With most movies, the addition of Charlize Theron is a plus, and a reason to give it half-a-star more. I find the opposite to be true with Gringo, where she plays an unpleasantly racist businesswoman that the movie eventually wants us to cheer for, it seems. Her attitude goes well beyond the "women have to be this hardcore to survive in business" trope, and COSTS the film half a star. Not that it was doing too well in the first place because Charlize isn't the only scumbag in the piece, and really, the people you MIGHT care about, played by David Oyelowo and Amanda Seyfried, are naive dupes through most of it. This fiasco in the making (and I mean the story, not the film itself) has its moments, but there's just too much going on for everything to adequately pay off. We have ruthless business people trying to cut ties to a drug cartel that invested in their pharmaceutical enterprise down in Mexico, and an employee hung out to dry down there, and the boss having an affair with his wife, a fake kidnapping scheme and a real kidnapping scheme dueling one another, a mercenary-turned-humanitarian sent on conflicting missions, a drug mule and his girlfriend getting involved almost accidentally... It all ties together, but it's too much to juggle and a lot of balls get dropped. It's not tight enough a thriller, nor tragic enough an Elmore Leonard-type narrative, nor funny enough a black comedy. It wants to be those things, but it sadly comes off as obnoxious.
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Siskoid
With most movies, the addition of Charlize Theron is a plus, and a reason to give it half-a-star more. I find the opposite to be true with Gringo, where she plays an unpleasantly racist businesswoman that the movie eventually wants us to cheer for, it seems. Her attitude goes well beyond the "women have to be this hardcore to survive in business" trope, and COSTS the film half a star. Not that it was doing too well in the first place because Charlize isn't the only scumbag in the piece, and really, the people you MIGHT care about, played by David Oyelowo and Amanda Seyfried, are naive dupes through most of it. This fiasco in the making (and I mean the story, not the film itself) has its moments, but there's just too much going on for everything to adequately pay off. We have ruthless business people trying to cut ties to a drug cartel that invested in their pharmaceutical enterprise down in Mexico, and an employee hung out to dry down there, and the boss having an affair with his wife, a fake kidnapping scheme and a real kidnapping scheme dueling one another, a mercenary-turned-humanitarian sent on conflicting missions, a drug mule and his girlfriend getting involved almost accidentally... It all ties together, but it's too much to juggle and a lot of balls get dropped. It's not tight enough a thriller, nor tragic enough an Elmore Leonard-type narrative, nor funny enough a black comedy. It wants to be those things, but it sadly comes off as obnoxious.