Robert Rodriguez comes out with a 3rd installment of the El Mariachi story. This time El Mariachi seeks revenge for the death of his family, and becomes a hero to save Mexico.

Unlike the predecessor Desperado, Mexico is a stand alone movie. It takes place years after Desperado and el Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is living a life of solitude in a small village of guitarists. Agent Sands (Johnny Depp), enter the picture as a CIA agent playing both sides of the law, gets el Mariachi out of hiding by convincing him to after the man who killed his love Carolina (Salma Hayek). A new president of Mexico has been elected and is set out to go after the biggest drug cartel in Mexico. Unfortunately for him, the kingpin Barillo (Willem Dafoe) would rather try to overthrow the government than have his empire get sought after. Within the struggle of political power in Mexico el Mariachi is thrown in the middle and become the unlikeliest of heroes.

Once upon a time in Mexico is an action-packed shooter all the way through. Each scene is one showdown after another. It has plenty of blood, gore, and all the goodies that come in random gun battles and more. Unlike Desperado, there’s plenty of humor to go around as well. Johnny Depp plays another cool and charismatic role of the summer though he’s just in there for comic relief due to the seriousness of the other characters. Banderas is as cool ever as el Mariachi and Hayek, though hotter than ever, plays a semi-cameo role in this movie. Director Robert Rodriguez does what he does best in this movie in his elaborate gun battles and action sequence. Though as a sequel, it still does not add up to the caliber of its predecessors. Overall, this was an exciting, though sometimes cartoonish movie. It included a lot of funny scenes which made it fun to watch as well. I give it a B.