Daily Archives: September 12, 2003

Once Upon A Time In Mexico

Following a suggestion from Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez turned this third El mariachi installment into an homage to Sergio Leone. The result is a dull and campy 97-minute bloodbath offering little distinction between good guys and bad, on the basis either of character (Willem Dafoe’s cartel boss, Johnny Depp’s CIA agent) or of screen persona (Cheech Marin, Mickey Rourke, Ruben Blades). The only exception is the guitar-slinging hero (Antonio Banderas), more icon than character as he avenges the murder of his wife (Salma Hayek). Rodriguez shot this in seven weeks with a newly developed DV camera, which might be impressive if the results meant anything. But the editing is strictly MTV and the storytelling so confusing that I kept longing for the focused austerity of his 1993 El mariachi debut. (JR) Read more

Matchstick Men

From the Chicago Reader (September 12, 2003). — J.R.

Matchstick Man

Nicolas Cage, director Ridley Scott, and writers Nicholas and Ted Griffin (adapting an Eric Garcia novel) do an interesting job of capturing the fractured and tortured consciousness of a small-time Los Angeles con artist riddled with compulsive disorders whose life achieves some focus when he encounters a teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) he never knew he had. (He also has a partner and a shrink, played respectively by Sam Rockwell and Bruce Altman.) The portraiture is so carefully done that I regret in some ways the tricky plot — which is also carefully done, but seems at times to belong to a different movie. Robert Zemeckis served as executive producer. 120 min. (JR)

MatchstickMan Read more