Film trailer of the week: Get The Gringo

Mel Gibson stars in an arch attempt at meta-redemption as he plays a loveable criminal

What is it?

A new comedy action movie starring Mel Gibson as a loveable criminal on the run to Mexico, where he gets into scrapes with local gangsters. Sorry, what year is this? 1987?

Quite. It’s a bold move for a man now mostly associated in people’s minds with domestic abuse and anti-Semitism to go back to playing loveable bad boys. The trailer, however, has a plan to win us over - it opens with a weary Mel saying “Dear Mum, I’ve been under a lot of stress at work”, and largely consists of footage of Mel being beaten up. The movie’s title change (it used to be called How I Spent My Summer Vacation) seems like part of the same marketing strategy.

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So, we should go and see the film on the grounds that we get to see Mel Gibson being physically hurt?

Something like that. Interestingly, while it’s getting a cinema release in the UK, it won’t in the US – it’ll be available as a pay for download instead, from DirecTV.

When is it out here?

11 May.

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