FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Robert Rodriguez - Once Upon A Time In Mexico 

I think it was Quentin Tarantino who praised his protégé Robert Rodriguez that El Mariachi and Desperado were the equivalent of Sergio Leone's first two dollar films. That is why the conclusion of the Once Upon A Time In Mexico trilogy proudly refers to the model. And just like Leone, Rodriguez had a bigger budget at his disposal for the third part. And just like Leone, Rodriguez is more interested in the moment than the epic. He loves surprising twists and sweaty faces, but he doesn't care about the story. What matters is the plaintive music that makes heroes into heroes in the first place! Oh yes, and just like the original, Once Upon A Time thrives on sensational kills. At one point, Salma Hayek takes out four men with four knives, throwing them all at once. Since Rodriguez never learned to tell a story, he has to borrow set pieces from other films - so we can even understand what's going on. Because we've already seen it a hundred times. In return, he offers strong faces: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Johnny Depp, Eva Mendes, Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke or Cheech Marin (one half of the Cheech & Chong duo). At least technically, the plot works as a sequel. Enter the El Mariachi, who lives in exile with his daughter after the death of his wife. Or something like that. A CIA agent (Johnny Depp) tracks him down to stop a plot being hatched by a drug lord (Willem Dafoe). Meanwhile, Mickey Rourke gets to carry a small dog and recite much better dialogue than we're usually used to in Rodriguez films. If you bother to study the credits, you'll notice that Rodriguez is responsible for everything. Script, editing, sound etc. A total filmmaker! He also directed the camera himself. Yet everything seems so simple and improvised that one wonders if Rodriguez will ever feel like telling a real story?