Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2012

Mel Gibson has had an awkward decade. His reported drunken, anti-Semitic rants have not earned him any new fans, nor have recent turkeys like The Beaver. And while this fun and farcical, oddly appealing crime caper can’t be called great cinema (no US theatrical release), it’s firmly in the Not Bad category and a valid first step toward the actor’s return to form. Mel, who co-wrote and produced, blends Lethal Weapon’s Marty Riggs with Mad Max to create an unstable American career criminal who finds himself, literally, in a Tijuana jail—the notorious “El Pueblito,” a city unto itself, where he must use both his wits and his killer instincts to deal (satisfyingly if a bit violently) with corrupt cops and the inmate kingpin who hands down a life sentence to the gringo—a short one. The resourcefully recreated prison sets are fabulous, based on a real place. The film is punctuated with satirically philosophical observations, such as “Is this a prison or the world’s shittiest mall?” A subplot has to do with a young lad he befriends (Kevin Hernandez) whose rare-blood-type liver is being evilly eyed by the dastardly kingpin.