The Mexican [DVD] [2001]

Part road movie, part romantic comedy, part thriller and a whole lotta fun, The Mexican could get by on star power alone, but it offers Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and a clever plot full of delightful surprises. It's a thoroughly enjoyable shaggy-dog story in which the downtrodden Jerry Welbach (Pitt) copes with a dual dilemma: his girlfriend Samantha (Roberts) has just dumped him to pursue solo ambitions in Las Vegas, and a manipulative mobster has ordered Jerry to Mexico to retrieve a coveted antique pistol (the "Mexican" of the title) that carries a legacy of legend, death and danger. Jerry soon has his hands full with bandits, bloodshed, and a grizzly hound dog that vanishes and reappears with amusing regularity. En route to Vegas, Samantha's taken hostage by a burly assassin (James Gandolfini) who's attached to the gun-fetching scheme and is, in more ways than one, not who he seems to be.

Like a good magic act, JH Wyman's original screenplay distracts you from its gaps of logic, using unexpected revelations to fuel its strategic vitality. It also provides a wealth of character development, and director Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt) gives his stellar cast equal time to shine. It hardly matters that Pitt and Roberts spend most of the film apart; their time together is worth waiting for, and the machinations that separate them play out like a cross between vintage Peckinpah and Romancing the Stone. And why is the accursed pistola so valuable? That's just another surprise, setting the stage for the arrival of yet another big-name star, whose motivations are pure in a film full of double-crosses and darkly shaded humour. With a giddy plot such as this, star power is just icing on the cake.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: The "making of" featurette is a fast-paced look behind the scenes of the film complete with a humorous American voiceover, which enhances the impression that this is a made-for-TV marketing feature. More interesting are the many deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Gore Verbinski (Director), Craig Wood (Editor) and John Wyman (Writer), who do a great job in explaining why the cuts were made and offer an insight into the difficulty of making these decisions. The full-length feature commentary, with the same group, is lively, amusing and enlightening. The film itself is nicely presented in16:9 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 5.1. --Nikki Disney

DVD Special Features:

Making Of "The Mexican"
Director's Commentary
Deleted Scenes with Commentary
Deleted Scene: Brad Pitt
(All with Subtitles available)
Subtitles Tracks: English Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Anamorphic 16:9

United on screen for the first time, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts take an hilarious action-packed tour south of the border with James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) in this slick, quirky comedy thriller with more than just a few twists and turns.

Before reckless Jerry can make amends with Samantha, hw has to take one more wild ride down to Mexico to pick up a priceless antique pistol and settle his debts. Finding the pistol proves easy. But once things heat up with mob bosses and hit men, getting home with it is a whole other matter...