Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
★★½ — Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
By the early 2000s, Robert Rodriguez had built a reputation as one of American independent cinema's most energetic and self-sufficient filmmakers, a director who had famously shot his debut feature El Mariachi on a shoestring budget and sold it to Columbia Pictures, launching both his career and a franchise he clearly wasn't ready to let go of. Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) is the third and final chapter in that Mexico trilogy, following on from Desperado, and it arrived with considerably more money, a considerably more recognisable cast, and considerably more studio expectation behind it. Columbia Pictures and Dimension Films came on board for distribution, and Rodriguez produced the film through his own Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, maintaining the hands-on, one-man-band approach he had made something of a personal trademark, acting as director, producer, writer, cinematographer, and editor all at once.
The film centres on El Mariachi, the guitar-case-toting gunman played again by Antonio Banderas, who is drawn back into violent conflict when a morally dubious CIA operative named Sands recruits him to stop the assassination of the Mexican President during a military coup being engineered by a powerful drug cartel. It is, on paper, a sprawling and ambitious political thriller wrapped in the aesthetic language of spaghetti westerns and Mexican folk mythology, the sort of premise that carries obvious appeal for anyone who grew up on Leone or Peckinpah. Rodriguez shot the film digitally on a Sony CineAlta camera, making it one of the higher-profile productions of its era to embrace that technology fully, and the sun-baked, high-contrast look that results gives the whole thing a polished but slightly unreal quality.
The cast assembled here is, on the surface, remarkable. Banderas returns to the role that helped make him an international star, bringing the same lean physicality and world-weary cool that worked so well in the earlier films. Johnny Depp, fresh from the first Pirates of the Caribbean, takes the role of Sands with considerable theatrical licence. Salma Hayek Pinault reprises her role as Carolina, Mickey Rourke shows up as a laconic hired hand, and Cheech Marin and Willem Dafoe round out a supporting roster that, on paper at least, reads like a casting director's dream. Whether all that talent translates into something worth watching is, of course, the real question, and that is precisely where the author's view comes in.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the flashiest and most star-studded of Robert Rodriguez’s Mexico trilogy, but sadly, it’s also the weakest. It’s got style for days (sunglasses, guitar cases, slow-mo walks, and a soundtrack that feels like a solo festival) but underneath all the swagger, the story is basically empty. The plot is a mess. Something about a rogue CIA agent, a coup, and revenge, but it’s so thin and scattered, it’s easy to stop caring halfway through. Compared to the raw grit of El Mariachi or the cool intensity of Desperado, this one feels more like a music video stretched into a two-hour runtime. It’s undeniably hammy and heavily Americanised, more Hollywood shoot-’em-up than Mexican folk tale. You’ve got Johnny Depp just 'there' as a flamboyant CIA agent, Willem Dafoe going full cartoon villain, and Salma Hayek back as the fiery Carolina, but even with this stacked cast, the characters don’t land with much weight. Everyone’s playing a type, not a person. And while the action is slick and over-the-top (in a fun way at times), it lacks emotional stakes. It’s all cool moves and cool lines, but zero soul. It’s not a bad time, there are moments of fun, some great visuals, and that guitar theme still hits hard. But as a film, it’s style over substance all the way down. Watchable if you’re lounging with zero expectations, but the worst of the trilogy by a long shot. More popcorn than power.
And honestly, it's hard to argue with any of that. There's something a bit dispiriting about a trilogy that peaks so early and then coasts on its own iconography, and for me this one lands with the hollow thud of a film that knows it looks good and doesn't feel it needs to work much harder than that. Rodriguez has made genuinely exciting cinema when the material is stripped back and nasty, as anyone who's read my thoughts on From Dusk Till Dawn or Machete will know, but once you hand him a proper budget and a crowd-pleasing mandate, something gets lost in the transfer. Once Upon a Time in Mexico isn't a film I'd actively steer anyone away from, but I wouldn't put it on a pedestal either. Sometimes the guitar just isn't enough.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2003 | Watched: 2025-09-07
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) on YouTube
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Robert Rodriguez: Planet Terror (2007) · From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) · Machete (2010) · El Mariachi (1992)
More with Antonio Banderas: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) · Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) · Desperado (1995)
More from Mexico: Nightmare City (1980) · Violet Perfume: Nobody Hears You (2001) · Simon of the Desert (1965) · Babel (2006)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
