Review of Get the Gringo (2012) by Dustin G — 29 May 2012

Gibson's A Gringo.

Previously called Get The Gringo, and seemingly being released just in time for the summer to kick in is an alternative to all the fantasy fights, guns and mass destruction, no; instead How I Spent My Summer Vacation exchanges fantasy for profanity, but the real question is, considering it's co written by and staring Mel Gibson, is it going to be as racist as we expect?

So a rough outline of the plot might be a good idea, the film opens with 2 men in clown costumes driving down a desert road while being chased by the police, one of them is bleeding, while the other complains he should stop bleeding on all his money, the clown driving takes off his mask and is revealed to be Gibson; this is how we meet him, and this is how the film is pitched. To avoid getting caught the "driver" sends the car across the boarder to Mexico where he is left to the mercy of the border patrol cops, and is sent to the worst prison in the world.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation isn't that racist at all really. OK, I'm lying. How I Spent strongly implies that everyone in Mexico is corrupted especially the authority figures, it's as if the whole movie is letter in the shape of a middle finger to all police in America or Mexico. So really, for a Mel Gibson movie, we have started off strong.

This isn't like Gibson's previous recent work, No. How I Spent is much closer to Mel's Bird On A Wire years in fact it looks as if the character could indeed be Rick Jarmin in present day, and honestly? I kinda like that, it's as if he has taken all the comedy he has worked up playing off his old age and merged it with some of his youthful action days to create a character who is never actually named.

See that's what I like about How I Spent; the little jokes, how the main protagonist keeps changing his name, Gibson is rightly playing this one firmly with his tongue in his cheek. The story is so stupid not even the character can believe it's happening, now you've got to respect that.

You know this is going to sound strange for my to say but even for Mel Gibson, How I Spent My Summer Vacation is a little, well Loco. Yeah that's how the movie feels, crazy, as if Gibson and Grunberg came up with the idea while drunk, laughed it off and then they decided to write a screenplay for it anyway. That's not to say the film isn't fun, How I Spent is very enjoyable, it has all the trappings you want and expect from a good Mel Gibson film.

But the film isn't enjoyable because it's crazy, it's a contributing factor but I think the thing I really like about How I Spent is that it's dirty, the whole movie is kind of shot like a 70's grind house extreme version of other Gibson classics, How I Spent My Summer Vacation feels like the movie that Gibson has been waiting to make for a very long time.

The cast, apart from Mel are largely disposable and they know it, nothing wrong with that either. If you know your place in a movie and you play it well then you have done your job, and everyone knows they are here for one reason and one reason only, to support the main attraction.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation isn't as good as Lethal Weapon but is the best thing Gibson's done in a long time. I'm sure a lot of people won't agree, but personally I enjoyed How I Spent My Summer Vacation, and somewhere inside myself I secretly hope it really is how Gbson spends his free time.