GET THE GRINGO (Alliance, 2012) D: Adrian Grunberg, w/ Mel Gibson, Kevin Hernandez. Rating: NNN Blu-ray package: NNN Rating: NNN
Nobody likes Mel Gibson these days, but if you can get past the tabloids and the clunky title, you’ll find a brisk crime drama reminiscent of Richard Stark’s Parker novels and played out in a unique and fascinating setting.
Gibson plays a robbery-with-violence career criminal who gets thrown in a Mexican prison that looks, as he says, “like the shittiest mall on earth.” Nobody is locked in cells. Some of the cons have guns. Stalls for drugs, food, hookers – whatever you want – operate openly. Husbands, wives and kids live with the prisoners, coming and going as they please. The thief settles in to learn the ropes, aided by a 10-year-old boy who’s determined to kill the jail’s top gangster. At the same time, people are looking to recover our thief’s stolen millions.
Gibson dials back his penchant for slapstick mugging till it’s barely visible and plays the thief as neither a hero nor a guy who finds redemption through the admiration of a child. He just wants the money. Kevin Hernandez, the kid, stays just as self-interested.
The extras take a little look at production but focus mainly on how Gibson, director Adrian Grunberg and co-writer Stacy Perskie came up with the story.
EXTRAS Making-of doc, scene-specific on-set footage. English, French audio and subtitles.
