Just Call Him Gringo

Good day my friends! Hope you are excited! Because I am! why am I excited you ask? Well it is because it is Wednesday and I get to give you another movie of course! Like clock work I am here on Wednesday to give you a fresh movie review of the latest movie that I have seen at the theatre. Usually I don't know what I am going to see until the late afternoon especially if there have been a few new releases put out. Sometimes it is a hard choice because I like a wide range of movies. I could choose anything from a drama, thriller/suspense, action, romance or a comedy. Now being a writer myself let me tell you writing comedy is a really difficult thing. It is so hard to know what exactly people will find funny because what might make me laugh might not necessarily make others laugh. That is why it so hard to find a good comedy out there to watch and also why a lot of movies throw in  a little humour to lighten up movies of different genres. And as a reviewer I also feel that a good comedy has to have a good story to go along with it along with some wacky characters and have some great performers to bring it all to life. If you don't have theses things than the audience will hate it and you could have a real flop on your hands. As a movie going audience we have seen some great comedies by some outstanding comedians but after a while we get bored of their movies and they just become annoying for example Adam Sandler. Enough about that though we should get to the movie review here because I know you are waiting for it and also there is a show on TV I want to watch and it is on an hour earlier thanks to the time change. So without further ado I will tell you that this week we are looking at the movie Gringo which was produced by Amazon Studios the same company that brought you Manchester By The Sea. This movie stars Joel Edgerton(Black Mass) as Richard Rusk, Charlize Theron( Monster) as Elaine Markinson, David Oyelowo(Selma) as Harold Soyinka, Thandie Newton(Westworld) as Bonnie Soyinka and Amanda Seyfried( Mama Mia!) as Sunny. So let us take a trip down to Mexico for this dark comedy and I will be back to tell you what I thought of it.

Harold Soyinka(Oyelowo) has always done the right thing ,worked hard and been a good person.  Even when life seems to be kicking him down he just does his job. But Harold is about to be pushed to his limit! It all starts when he finds out he is in serious financial trouble, which soon leads him to find out that the pharmaceutical company he works for that is run by his friend Richard(Edgerton) is about to be sold and that he is going to be out of a job. Having suspected it at first it is confirmed when he voice records Richard and the companies Vice President Elaine Markinson(Theron) on his phone that he left on the table when he stepped away from them for a bit in the restaurant in a hotel in Mexico they were staying at. If things couldn't get worse for Harold his wife informs him in a video chat that she has been having an affair and is leaving him. What Harold does not know is that the person she is having an affair with is Richard. Angry and distraught Harold fakes a kidnapping and asks for $5 million dollars as a ransom. What Harold does not know is that a Mexican drug lord known as the black panther is after him to help them break into the pharmaceutical companies lab in Mexico to steal the formula for a groundbreaking Marijuana pill that they have developed and had been selling to the same drug lord for distribution to help make the company money. Not able to afford to pay the ransom Richard sends his ex-mercenary brother who now works in Haiti helping the people there through charitable works to go and rescue Harold. Along the way Harold gets captured by the drug lord's henchmen but escapes and meets a young shop girl named Sunny(Seyfried)  and her boyfriend who is also in Mexico to steal some of the pills for a drug dealer in the US to reproduce themselves. With all these people after him wanting to catch him and possibly kill him Harold must try and survive changing the way he normally lives his life and quite possibly find a new life away from his old one if he can only make it through it all in one piece.

So from the sounds of it this sounds like a bit of a confusing movie with many twists and turns in it along the way. Now I have to say that when I saw the trailers for this dark comedy I thought hey! This could be a good movie! But after seeing this I came to the conclusion it really wasn't! The story idea was good about a good man who just can't seem to catch a break even when he tries to be a little devious. But in reality it turned out to be a mess! While it had it's share of twists and turns it just seemed to have too many which made it confusing at times and even a little boring dragging in parts. The characters were not well developed and the comedy in it was not funny at all. In fact I was waiting for something to make me laugh! As was the there people in the theatre that went to see it. A poorly put together movie with no laughs and some sub-par acting. Good thing I went on cheap night I would hate to have spent full price on this movie. This is why I am giving Gringo a 5.8 on The Justin Scale of Movies and putting it on my Flick-It list of movies to avoid at the theatre. And there you have it my friend, it is time for me call it a wrap on this latest movie review! Until next time keep that popcorn freshly popped and save me a good seat because I will be seeing you again at the movies!