If Get the Gringo (alternatively know as How I Spent My Summer Vacation) was a food item it would be a hotdog. A really amazingly made gourmet hot dog with some kind of spicy Mexican sauce. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on this particular hotdog, you would probably enjoy it as much as any person could possibly enjoy a hotdog.

The movie stars Mel Gibson in a return to the kind of hard-nosed badass action hero shtick that we've all come to love with the more polished feel of his more recent work, as would be expected considering that Gibson co-wrote and co-produced the movie as well.

The story kicks off with a car chase along the US-Mexico border with Gibson and an unnamed henchman attempting to evade police whilst in possession of bags full of money and some clown masks that immediately reminded me of a certain opening scene from the greatest superhero movie ever made. (if you don't know which one I'm referring to then perhaps you need to reconsider why you watch movies at all.)

Anyway, Gibson's character, the Driver, ends up stuck in the Mexican prison/shanty town El Pueblito (which translates to 'little village') without any resources except for a devious ability to get things done.

The driver ends up befriending a 10 year old Kid (Kevin Hernandez) who also lives in the prison and seems to have some kind of mysterious connection to the prison's resident crime boss, Javi (Daniel Giménez Cacho)

It would be no fun if I was to give away more than that but you won't need too much more than that since honestly there isn't much more to give away. The plot is fairly straightforward and serves an extremely clever device to move the action along and move along it does!

The action comprises of the perfect mix of calculated and chaotic fights and gun fights, with Gibson really pulling out all the stops, and really really cool diving rolls, necessary to keep you hooked all the while strung together by some really sharp writing.

A decent portion of Get the Gringo is spoken in Spanish so a tolerance of subtitles will be required but this only serves to amplify the whole exotic hovel that is El Pueblito so I'd recommend you find a way to cope with this.

Get the Gringo is an awesome action movie. If you're in the mood to see Mel Gibson kick some serious ass whilst looking totally cool about it then this one's for you. It's not going to leave you with any kind of profound emotional experience but you will walk away satisfied.

  Rating: 4

Reviewed by Channa Fernandopulle