and Julia Roberts was god awful in this film, but Brad Pitt and James Gandorlfini were the only ones that were able to save this film from hitting rock bottom.Overall, it was alright, see it with a significant other at least, don't see it with your friends cause you'll just end up talking through the movie the entire time, I nearly did with the girl I was with.
Not the best it could've been, but some acting helps
posted on 05 Jul 2009While I wouldn't call The Mexican the best film these actors in this film have done, they do what they can. Brad Pitt, who has been great in Fight Club and Snatch, and is marginal in here as a guy who has to do one last job for a boss or else he'll be killed. Julia Roberts (not quite as annoying as she was in Erin Brockovich) is his girlfriend and is upset and as a result leaves him as he goes to Mexico to retrieve it. Meanwhile, James Gandolfini, in one of his best roles, plays a gay hit man who will make a trade with Pitt along the lines. Sometimes really funny, but often fluffy with Gandolfini stealing the show once again as he usually does (shows how the Sopranos can top over all). Gene Hackman has a bit part. B+
What an incredible waste of good photography and James Gandolfini
posted on 13 Jun 2009This was a truly disjointed mishmash of different themes, concepts and characters. Each of them was essentially acting in their own movie. And only James Gandolfini's movie was any good.I dozed through the last 30 minutes.
Fantastic, Just Fantastic
posted on 01 Jun 2009I don't understand the critics on this one, I will agree, to a certain point, with the critics most of the time. However I think they just trashed because they didn't want to like it. It had an all-star cast, it's easy to be critical. However this is one of my favorite movies. The acting is phenomenal! The screenplay is inspiring and the directing is fantastic! Gore Verbinski has only recently gotten credit as a good director with Pirates Of The Caribbean, however he used many of the same techniques in this movie, and I believe shot it better. Johnny Depp got an Oscar nod for his performance in Pirates, and I know that he's an amazing actor but you gotta give it up to Verbinski's directing skills as well. Depp is a great actor, but only with great directing(i.e. Tim Burton). I think this movie was meant to be a cliché, a staple in Hollywood(The cast and script), much like Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire. The problem is to make such a movie is a huge risk. When critic's don't get it, or see the director's point of view, these movies will fail. But if you do get it, a cult following is sure to happen. One of the greats!
Some experiments DO work
posted on 28 May 2009I did not see The Mexican in theaters, because I expected it to be another lighthearted Roberts comedy, and because it received little acclaim. When I rented the DVD recently, I was pleasantly surprised with Brad Pitt's latest attempt to break out of his "Typical Hollywood Leading Man" persona. In The Mexican, Brad Pitt plays Jerry, a reluctant hero who is thrust into the world of organized crime through an act of Fate. He is a bumbling mobster, who manages to screw up most of his jobs. His life is complicated by a disfunctional relationship with Samantha, who has put her life on hold for 5 years to cater to Jerry's "career." As his last job, Jerry is sent to Mexico to retrieve an elusive artifact: a revolver called the Mexican (hence the title of the movie...). Because of his personal clumsiness (and perhaps the machinations of Fate), the gun is lost, found, and lost again...and then found.I thoroughly enjoyed this movie on all levels. It is essentially a romance, even though the hero and heroine spend few scenes together. Digging deeper, one discovers that The Mexican is also about the role of Fate in every day life. The superbly cheap lighting and on-location filming further enhances Pitt's raw physical energy, and Jerry's essential helplessness and confusion. Verbinski transforms little things - stoplights, stray dogs - into agents of an unseen hand.Don't let the bad press dissuade you from watching The Mexican. It's well-worth the $5 renting fee. In fact, watch it once normally, once with the director's commentary, and again with a perceptive and appreciative friend. Really, you'll be glad you did.
I know how to spell NaugAhyde and I know what it means!
posted on 22 May 2009Ok ,on my last comment I asked anyone if they knew how to spell it. I also wanted the definition but I didn't put that in the comment. After the third person emailed me and asked if I had gotten the correct spelling I had a brilliant idea. I went to aol dictionary and typed *hyde. It gave me all of the hydes including NAUGaHYDE. They gave the definition as a TRADEMARK NAME; used for vinyl-coated fabrics. I thought it was something like that but I was thinking floors. So there you have it!
Great if you don't expect a Pitt/Roberts romantic film
posted on 30 Apr 2009This is a great film which was largely victimized by having Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts cast as leads. This is not saying that their acting was poor -- I believe they were both excellent. The reason why many people who view this film will be disappointed is because: 1) Pitt and Roberts do play a couple, but this is not a Pitt/Roberts romantic movie where they are together throughout the film. 2) Pitt and Roberts are not playing their "typical" roles. Pitt is not the cool, smooth character -- instead he plays a clumsy criminal who's also a pushover. Roberts doesn't play the sweetheart everyone adores -- instead she plays a character who is emotional, irrational, loud and outspoken.This film has two main parts. One part consists of Pitt's character looking for a gun called "The Mexican." This portion contains the majority of the comedic aspects of the film. The second part involves Roberts and James Gandolfini (playing a mob hitman) and their evolving friendship. This portion contains the sensitive aspects of the film where Roberts and Gandolfini struggle to understand love and their own personal relationships.This film is funny and serious at the same time, and the acting is very good. This film, however, can be slightly confusing to watch, because the background information to the story is slowly revealed throughout the film, instead of giving it all in the beginning, so the viewer doesn't completely know what is going on. This was probably intentionally done by the filmmakers, since the characters in the film don't completely know what's going on either.I highly recommend this film. This film is very enjoyable as long as the expectations of this film does not center around a Pitt/Roberts romantic comedy. My rating: 9/10
Jerry is told to deliver an antique gun whose curse makes his life hell
posted on 28 Apr 2009I really did enjoy this movie which was surprising as I had been told it was so bad. The bad hype this movie has gained has been very much overrated and I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys good sarcastic humor. It is a mixture of genres with a little romance, action and comedy together. Though don't watch this movie with too much romance in mind. Many people who watched this movie watched it thinking it was going to be some sort of love story and was sorely disappointed. It is more in style with the movie The Break-Up with a relationship gone sour so expect Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt to fight a lot instead of kiss and romance. All round I found it very much enjoyable. It's true the plot does get a little chaotic (especially when the flashbacks on the gun's alternative histories are intersected with the main plot) but not so much that the viewer can't follow but can be little overwhelming. It is a very different type of film to what Hollywood usually brings out so it is probably better to go in with no expectations and an open mind. Though generally if you liked Gore Verbinski Pirates Of The Caribbean you'll probably like this movie as the sarcastic humor is quite similar.
Very entertaining!
posted on 26 Apr 2009Pitt and Roberts were a good match, and James Gandolfini really was the best part of this movie. A young man (Pitt) has to go to Mexico and retrieve an antique pistol for a mobster, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend (Roberts). Pitt encounters a lot of snags and hang ups trying to complete the task, and unknowingly, his girlfriend is being held as insurance until he finishes the job. Worth seeing! B+
My bum hurts
posted on 24 Apr 2009I had very high expectations from this film, but then who wouldn't. What a major disappointment. The plot was full of blindingly obvious holes I mean how could Brad Pitt not get back to the US from Mexico without a passport when he does not need one anyway - I will tell you why, because he was using it as an excuse not to go back to Julia Roberts and have to put up with another bout or erratic, badly acted, over the top and pointless shouting.So the actors took a pay cut to star in this film...they did not deserve to get paid in the first place. On a positive note, I did enjoy a very tasty bag of Revels throughout the film in which I found a more than normal quantity of the orange ones.
Post-modernly messy
posted on 24 Apr 2009Some might term this a post-modern movie; the less charitable would think it a mess. It is incoherent and derivative, and lurches from one mood to another. One moment, there are touchy-feely psycho-babble sessions about relationships; the next, people are shooting each other dead - but without the style that enables Tarantino to bring that sort of thing off. There is lots of pseudo-Mexican colour, desert scenery, and background Mariachi and sub-Morricone music, but little of the gritty, sweaty menace of Desperado or a spaghetti Western. The plot is best ignored, and was possibly created by playing that party game where a paper is passed round a group of people, being folded so that no-one can see what the others have written. The pistol which all the fuss is about (the "Mexican" of the title) could at least have looked a bit more impressive and valuable. The flash-backs to the 19th century, showing the legend of the pistol, are embarrassingly wooden and sentimental, and lack the humour and style that might have made them work.(Incidentally, were the makers aiming at a record for the number of shots of characters sitting on the WC?) On a more positive note, fans of Julia Roberts and/or Brad Pitt will probably be able to take away some pleasant memories of their favourites. Both play the hands they've been dealt reasonably well - and both create a few laughs, justifying the use of the word "comedy" in the film's publicity. (On second thoughts, they probably picked their "hands", so they should take some of the blame!) For once, the kind of movie-goer who likes to say that various screen couples have no chemistry between them will be silenced, as this couple are not supposed to get on - except in bed, where we never see them together - and spend little time in the film with each other.The rest of the cast mainly play cardboard cut-outs, including mock Mexicans muttering lines about gringos through broken teeth; but James Gandolfini is a notable exception, with a sympathetic role as a gay heavy. As for uncredited Gene Hackman, whose character only appears in the last reel, one wonders just how he came to be in the movie. I hate to say that any movie isn't worth seeing, so I won't; but don't go with your hopes too high.
An underrated road adventure!
posted on 25 Mar 2009THE MEXICAN (2001)THE GOOD:--Gore Verbinski seems to have a large knowledge of Mexico and its scenery and certainly uses that to his advantage here. Shot widely on location, "The Mexican" looks truly perfect as a road movie, with eye-candy galore and some wonderfully impressive shots of the lovely locations.--I was massively impressed with what the writer of this film, J.H. Lyman, manages to do with the hitman-hostage story. It is the best element of "The Mexican" by far. Instead of getting the simple shoot-bang-em-up-and-take-a-sexy-hostage-girl, us viewers are left to contemplate one very fascinating character: Leroy. This is a complicated character, who is discovered in-depth by some truly impressive counselling scenes with Sam (Julia Roberts). This is the most developed character in the film, played perfectly by Soprano James Gandolfini, and this film is worth viewing for that performance alone, which far overshadows the (still very good) performances of mega-stars Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.--Is it just me, or did this movie seriously deserve an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score? The music in this film was just astoundingly good! I loved the driving theme, it was very catchy, and the flashbacks (projector story) had a great score too. The music was all-round inventive and fitting to the film, certainly one of the most memorable aspects.--Another strong point of the film is its great ability to bring together a number of genres and intercut them effectively without anything ever feeling forced or boring. On the outside the film looks like a Pitt/Roberts romantic comedy but it is certainly more than that. The film has strong elements of drama (Gandolfini's character) and lots of road action as well as a historical value as well (loved the projector flashbacks - stylie!). And then of course you have the aforementioned romantic comedy side of things, which is lots more fun than many other typical Roberts vehicles of late. The characters aren't your typical rom-com characters and the two leads play off each other during their on-screen verbal fights so well.THE BAD:--The only really annoying factor of the film which brought down the quality a lot for me was the tedious ending, which dragged on for a very long time and shoved a lot of information in our faces all at once. Without much time for plot qualities to sink in I was left feeling more empty than I was prior to that last 20 minutes or so because all of it had no real effect on me. Furthermore, I think the ending was supposed to really grab the audience by the balls and give them a surprise. It certainly had elements of surprise, but grab me by the balls? Not so much.RATING:8/10 - Perhaps some viewers were let down by the hype of this film, but personally I found it to be a lot of fun and VERY underrated.IF YOU LIKED THIS MOVIE I RECOMMEND:Blow (6/10) Fight Club (10/10) The Mask of Zorro (8/10) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (9/10) Traffic (10/10)
forrest gumps its way along
posted on 19 Feb 2009An uneven mess that's hard to care about. Cheesy psycho-babble, token characters and situations, and a poorly handled mix of comedy and bad situations. NOT what was expected by the marketing. There were some cute scenes, but not enough to save the movie. Julia Roberts tries to be winning, but ends up being annoying. Pitt's character is just plain annoying throughout. I had to laugh how guns are so casually waved around in Mexico, where they are illegal. Want to smuggle a loaded handgun on an international flight? Just wrap it in tin foil and put it in a lunch box or wrap it in a shirt. Yeah. No problem. Just an example of the leaps of faith this movie takes to move its plot along. Anyone ever notice how much Pitt's and Robert's nostrils look alike? I found myself noticing these things at about the 90 minute mark. Not a terrible movie, but it has many problems.
Find something else to spend your date money on.
Bad idea
posted on 17 Feb 2009The plot line of The Mexican can be summed up in one line: stupid. I truly believe that the only reason they made this movie is one big excuse to have two big Hollywood players: Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt star in a movie where the success of that movie was based on their names alone. The problem is that that they ignored the primary rule of film making: don't make a movie around actors. The result is a film in which the characters do not even remotely act naturally. The plot is horrible and the stars cannot even work with the plot themselves. They do not have on screen charisma and it proves that if you want believable characters, the actors have to fit them, not the other way around. The result is a movie that makes no sense, is not realistic, and is based purely on the actor's names alone. Perhaps the worst thing is that the movie makers had to have known this. Horrible
Gore Verbinski didn't read the script
posted on 05 Feb 2009The Mexican had potential, i've have no doubt about that; Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini are all more than capable performers, and have proved it over time. The script is really clever and slick, as are the fundamental elements of the story, but in trying to summarise this film; the word dull just kept springing to mind. I can't blame the performances of any of the cast, in fact some of the acing was excellent; and the dialogue is both witty and strong. The problem here is the work of Gore Verbinski, he simply failed to capture the necessary imagery to carry the story or its characters and he failed to create the right moods or feelings in the critical scenes. It's like he didn't read the script or something, i'm glad his work improved though.5/10 This one just didn't seem to work for me
lots of fun! highly recommended!
posted on 26 Jan 2009im not a big Brad Pitt fan, or i wasnt before "Meet Joe Black" came out, but now having seen "The Mexican", i can say i admire his acting skills. i was very impressed with the way he and Julia Roberts worked together. i hope to see them as a team again sometime. i hope this is not considered as a spoiler since it was in the trailer, but my favorite humorous parts have to be when Jerry (Pitt) spouts off things like "El -Camino!" and "I need a lift in your El trucko, to the next towno!" it was very comical to watch him struggle to understand spanish. Sams' (Roberts) speech about how Jerry managed to "Forrest Gump" his way through the ordeal was funny as well. i thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone in need of a good laugh.
Nice Combination of Thelma & Louise and Pulp Fiction
posted on 22 Jan 2009Hilarious, witty, edgy and sassy. Yes, I really liked it. It reminded me of a cross between Thelma & Louise and Pulp Fiction.The acting is great. Julia plays the sassy, smart ass, nagging girlfriend with ease. Of course she can do no wrong in my book no matter what shes in. Brad Pitt plays wacked out dumb idiots better than anyone and James Gandolfini, well what can you say about James. He is great as always.The movies trailers don't really portray the scope of the movie. It's a road trip, thriller, comedy, drama, romance, caper movie all rolled into one. It was about 10 minutes to long but me and my wife really had a great time watching it. I recommend it, however, it looks like some of the people who commented below me didn't seem to like it. Go see it for yourself and make up your own mind. I am just glad that this movie will finally knock the lame and horribly stupid Hannibal from the #1 spot.
Great Acting..
posted on 04 Jan 2009As usual, when a movie that I look forward to seeing comes out, I read the reviews and read comments from other IMDB members. After reading the comments about The Mexican, I actually had second thoughts about seeing the movie, but I'm glad that I listened to my instincts and saw the movie.First of all, there were many flaws and holes in the story overall. It was also too long. But, the movie was entertaining and energetic. Of course with great actors like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in the same film, you expect a phenomenal outcome. Their performances were great comically, and Roberts once again has put more depth into her character than we have seen before in her more lighthearted films (i.e. My Best Friends Wedding)..This film is definitely not that. I saw a little blend of Pulp Fiction and Traffic in the movie, but also containing many comedic elements. The audience laughed hysterically throughout most of the film, so I could tell that they were enjoying it.So my review would be, that the film was not excellent, or really even close, but definitely worth watching. It was an entertaining and funny film and the acting by the entire cast was great. I happen to be a fan of both of the lead actors though.... I am usually a pretty hard judge of movies and I still managed to enjoy it a great deal, but it could be because my expectations were fairly low!Grade: B
When you love someone you can forgive anything.
posted on 16 Aug 2009This film is worth a visit, don't listen to the negative press that it has received. It tells the story of a control freak, Roberts, who gives her boyfriend Pitt and ultimatum, his "business" trip to Mexico or her. He does not have a choice, it's go or bacome part of a new building. The problem is that Pitt's charactor is about as incompitant as they come. In order to ensure that all goes to plan, a hitman, Gandolfini kidnaps her. So begins a road movie where the main charactors do not act together for most of the film. All three leads give good performances, Gandolfini as the caring hitman nearly steals the show. Pitt and Roberts live up to their leading actor status.