Verdict: A kinetic, overcrowded fever-dream of Mexico.

By STEVE MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So you think Johnny Depp stole the show in “Pirates of the Caribbean”? Well, after “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” his fellow actors may learn to be wary of his larcenous, scene-stealing ways. And that's no criticism.

As Sands, the coolest, coldest CIA operative south of the border, Depp glides through the crumbled stucco architecture delivering bribes in a “Clash of the Titans” lunchbox and taking meetings in restaurants, leaning on a fake left arm while holding a loaded pistol in his real hand out of sight under the table. Oh, and he's in pursuit of the perfectly cooked pork dish, and once he finds it he feels compelled to shoot the chef in order to restore “the balance” of a country that serves his needs best when it's kept off-kilter.

It's both a plus and a minus that Sands isn't the central character here. That would be El Mariachi, the no-name musician with an arsenal in his guitar case, played a second time by Antonio Banderas. (After “Desperado,” the new film concludes a trilogy writer-director Robert Rodriguez started with his famously cheap, $7,000 debut, “El Mariachi,” in 1992.)

Longhaired, taciturn and broken-hearted, El Mariachi seeks revenge for the death of his beloved Carolina (Salma Hayek, seen in flashbacks) and daughter, murdered by the crooked Gen. Marquez (Gerardo Vigil).

But wait, that's only one plotline. El Mariachi is hired by Sands to sabotage an assassination plot against Mexico's president masterminded by drug lord Barillo (Willem Dafoe). The movie also includes a chihuahua-accessorized Mickey Rourke (!) as one of Barillo's captains, Rubén Blades as a former FBI agent, Eva Mendes as Depp's gun-packing girlfriend, Cheech Marin as an informant and Enrique Iglesias (mole still intact) as one of El Mariachi's accomplices.

Confused yet? Early in the film, telling Sands about one of El Mariachi's big fights, a fellow admits that the story “may have picked up some embellishments along the way.” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” is all embellishments, crammed with flashbacks, plot reversals, digressions.

Rodriguez (who, as the credits have it, “shot, chopped and scored” the new movie) has become better known for the “Spy Kids” trilogy. Yet even with an R-rated movie he's still like a kid on the Fourth of July: He wants to waste no time shooting off every last firecracker her has — or, in the grownup equivalent, every round of fake Hollywood ammo.

The endless action is over-the-top and often unbelievable. Though the wires yanking stuntmen up walls have been digitally erased, you know they're there. Still, it's a kinetic blast. One sequence — as Banderas and Hayek, handcuffed together, swing their way down the facade of a hotel — is a perfect action gem, simultaneously dizzying, funny and deeply romantic.

In the end, the movie is a lusty, zesty goof. Shot with impressive clarity on digital video, it renders a fever-dream fantasy of a Mexico whose chocolate-and-blood-red alleys swarm with the grinning skulls of a Day of the Dead parade.

And then, on top of everything else, there's Depp.

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