The Mexican

     “The Mexican” is the newest Hollywood offering headlined by two of its most famous actors. Brad Pitt plays Jerry, a mob handyman who wants to get out of the bad-guy lifestyle, and is offered one last mission, which is to retrieve a legendary pistol called “The Mexican”. Of course, Jerry agrees to do it, but his girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts) is furious at the idea. She thinks that his taking on the mission is Jerry’s way of avoiding any type of commitment in their relationship. They go their separate ways, Samantha to Las Vegas and Jerry to Mexico. He gets involved in some complications in getting the pistol back to the United States, and Samantha is entangled in her own dilemma as she is held hostage by another mob guy (James Gandolfini of “The Sopranos”).

When I first saw the trailer for the film, it would seem like “The Mexican” was going to be a romantic comedy. The film has some romance (although hardly since Roberts and Pitt have so little screen time together) and many funny moments, but the movie has one too many dark moments, which I thought were totally unnecessary. They should have tamed it down a bit or edited some of them out.

“The Mexican” was entertaining for the first two-thirds, but sort of loses its way near the end. However, the movie had enough amusing sequences to keep us watching, and the performances are competent. Julia Roberts charms us once again with her smile, and Brad Pitt is reliably good, but it is James Gandolfini who leaves a good impression playing a humanized mobster.

This is an average movie that could have been a lot better.

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