Get the Gringo (2012) [Blu-ray]
Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: The odds are against him. So is everyone else.

Academy Award Winner Mel Gibson steals the show - and anything else he can get his hands on - in this explosive, nonstop thrill ride packed with equal parts action and attitude! A career criminal (Gibson) pulls off the heist of a lifetime, but his getaway plans go south of the border when a high-speed car chase lands him in a hard-core Mexican prison community known as "El Pueblito." Now, in order to survive, he'll have to fend off corrupt cops, take down ruthless druglords...and team up with a streetwise ten-year-old who has a few secrets of his own!

Storyline: Apprehended by the Mexican authorities, Driver is sent to a hardcore prison where he enters the strange and dangerous world of 'El Pueblito'. Not an easy place for an outsider, unless it's with the help of someone who knows the ropes - a 10-year-old kid. Written by Production

User Comment: HalloweenShape31 from United States, 19 April 2012 • With Mel Gibson doing himself no favors in the public media over the last six years, GET THE GRINGO is a much-needed reminder of why we loved him so much for the twenty years prior to his scandalous headlines. While it was greatly refreshing to see Gibson on screen again in EDGE OF DARKNESS and THE BEAVER after an overbearing eight year absence, GET THE GRINGO does the best of capturing everything we truly loved about Gibson's performances: charm, wit, humor, edge. The script by Gibson, director Adrian Grunberg and producer Stacey Persky is an original and tight balance of humor, edge, and danger that can very easily be considered an unofficial sequel to the theatrical cut of Gibson's cult favorite, PAYBACK. While the character of GRINGO's Driver never reveals his actual name, he possesses a lot of the same qualities as PAYBACK's Porter, including a U.S. military tattoo, a chain-smoking habit, sticky fingers, an iron jaw, and a penchant for bloodshed. Grunberg's direction is also solid with an obvious love for Sam Peckinpah paraded throughout.

For those of us who endured so many years of understandable negativity towards Gibson for his personal troubles, GET THE GRINGO is the film we've long awaited. It's truly a shame this film won't be seen wide in the U.S. It would've been a better comeback vehicle than EDGE OF DARKNESS was meant to be. GET THE GRINGO practically screams, "Remember me? I'm still here, and I still got it!"

But if one thing is certain in the age of home entertainment, it is that every good film gets discovered by an audience. Sooner or later...

Summary: The Mel Gibson vehicle we've all been waiting for!

User Comment: Dirty_Haraldo_Callahan from Latvia, 9 May 2012 • Anyone familiar with "Prison Break" (Season 3) will probably find a lot of similarities here, but unlike Michael Scofield - Mel's character didn't take crap from anyone and knew how to have a laugh.

There's also not a lot of cheese in this film. Every scene just keeps the film going, moving forward. No one overacts, no one delivers dumb cliché lines. And it never tries to force you to suspend your disbelief (well, maybe a little bit in the climax of the film) or make fun of your intelligence.

Now, the Kid - he was actually pretty cool in this film. I don't usually like these little, rude bad-asses, but, fortunately, there was never a point in this movie where the kid did something implausible. He knew his place through the entire thing.

The violence was nice, but there wasn't a lot of it. The same thing with action - a car chase, couple of physical interactions, a shootout, a heist and a little more shooting. But overall - it's not an action movie. More like a thriller or a heist movie...

That being said - when stuff happens, it happens. There is blood (a lot of it is CGI, though), drug use, violence against children and women, torture, some swearing and couple of doctors cutting out organs... yeah...

Shaky-cam is totally not a problem. Car chases have some camera trembling, but overall - this movie looks and feels like the majority of 90s action flicks. Steady and solid.

The scope is exactly what you would expect from a $20 million movie, but it never steps into DTV territory. It's also not very long (about 90 minutes), so it goes by rather quick, but it's really fun. Oh and a lot of it is in Spanish. I'd say... good 25%-40% of the dialogue is in Spanish.

But, seriously, I had a great time watching this! And I can't wait to see it again! If we're talking ratings - as a Mel Gibson movie - this is a solid 7/10. But compared to the majority of films coming out these days, it's definitely 8/10.

Go see it when you get a chance!

Summary: Mel Gibson does not disappoint!

[CSW] -3.5- Think Porter from Payback stuck in a Mexican prison. Turn the mariachi (Mexican folk music) volume up and watch the number of bodies pile up. A superb movie with Mel Gibson at his best. If you haven't seen Payback you should see it too. This is an excellent action adventure movie which is highly recommended for the action adventure movie fan. .
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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