Earlier this week I finished Robert Rodriguez's trilogy about El Mariachi with Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Like El Mariachi and Desperado, this movie worked … mostly.

There is real joy in the filmmaking, and some really great scenes. But its over-the-top style doesn't carry it the whole way.

Johnny Depp really stands out as a CIA agent with some wonderful lines ("Are you a Mexican or a Mexican't?") and a great character. Antonio Banderas does a good job carrying what Roger Ebert calls the "Eastwood" role. This was a fun movie, but it doesn't hold up to some of Rodriguez's better films (Sin City and Spy Kids, for example).