Best movie of this year hands down!

That was an excellent one.

Nice effects though.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Given the many streaming options we all have, I watch a lot of content (probably too much) and I've become astute in sizing up a film or TV show's quality pretty fast. Gone are the days when I'd be half-way into a dud and hold on just to see what happens. 99 out of 100 times, I'd be very disappointed and angry that I'd wasted my time. So halfway into this mess, I'd had enough. It was not as funny as the previews and I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. I don;t know what favors these A-list actors (Oleyowo, Newton, Theron) owe to the Edgerton bros. but they've more than repaid them with this hit to their professional cred.

It took a little bit for this one to get revved up, but once it did, boy howdy, it really delivered the goods. Darkly humorous, ultra-violent, and plot twists that keep coming right up to the very end, Gringo easily measures up to its contemporaries such as "Lucky Number Slevin", "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels", and "Snatch". Stellar camera work, magnificent writing, and all-around great performances by Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Joel Edgerton, and the amazing David Oyelowo. Put this one on the must see list, gang! It does not disappoint.

Entirely decent film. Felt like there were far more characters than necessary, so story got little diluted and unnecessarily convoluted. Has the feeling of those circa 2000 films like Tailor of Panama - lots of eccentric characters - cops, drug cartels, con men / women, exotic locations, everyone trying to screw everyone over. Some decent dialogue, and memorable characters, and film has a good energy to it. Solid 6 or 7 film.However - once again Sharlto Copley is entirely unused. This guy is needs more roles, and more screen time. Brilliant in District 9, brilliant in Hard Core Henry - guy has insane range and his American accent is on point. Didn't even realize it was him till like his 3rd scene. Seriously - this guy needs his own franchise. Someone call his agent.Also underused was Charlize Theron. Fantastic character in this film, and felt they could have scrapped the Edgerton character, who was good, but they could have made the two character's one. Make Sharlto her brother, find another way to offload the "affair" subplot on some other minor character. They spent a lot of work trying to create the tragic reveal of the affair. Anyway - fantastic bit of character development in the car with Charlize's character, that played amazingly into her other scenes. But not enough time spent to make it go anywhere.Anyway, again, decent film. Just a lot of useless subplots and too many characters taking a lot of energy out of the story / pacing. Really felt it could be a much stronger film with half the cast, and just pinning 4 or 5 characters against each other, instead of the 12 in the film. If you liked this, highly recommend Tailor of Panama. Similar vibe, but much stronger script.

Now and then along comes a film with a star-studded cast that is the incentive to watch or buy the DVD only to discover the cast has very little to do with this mess of a 'dark comedy.' Very briefly, Gringo joyrides into Mexico, where mild-mannered businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) finds himself at the mercy of his backstabbing business colleagues (Joel Edgerton and Charlize Theron), local drug lords and a morally conflicted black-ops mercenary (Sharlto Copley). Crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal, Harold battles to survive his increasingly dangerous situation in ways that raise the question: Is he out of his depth - or two steps ahead?Before this all guns and grossly insulting filthy dialogue comes after what appears on paper to be a potential crime corruption exercise between US and Mexico. 'In the offices of a pharmaceutical company called Promethium, we see the CEO Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) being interrupted from having sex with his co-boss Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron) by a phone call. Richard answers to hear his friend and employee, Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo), crying for help, claiming he has been kidnapped in Mexico and that his abductors are demanding a ransom of $5 million. We go back to two days earlier where Harold is merely a mild-mannered rep for Promethium, living in Chicago and married to Bonnie (Thandie Newton). He meets with his accountant, who tells him that because of Bonnie's reckless spending, they are broke. When he gets to work, Harold is told by Richard that the two of them, plus Elaine, are going to be flying to Mexico to handle business involving a company merger, although Harold doesn't know that it's supposed to be a merger. Harold goes into Richard's office and finds a file on his computer that he copies to his own drive. Elsewhere in the city is a guitar shop run by Sunny (Amanda Seyfried) and her boyfriend Miles (Harry Treadaway). A friend of Miles, Nelly (Paris Jackson), enters the shop to tell Miles that someone down in Mexico wants him to smuggle some drugs into the U.S. He agrees to it and decides to take Sunny with him.' And that is about all there is.Charlize Theron is a co-producer of this noisy hypersexual pottymouth romp. The film didn't do well - for obvious reasons. Grady Harp, June 18