+ Best Comeback of the Year: Mel Gibson
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| Super-star Mel Gibson looks dangerous and game on the gritty and very orange poster for Adrian Grunberg's Get the Gringo |
An American man, who crosses the border into Mexico with 2 million stolen dollars is immediately arrested and put in Tijuana's feared El Pueblito prison. Here he hustles his way upwards and befriends a 10 year-old boy, who's important in there for a special reason. But 2 mil. $ don't go missing without being missed...
Get the Gringo is written by co-writer/co-producer Stacy Perskie (Bel Canto (2018, co-producer)), co-writer/co-producer/star Mel Gibson (Apocalypto (2006)) and debuting co-writer/director Adrian Grunberg (The Black Demon (2023)), with Scotty Atkins (Gotti (2018, executive producer)) contributing story elements.
Gibson leads the film in more ways than one. Watching it, you can feel his engagement in the story, and that is a great asset here. The New-Yorker's pariah status in Hollywood on the back of his Passion of the Christ (2004) DUI scandal should at least begin its ending with this comeback.
Here Gibson's scheming character bonds with a boy (Kevin Hernandez (The Sitter (2011))) and his mother. Some of the dialogue scenes between Hernandez and Gibson have really bad continuity between the shots, which is a shame. Peter Gerety (Flight (2012)) is a dubious US consulate attaché, who wants a piece of the stolen money, and Peter Stormare (The Last Stand (2013)) is the enraged mobster who was robbed.
The movie provides an interesting look inside a big, Mexican prison. One production team member, Alejandro Cuervo, did extensive research about El Pueblito, interviewing ex-inmates etc. The prison works like a village; a really crummy village full of criminals and dirt. Mexico looks like shit in Gringo, - but the scenes from America and the Americans in the film aren't much better. Just different.
Gringo starts out with an action-packed car chase that succeeded in hooking me, and then it slows down action-wise, almost to a complete stop, as prison life is introduced. The dialogue becomes too dense, and you get to wonder, if you are watching a modern Midnight Express (1978) or a fun-filled action picture. But then comes a major shoot-out in slow motion so insane that it brings to mind old Sam Peckinpah films like the shoot-out in the beginning of The Wild Bunch (1969). And Gringo picks up its pace and dares go into some dark developments in later scenes.
The film is at times very funny and serious at other times, though mostly by its implications. Gibson is great throughout and totally believable as the resourceful, likeable gringo crook. Remembering his past career in films like the Lethal Weapon films (1987; 1989; 19992; 1998), it seems like the world has changed since then and that that change is reflected in Get the Gringo. Those once common major action films without superheroes or vampires or attractive teenagers all over the place aren't really done much anymore. But Gibson keeps going. And that deserves respect.
Mel Gibson: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) - Gibson's intense, humbling WWII epic
The Expendables 3 (2014) - Unique, bizarre, largely entertaining third action fireball (co-star)
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Beaver (2011) - Odd depression-dramedy with great stars - for the open-minded (co-star)
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Apocalypto (2006) - or, Journey to an Extinct World
The Passion of the Christ (2004) - Gibson's breathtaking, fierce religious masterpiece (co-writer/co-producer/director)
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Pretty good last show for Donner's buddy-cop franchise (co-star)
Hamlet (1990) - Stars shine in Zeffirelli's compelling adaptation (co-star)
Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 8.8 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.44 times its cost)
[Get the Gringo was released 15 March (Israel) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from March - April 2010 in Mexico, Texas and San Diego, California. In North America the film was released as VoD and with screenings in ten cities followed by a satellite feed of a Q&A with Gibson and Hernandez, with the gross from the event going unreported. The film's biggest markets were Mexico with 1.6 mil. $ ( 18.2 %), Brazil with 1 mil. $ (11.4 %) and Russia with 839k $ (9.5 %). Grunberg returned with Here on Earth (2018, TV-series) and theatrically with Rambo: Last Blood (2019). Gibson returned in Machete Kills (2013). Get the Gringo is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Get the Gringo?
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