Once Upon a Time in Mexico

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Excellent.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The movie gets goofy from time to time -- as when payola arrives in a vintage "Clash of the Titans lunchbox -- but the filmmakers and cast have the style and the swagger to back it up.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Make no mistake, this movie is a mess. But, wow, what a mess! It's an exploding piñata, full of low comedy and high drama, deliriously colorful fight scenes and vehicle chases.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Proves to be a whiz-bang kick in the pants.

Time Richard Schickel

It's an exercise in style by Robert Rodriguez and not to be taken any more (or less) seriously than his giddy "Spy Kids" movies.

The Hollywood Reporter Jean Oppenheimer

Affectionately conceived, imaginatively staged and highly entertaining.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A bloody fairy tale with no moral and a lot of juice.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Rodriguez is such a visual stylist, and the violence is so cartoonish, that the flurry of whizzing bullets and growing pile of bodies is not as offensive as it might be.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I understood the general outlines of the story, I liked the bold strokes he uses to create the characters, and I was amused by the camera work, which includes a lot of shots that are about themselves.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

It's the addition of Depp's corrupt CIA agent, Sands, that really makes this violent, over-the-top action film, with its maze-like plot, sing.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In its wildly overwrought, burrito-Western way, is about as close to a home movie as you're likely to see in a megaplex.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You don't want to miss Depp in this movie -- he knocks it out of the park.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

God bless Johnny Depp. For the second time this year, the man has almost single-handedly redeemed an action movie that would otherwise be indistinguishable from the pack.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

The movie is stolen by the gorgeous, droll and hilarious Depp. The movie crackles when he's onscreen and only fitfully sparks when he's not.

Variety David Rooney

Evokes the mythic feel of Sergio Leone Westerns. Despite a convoluted plot that begs for cleaner lines, the wild shoot-outs, cartoonish violence and charismatic cast should lure action fans to theaters.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

You ride along with a movie like this with a big, dumb grin on your face and no guilt. Not one of this summer's megabucks movies felt this frisky or fun.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's a grisly, chuckling cartoon made on shots of tequila, Red Bull, and Sergio Leone.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

If not exactly epic, the movie is certainly the biggest and most complex of Rodriguez's Mariachi trilogy, which began in "El Mariachi" and continued in "Desperado."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Starts having the same effect as one too many tequilas: the Hong Kong-style stunts, the goofy wisecracks, the foxy presence of Eva Mendes -- all of it becomes blurry and numbing.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An epic unhinged, and while its best sections suggest a Loony Tune done by Sam Peckinpah and Emilio Fernandez, "Mexico" needs to be even crazier than it is.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Banderas inhabits the role of the mariachi with a feral grace undimished by the seven-year gap between films.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Paying homage to Sergio Leone, "Mexico" aims too high and, in the process, becomes more like every generic, overplotted drug-cartel-and-revenge flick out there.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

However many millions of dollars Rodriguez set aside for blanks and exploding squibs was a waste. Depp's salary, on the other hand, was money well spent.

Film Threat Kevin Carr

If only there had been more Salma Hayek.

Premiere Addison MacDonald

The entire film is a thrown-together collection of gunfights and in-jokes. The film is more concerned with expanding this universe of seedy tequila bars and dusty city streets than it is in telling a narrative story.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

A clear case of huevos con hubris.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Depp's performance reminds us that, yeah, it's only a movie -- just not a good one.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

An overstuffed would-be epic.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Having already looted the Peckinpah and spaghetti-western archives, the director now quotes his own quotations, in service of not a sequel but a vociferous reiteration.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Needs a story.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The result is a dull and campy 97-minute bloodbath offering little distinction between good guys and bad.

Slate David Edelstein

The whole movie is like that: showy stunts, explosions, over-the-top acting, fiesta colors, lurid angles, and a sense of nothing--nada--at stake.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The only thing missing is a coherent story -- or even, for that matter, an interesting idea for one.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film's deliberately overblown cartoonishness and its gleefully pandering adolescent cruelty never blend into the enjoyable style of, say, a good spaghetti western (Rodriguez's acknowledged model), or even a bad Quentin Tarantino movie.