In the opening credits for \"Once Upon a Time in Mexico,\" the movie is tellingly described as a 'flick by Robert Rodriguez.' And only the man behind \"From Dusk Till Dawn\" and the \"Spy Kids\" films could make a movie as barmy, brain-stormingly good fun as this one. Far more than just a sequel to his Hollywood debut \"Desperado\" in 1995 - itself a souped-up version of his shot-on-a-shoestring \"El Mariachi\" - \"Once Upon a Time\" takes all the ingredients of spaghetti westerns, chucks in Rodriguez's manic energy and humour along with a glittering cast of his favourite actors and lets the bullets fly. Antonio Banderas returns as the guitar-playing, gun-slinging hero recruited by Johnny Depp's dodgy CIA man to sabotage the assassination of the president of Mexico, a plot dreamed up by Willem Defoe's evil drug cartel boss Barillo. And it just so helps that the chap in charge of the coup is General Marquez, the mean brute responsible for killing both El Mariachi's wife and daughter. And on this evidence, there's simply no one to touch Rodriguez at the moment in terms of creating wild, inventive and consistently entertaining films made on the fly. The film fairly fizzles with energy as Banderas' near-silent hero stylishly escapes from shoot-outs in churches, drops from hotel windows before indulging in breakneck motorbike chase in breathless set piece after breathless set piece. Johnny Depp meanwhile does his usual show-stealing act as the corrupt CIA agent Sands, cheerfully offing chefs in restaurants and utilising his nifty fake arm at every opportunity. And if that wasn't enough, Salma Hayek provides fleeting but effectively sexy support as Mariachi's slain wife while even Spanish crooner Enrico Iglesias gets in on the act as Mariachi's sidekick. The plot may make absolutely no sense at all, but who cares when a movie is this much fun. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>","fnc":"googleTrackerHelper.doTrackPage( '\/'Once-Upon-A-Time-In-Mexico-film_options~20240'\/Reviews\/ViewAll\/1' );"}