Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8072 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
There's plenty of guns and a few explosions as bodies fly through the air and crash into tables and fruit stands. Once Upon a Time in Mexico, like all Robert Rodriguez movies, is all about the kinetic kick of high-velocity action. Johnny Depp, blasé and whimsical, plays a CIA agent who's drawn guitar-playing gun-slinger Antonio Banderas (long black hair flopping over his face like the ears of a Labrador puppy) into a ridiculously convoluted plot to overthrow the Mexican government. Along for the ride are a craggy-faced rogue's gallery including Willem Dafoe, Mickey Rourke, Danny Trejo, Ruben Blades, and (to balance things out) the smooth, tantalising complexions of Eva Mendes and Salma Hayek. For sheer trashy fun, Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a step down from its predecessor, but Desperado set the bar pretty high. For coherent storytelling, look elsewhere, but for action razzle-dazzle, this is your movie. Rodriguez's complete trilogy--El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico--can also be found in one DVD box set--Bret Fetzer

DVD Description
Robert Rodriguez returns with the mythic guitar-slinging hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), in the third installment of the Mariachi/Desperado trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The saga continues as El Mariachi makes his way across a rugged landscape on the blood trail of Barrillo (Willem Dafoe), a cartel kingpin who is planning a coup d'etat against the president of Mexico. Enlisted by Sands (Johnny Depp), a corrupt CIA agent, El Mariachi demands retribution, and the adventure begins against a backdrop of revolution, greed, and revenge. The character, made famous by Banderas, remains a slinger of guitars and guns, a tragic and bloodied hero, but a survivor forever.

Special Features

• Commentary by Robert Rodriguez
  
• 8 Deleted scenes with optional commentary
  
• Inside Troublemaker Studios featurette
  
• The Anti-Hero's Journey featurette
  
• Film is Dead : An Evening with Robert Rodriguez featurette
  
• The Good, the Bad and the Bloody - FX featurette
  
• 2 short films by Robert Rodriguez
  
• Trailers

DVD Technical Information:

• Running Time: 97 minutes
  
• Languages: English, Russian
  
• Subtitles: English, Hindi, Russian
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  
• Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic - 1.78:1
  
• Disc Format: DVD9

Customer Reviews

another rubbish film
this is awful a complete and utter waste of time.its only bearable when johnny depp is on screen and when he's not, the film sucks.

A COOL SEQUEL BUT NOT AS GOOD AS DESERADO
This was a fantastic adventure. Great movie. The action was astounding, the story was incredible, and the acting was just plain great. However, the only thing that makes this movie not as good as "Desperado" is that it's just too plain dark. There's too much brutality, not enough humor, and the bad guy does too many sick things. Desperado was comical, light, and fun. This was fun too, but not comical, or light, which takes away some of the fun. But still, its a great movie, and the action scenes are astounding.

Johnny Depp is the scene-stealer in this movie (like in many of his movies). He plays Sands, a rogue CIA agent who's a bit of a psycho (in one part, the food he eats at a restaurant is so good that he shoots the cook, for example!). He is also super-cool, with his third, fake arm and all (don't worry, you'll see what I mean!).

There is also a bit of CGI work in this movie, and it's all virtually unnoticeable. The only parts I noticed were CGI were parts when people got hit by cars, but the only reason I noticed they were CGI was because I was aware of what could be practically done and what couldn't in the movie industry, and getting rammed by cars can't be practically done without killing a few people! :) But otherwise, all the CGI was great (its incredible that half the time, the bullets hitting the walls and people were done with CGI and not squibs, and some gunfire was also done using CGI; i didn't notice it at all until i watched the special feature on the DVD about the special effects...its great work).

Once again Robert Rodruguez proves he is a fantastic director! And editor, and composer, and cinematographer, blah blah blah.... :) Seriously its amazing how much he can do in a movie...the music by him in the movie is great...i especially love the "Pistolero" song track playing during the car chase involving Mariachi and a few thugs on motorcycles! There are also some parts where the action is so fast and extreme and energetic that the editing can't keep up! There were parts where the guns had no sound effects attached, the movie is that energetic and intense. It's not a bad thing actually; its so cool.

Also, the digital video does prove to be better than film in this movie. It's incredible.

The action is highly energetic. The acting is top-notch. The editing is masterful. The sound is as it should be: amazing.

This is a masterpiece. it could have been a better masterpiece had it been a little less brutal, but its a masterpiece nonetheless.

I'm a Mexi-can!
I'll admit this isn't the greatest film ever made. The plot is a little confusing at times, and moves at such a pace it's hard to keep up.

However, it does deserve the five stars I'm giving it because it is so much fun to watch. The action is superb, and I'm usually not much of an action fan. The characters are all fantastic, Johnny Depp's sociopath Sands in particular is a real joy to watch. You do find yourself liking his character even though he's completely evil and manipulative. Antonio Banderas is his usual wonderful self as El Mariachi, Willem Dafoe does what he does best - evil, and Salma Hayek, although not in it much, makes the most of the screen time she has. Superb acting from all of the cast.

The dvd is well worth getting because there are mountains of fantastic extras including a ten minute cooking school (when you watch the film this makes sense, honestly) and deleted scenes, along with several featurettes that are all interesting.

The best thing about the film is the fact that as the audience you can literally feel the enthusiasm that went into it. This is why I love it so much, it makes watching films fun again.

If you're a Johnny Depp fan I would definately recommend this, he completely steals the film from poor Antonio, and to be honest I think this is one of Johnny's best roles to date.