Once Upon a Time in Mexico

There’s a lot going on in this movie. Director Robert Rodriguez has taken the revenge story from the second installment of the series, Desperado and expanded on it by adding half a dozen more characters, and several sub-plots.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez’s ambition proves to be his undoing, as his script doesn’t manage his ensemble cast well, with several characters seeming redundant at best and distracting at worst. Even his action scenes, which were so beautifully shot in Desperado, seem much more choppy here.

Still, Johnny Depp does manage to walk away with another scene-stealing performance, and some of the humor is inspired.