GET THE GRINGO stars Mel Gibson as "Driver", a thief who, as we meet him, is fleeing down the US/Mexico border after a high stakes robbery. To escape the U.S. lawmen, Driver crashes the fence into Mexico (literally) and eventually winds up tossed into a staggeringly corrupt Mexican prison. And that's really where this movie really starts, morphing into a snarling fish-out-of-water story as Driver figures out prison life and starts making moves to save his own neck, retrieve his cash and (as happens in the movies) help a little boy who is being "protected" (or preserved) so his liver can be harvested by a dying prison kingpin (!).
That last bit pushes things just a tad over the top, but otherwise this is the best Mel movie since PAYBACK, which I loved. It could also be considered a sequel/prequel to PAYBACK, since Gibson is playing virtually the same character. I love the gritty, 70's feel of this production, and Gibson effectively channels whatever demons I've read about in the papers to create a tough, nasty, hard-boiled heart o'gold guy.
And the production values are impressive. They created one nasty-ass Mexican prison for this show, using an actual just-closed facility south-of-the-border. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but assuming it's close, I have officially decided not to commit crimes in Mexico.
Mel could make one of these a year and my butt would be in the seat/buying the blu-ray/visiting Netflix for the results. Put down the beaver puppet and pick up the automatic, Mel!
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