Film Review: Mel Gibson Stars in Mediocre ‘Get the Gringo’

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CHICAGO – Originally titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” Mel Gibson’s latest star vehicle is taking an unusual road to your viewing pleasure, bypassing theatrical release and even skipping Blu-ray/DVD for a debut this week on DirecTV On Demand. Is this the new delivery system of the future? The new way to watch movies that, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it to the multiplex? It’s too soon to tell but a technology like this is going to need a surprisingly-good flick to draw viewers to it. “Get the Gringo” is not a surprising flick in any way, unless you find mediocrity surprising.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

“Get the Gringo” has a tone that’s notably reminiscent of Elmore Leonard in the way that the man who created Chili Palmer and Raylan Givens has an amazing gift at making lowlifes and their unique situations cool, entertaining, and genuine. The script by Mel Gibson, Adrian Grunberg (who also directs), & Stacy Perskie shoots for this world of the smooth, suave anti-hero but the dialogue isn’t smart enough to maintain it and Gibson is miscast, having lost some of his once-notable leading man charisma. To be blunt, I never gave a damn about anything that was going on in “Get the Gringo,” remaining more interested in how Icon and Gibson were trying to get their latest film to the people than being drawn into the story itself.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Get the Gringo” in our reviews section.

Said story opens with Driver (Gibson) in a clown costume on a getaway chase near the Mexican border. As agents chase him across the barren plain by the fence separating the country, Driver sees a mound of dirt that he decides to use to try to jump the partition. It doesn’t quite work and he ends up crashing through the wall where the corrupt Mexican authorities, noticing that his car is filled with cash, grab Driver and throw him in jail. Although this isn’t your ordinary jail.

Driver finds himself in what is essentially a ghetto with families, a power structure, corruption, drugs, sex, and violence. In “El Pueblito,” Driver befriends a 10-year-old boy (David Hernandez) with a unique problem. The ghetto crime lord who rules over the people in this prison more than the warden has a unique kidney disease that’s going to kill him if he can’t get a transplant. He also a unique blood type and the only match is Driver’s new precocious partner. Will the career criminal challenge his own moral code by helping someone other than himself? Will he take down the prison power structure at the same time?

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Get the Gringo” review.

Get the Gringo
Photo credit: Fox