Gringo

The 480th film I have seen in theaters…

A film that settles the debate once and for all.

Harold and his bosses, Richard and Elaine, travel to Mexico for business. As Harold’s wife announces she is having an affair and is leaving him, he discovers that his employers are up to some shifty dealings and plan to fire him. Once south of the border, he fakes his kidnapping in order to cash in on the company insurance policy. He soon finds himself being chased by a Drug Lord that Richard pissed off, and is in the cross hairs of Richard’s mercenary brother Mitch, as he tries to stay alive, and maybe make some money.

David Oyelowo leads the cast as Harold. He is able to perform the gamut from meek to smug to humble to terrified and every emotion in between as he tries to save his life.
Joel Edgerton is Richard, the douche corporate monster that takes whatever he wants and will crush even his friends. He is convincing.

The perfect pair to Richard, Charlize Theron is Elaine, the Co-President of the company. Every bit as ruthless as Richard, she realizes that he’s a loser and takes matters into her own hands. A good performance.

The film has a subplot involving a young man and his girlfriend going on a trip to Mexico. She is a decent person, but he is secretly trying to smuggle drugs out of Mexico for some Industrial espionage scheme. It really added little to the film, a waste of Amanda Seyfried’s acting to be frank.

Thandie Newton is Harold’s unfaithful wife. She is here to dump Harold, sleep with Richard, and be cheated on. It was also a fairly pointless character. They could have had Harold be single, this character be some office girl or prostitute and the film would lose nothing. A waste of a good actress.

The great Sharlto Copley plays Mitch, Richard’s brother, an ex-mercenary who is now helping disaster survivors in Haiti. He is awesome in everything he does, and it carries through here. Excellent casting.

Paris Jackson made her screen debut here as a drug dealer that kick starts the whole Amanda Seyfreid sub-plot. She did ok.

Playing the sleazy businessman who wants to merge with Richard’s company, and bone Charlize Theron, is Alan Ruck, Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day off and Captain of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B John Harriman in “Generations”. It’s good to see him.

The movie had it’s moments, and I certainly enjoyed myself, but its a bit of a mess. The performances were pretty good, but the plot wasn’t that well developed. It needed more rewriting. 5/10