Review: Gringo

Hollywood is constantly reviving old genres, only most of the time nobody notices because the movies sink without trace. Gringo - an attempt to revive classic 90s-era Tarantino knock offs like, uh, 2 Days in the Valley - is the kind of film whose presence in cinemas seems a little surprising (finally, the David Oyelowo star vehicle we've been waiting for!) until you spot Australia's own Joel Edgerton up the top of the credits. And with his brother Nash directing (in only his second film, after the underrated The Square), this is more Aussie than half of next year's AFI winners.

  

Hard-working office drone Harold Soyinka (Oyelowo) is the kind of nice guy that always gets into trouble in crime movies, and here he’s in way over his head. His big-spending wife (Thandie Newton) has him in deep debt and his boss-slash-best-friend Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) is clearly planning to screw him over in an upcoming corporate merger. But first Harold has to take Richard and his vampy, foul-mouthed co-President Elaine (2 Days in the Valley star Charlize Theron) to Mexico to oversee their pharmaceutical operations, unaware that the firm has been up to some shady business (as in, cartel level shady) and if anything goes wrong Harold will take the fall.

  

The closest thing this has to a surprise twist (one that the trailers happily give away because it's pretty much the only satisfying development in the film) is that Harold realises he's got nothing to lose roughly five seconds before the trap closes shut around him and decides to try and spin what's happening his way. Unfortunately this move - which again, should be satisfying; seeing the little guy stand up for himself always is - doesn't really pay off, in large part because this film is never quite sure exactly who it wants us to cheer for.

Rusk might be an nasty dirtbag, but he's got the kind of self-centered energy that makes him fun to watch; Elaine is often just plain mean but there's enough of a human being in there that she's not pure evil either. A subplot featuring tourists-slash-drug mules Sunny (Amanda Seyfried) and her boyfriend Miles (Harry Treadaway) does little but showcase two extremely dull characters, while late arrival and conflicted hitman Mitch (Sharlto Copley) is yet another dirtbag who's more fun to watch than the nice guys. And Harold? He's pretty much a blank.

The various plots intertwine in mildly interesting ways and there's the occasional burst of nasty violence (plus a cartel boss obsessed with ranking Beatles' albums; told you the 90s are back) but - in something of a running problem for this film - it's never quite sure whether it wants us to really care about any of it.  Cheering for the bad guys is fine; it's when a film doesn't really know who it wants you to cheer for (or whether it wants you cheering at all) that there's a problem.

Gringo's cast of creeps are never dull, and the story moves quickly enough that things never really get boring either. But this isn't stylish or quick-witted enough to be a Tarantino film, nor are the characters quirky or schlubby enough for it to be a Coen Brothers tale. The reason Hollywood stopped making this kind of film is because without a strong point of view a messy crime thriller with muddled morals often ends up as a pretty average experience. And so it proves to be here.