EL GRINGO stars soon-to-be action legend Scott Adkins as a man with no name who rolls into a small Mexican town across with the New Mexico border. He carries a large bag of money. You know where this is going? Of course you do. Action legend plus a bag of drug money equals violence.
While short on thought production, EL GRINGO delivers a fun ride with Adkins. Unlike certain action stars of the past, he seems to have some real acting chops to go along with the impressive fight skills we've seen in the UNDISPUTED sequels and EXPENDABLES 2. While his screen fighting skills can be seen for a quick clip here they aren't on full display here as GRINGO is a movie about guns. Action fans shouldn't be alarmed if they were expecting some serious ass kicking from Adkins as he and director Eduardo Rodriguez bring some real panache to the gun fights.
Featuring some of the wettest squibs this side of Verhoeven Adkins blasts his way through cartel henchman with reckless abandon. The gun fights are the real highlight of the film, as it obvious the stunt team took real care to choreograph the gun fights. That's not to say GRINGO doesn't stumble at times though.
Action films need a good bad guy and sadly this is an area where Gringo slips up. A corrupt Sheriff is the main villain, but sadly does very little. He spends more time shooting at stray dogs that sending his white skull faced cartel gang out to do any dirty work. Played more for laughs, the Sheriff isn't imposing enough and elicits very little fear from anyone it seems. A little sadism would go a long way.
Another problem I had is the lack of Christian Slater screen time. He's always been a solid actor and he brings a fine performance to such a small character in GRINGO.
Besides Adkins and Slater bringing their A-game, Yvette Yates brings the hot Mexican love interest to Adkins man with no name. With non-stop glistening cleavage it may be hard for some to recognize a good performance from her, but sadly like Slater she needed more screen time. And lastly, the ending was a let down. A final bullet ridden shootout is what was needed and it was no where to be found.EL GRINGO is bloody with some great action. Even when it stumbles, it isn't enough to take away from a fun ride as director Eduardo Rodrigiuez keeps his foot on the petal the whole time. This is definitely a winner for the After Dark Films Action team.
