THE HOUSEMAID : Tuesday 30th December 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE HOUSEMAID' this week, and this American psychological thriller film is Co-Produced and Directed by Paul Feig, and is based on the 2022 novel of the same name penned by Freida McFadden. Paul Feig's filmography take in his debut with 'I Am David' in 2003, and which he would follow up with the likes of 'Bridesmaids' in 2011, 'The Heat' in 2013, 'Spy' in 2015, 'Ghostbusters' in 2016, 'A Simple Favor' in 2018, and 'Another Simple Favor' released earlier last year. The film was released in the US last week, has generated largely positive critical reviews and has so far grossed US$70M off the back of a US$35M production budget.

The film opens with Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) driving through the streets of Long Island to locate the lavish home of the wealthy Winchester family, at which she is attending an interview with Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) for a live-in housemaid. Nina explains the details of the role, gives Millie a brief tour, and says thanks for her interest and she'll be in touch in a couple of days. Millie drives away feeling fairly downbeat about her chances of success. We then see Millie sleeping rough in her car on the rooftop of a car park. Early one morning she is woken by two Police Officers who tell her she can't sleep here and who tell her to move on. Millie makes up some story on the spot just as her phone rings. As the Police leave telling her not to drive and text, Millie answers the phone to Nina who asks when can she start. Millie says 'how about this afternoon', to which Nina replies with 'perfect', and hangs up. 

Upon arrival at the Winchester house, Nina is very enthusiastic to welcome Millie to the family. She takes Millie up to the attic room which will be her bedroom. It has one triangular window above the single bed which does not open, and the door is locked from the outside with a key and a dead bolt. Millie quickly learns first hand that Nina shows signs of severe mental illness, and repeatedly puts her in double bind situations. 

The first instance is when Nina has to make a speech at her daughter's Cecelia 'Cece' (Indiana Elle) school the next day, and needs some time by herself to write the speech. The next morning Millie wakes up late, and comes downstairs to see an irate Nina turning the kitchen upside down, throwing breakfast items on the floor and frantically rummaging through kitchen cupboards and drawers in search of her written speech, which she accuses Millie of hiding. Her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) comforts her and calms her down, and reassures Millie that everything is fine and that she's not to blame. Millie is left to clean up Nina's mess.

We learn that Andrew grew up in a privileged home and worked in a law firm owned by his father which he inherited upon his death. And now whilst he is the owner of the law firm he really wants nothing more than to be good husband and father. He's also handsome, charming, well toned, has a million dollar smile, and all the ladies swoon after him. He also designed and built the house the Winchester family now live in. 

One day, while Millie is serving afternoon tea to Nina and three of her best friends, Nina excuses herself for a few moments and the three start to tittle tattle to themselves about their disdain for Nina and saying how they don't understand how Andrew puts up with her. They further talk amongst themselves that years prior, Nina attempted to end young daughter Cece's life by drowning her in the bathtub, and her own by overdosing, which resulted in her being admitted to a psychiatric hospital for nine months to recover. 

Some time later, Nina asks Millie to arrange a weekend in the city for Nina and Andrew to see a Broadway musical that he wants to see, and stay in a hotel. Millie makes the necessary arrangements as instructed, only for Nina to deny having asked her to do that, stating the cost will be deducted from her paycheck. Millie says she can't afford for that to happen, but Nina stands firm. Andrew intervenes and says that no monies will be refunded from her paycheck. Nina is occupied that weekend, so Millie and Andrew secretly agree to attend the show together after Andrew is unable to get the tickets refunded. After enjoying the show, eating out, dancing and drinking too much the pair decide to check into the hotel but take separate rooms. Millie dozes off and comes round realising that she has missed multiple angry texts from Nina, including one firing her. She goes into Andrew's room to show him the texts, and they end up having sex. 

After they return home, Nina finds an advertising booklet from the show, which leads to a fight where Andrew demands Nina leave. She does, and Andrew and Millie begin living together as a couple. One morning, Millie is preparing breakfast when she is freaked out by the gardener Enzo Accardi (Michele Morrone) staring at her through the back door, In her fright she accidentally drops a tray and breaks a prized crockery set handed down from Andrew's grandmother and recently given to him by his mother Evelyn Winchester (Elizabeth Perkins). Andrew reassures her that it's OK and can be fixed, and she cleans up the mess and puts all the broken china in a plastic zip lock bag, only for him to later lock Millie inside her room. 

Nina is shown happy to be leaving, and sets about recording her past in a letter to Cece. Early in their relationship, after a minor dispute about her dark hair roots showing through her dyed blonde hair style, Andrew tricked her into entering the attic storage room (later Millie's room) before locking her inside. Andrew demanded that, before he free her, Nina pull one hundred strands of hair out of her scalp, follicles still attached. He then leaves her with only three small bottles of water. Eventually, she does as instructed, only for Andrew to demand she do it again, claiming one lacked the follicle. When he finally let her go, he brought her a small, drugged bottle of water which she downed straight away before running to see Cece. Nina then passed out on the floor of Cece's bedroom, after which Andrew staged events to appear as if Nina attempted to kill Cece by drowning her in a running bath, and then herself. Nina was subsequently sent to a psychiatric hospital and was kept there until she falsely confessed. 

Nina intentionally hired Millie having thoroughly investigated her background, knowing that Andrew would romantically pursue her and leave Nina for her, believing Millie to be more than capable of potentially protecting herself against him. As we learn, Millie is out on parole having served ten years of a thirteen year sentence for the murder (dropped to a manslaughter charge) of a fellow male student whilst at college, who was witnessed to be raping a female student.

Back to the present day and Andrew tells Millie through the securely locked attic door that she is being punished for breaking and not washing the bone china items she dropped. He slides a piece of broken china under the door and instructs her that she deeply cuts twenty-one long lines into her stomach (matching the number of shards of broken china) before he will free her. After sometime, she does, and Andrew enters the room to let her out. After comforting her and explaining that there are consequences for actions, Millie stabs him in the neck with a cheese knife which Nina had previously stashed there for her. After a struggle, she gains the upper hand and locks him in the room. 

She then heads downstairs, makes herself a sandwich and recovers from her ordeal. She then goes through the kitchen drawers and finds a pair of pliers. She takes the pliers and the full set of remaining bone china crockery up to the attic room door and begins systematically smashing the crockery set on the floor, as he hears what she is doing and sees broken shards coming in through underneath the door. She then passes the pliers through and tells him to pull out one of his front teeth with the pliers, putting an end to his million dollar smile which he is renowned for. She also pours petrol underneath the door and threatens to burn the house down with him inside unless he complies with her wishes. 

Meanwhile, while eating at a burger joint, Nina tells Cece that they are moving away, but Cece suggests that they should first rescue Millie. Nina returns to the house undercover of darkness and seeing the light on in the attic room assumes Millie is locked inside. She sneaks in and unlocks the door before Millie can stop her. Andrew attacks her and throws her down the stairs and then chases Millie seemingly out of the house, but she seems to have escaped. Andrew pleads with Nina to resume their life together saying that he can change and he wants to be a better man, but Nina refuses so he attempts to kill her again, before Millie reappears and pushes him over the edge of the spiral staircase, where he plummets to the hard floor below like a rag doll, killing him instantly. Nina unscrews a light bulb hanging directly over the spiral staircase and drops it on him to make it appear like an accidental death.

Investigating the incident, Policewoman Jessica Connors (Alexandra Seal) notices inconsistencies in Nina's story including the deep cut to Andrew's neck and how strange it is that he would be changing a light bulb in the middle of the night. However, knowing what happened to Andrew's first fiancee, her sister, she does not investigate further, saying that she'll just put it down to one of those obscure domestic accidents that happen from time to time. After Andrew's funeral, Millie is seen observing from a distance. Nina and Cece come over, the pair embrace and Nina slips a cheque into Millie's hand for US$100K with which to start a new life. Millie later attends another housemaid interview. The interviewer says she comes highly recommended by Nina, and indicates that her husband is abusing her. Millie replies by asking when she can start working.

'The Housemaid' is hardly going to win any major awards this season, but nonetheless it's a fun and entertaining watch, and a throwback to the late '80's and early '90's erotic film noir offerings that Michael Douglas seemed to churn out frequently enough back in the day. Paul Feig has crafted a campy, pulpy thriller that knows exactly what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything else, and for this he is to be congratulated for stepping outside his usual action comedy offerings for something a little different. Amanda Seyfried shines in her role as the seemingly unhinged wife who comes good in the end, and Sydney Sweeney is also well cast as the well intentioned woman who becomes a little unhinged in the end. There are a few plot holes in the script, but otherwise the film is well worth the price of your cinema ticket to maintain your interest for 130 minutes and to see where the twists and turns take you. 

'The Housemaid' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THINGS HEARD & SEEN : Tuesday 29th June 2021.

With Greater Sydney in COVID lockdown once again, and as a result all cinema's closed until July 9th at least, once again as with the same time last year I'll be reviewing a few of the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa this week is the horror thriller 'THINGS HEARD & SEEN' which was released on the streaming service two months ago now and is Directed and written for the screen by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, and based on the novel 'All Things Cease to Appear' by Elizabeth Brundage. The film making pairing of Berman and Pulcini have yielded over the years 'American Splendour' in 2003 with Paul Giamatti and which picked up thirty-one award wins and another fifty nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit, 'The Nanny Diaries' in 2007 with Scarlett Johansson, 'The Extra Man' in 2010 with Kevin Kline, 'Girl Most Likely' in 2012 with Kristen Wiig, and 'Ten Thousand Saints' in 2015 with Asa Butterfield. 

And so here, the films opens up sometime in 1980 where art restorer Catherine Claire (Amanda Seyfried) is living in New York with her husband George (James Norton) and four year old daughter Franny (Sophia Heger). George secures a role teaching art history at a small yet fairly prestigious college, and so he relocates the family to Chosen, New York moving into a large two hundred year old farmhouse there. 

In no time the family are settled into their new rural community and George is making a strong impression on his students at college, however, Catherine is feeling isolated and out of touch with her family and friends that she left behind in Manhattan. One day while loading pots and pans into a kitchen cupboard she notices a Bible perched up on a high shelf. Reaching it down and thumbing through the old tome, she comes across a book marked page listing all the previous occupants of the farmhouse through the nineteenth century marked out in a family tree with the dates of their deaths clearly marked. One such name is however, scrubbed out with the word 'damned' written directly below. 

Franny while sleeping one night is woken by her bedside light flickering, and on another occasion the same thing happens again only this time accompanied by the spectre of a ghost staring at her from across her room. She screams and ends up sleeping with her Mum and Dad, as she does on several occasions that follow. At the same time, both Catherine and George wake in the night by a strange smell emanating through the house, which over successive nights seems to get stronger, and seemingly comes from the garage below the main house. Soon afterwards, Catherine is in the kitchen washing dishes when she observes lights dancing across the window sill leading her to an antique ring wedged into the sash window latch. She prizes the ring from the latch using a kitchen knife, and starts wearing it later. 

A few days later brothers Eddie and Cole Lucks (Alex Neustaedter and Jack Gore respectively) knock on Catherine's door and introduce themselves as neighbours and handymen who will turn their skills to any odd jobs needing doing around the house, and cheaply too. Catherine easily convinces George to take them on, and younger brother Cole is good for babysitting duties also. George also catches the eye of Willis Howell (Natalia Dyer) a female student and stable hand at a local horse stud and begins an affair with her, but after a few sessions between the sheets she breaks it off with him abruptly.

George's colleague at college Justine Sokolov (Rhea Seehorn) who teaches fabric weaving invite the pair over to dinner. Catherine hits it off with Justine immediately and they become firm friends. Driving back home that night George behaves somewhat erratically fuelled by alcohol and one too many joints, causing the pair to fight which results in him pushing Catherine down an embankment grazing her cheek. He immediately shows remorse for his actions and apologises, but Catherine will not have it. A few days later George invites Floyd DeBeers (F. Murray Abraham), the department head, home for a cocktail having spent the afternoon out on Floyd's sail boat. While Catherine is showing Floyd around the house he also sees the dancing lights and feels the presence of a soul. He reassures Catherine that the spirit is benevolent and offers to hold a seance, to which she agrees albeit reluctantly, and urges Floyd not to mention anything to her husband because he is a devout non-believer in such things. 

At George's suggestion the couple host a party at their farmhouse, intended for George's work colleagues only, but then Catherine suggests the local neighbours too as she still feels alone and isolated. George agrees. During the party, Catherine learns from a neighbour that the previous owners were Eddie and Cole's parents, and that their father killed their mother Ella and himself, by carbon monoxide poisoning from the car exhaust (which the couple could smell previously rising up from the garage below). After the party has ended and the guests have departed Catherine confronts George about the previous ownership of the house. As voices are raised between the pair, a radio blasts into life, continues playing even when unplugged and only stops when George smashes it to the ground. At that Catherine asks George to take Franny to his parents' house for an overdue visit for a few days.

With George visiting his parents for the weekend, Catherine and Floyd hold a seance at the farmhouse. They see the ghost of Ella (Emily Dorsch), and Floyd tells Catherine there is another spirit in the house, and that she should be careful until it is revealed. 

Catherine discovers George's affair, and has a fling with Eddie. Catherine also learns from his parents over dinner that paintings George claimed were his work were painted by his gay cousin, who drowned in a boating accident at the age of nineteen, and so she storms off the dinner table only adding to the strain that their marriage is already under.

On a class outing to a New York art museum in which Justine is asked by Floyd to chaperon George, she overhears a conversation between George and his dissertation advisor who by coincidence was visiting the exhibit at the same time. He asks George how he came to be hired without a letter of recommendation from him? The next day, Floyd, having been contacted by the advisor, confronts George, who admits to forging the letter. George asks for some time to explain man to man, as a colleague and as a friend and Floyd schedules a meeting to hear his side of the story.

A few days later and Floyd is preparing to take his boat out. George sidles up and says how he misses being out on the water and how he wishes he still had the 'Lost Horizon' the boat his cousin drowned from. Floyd invites George along saying that they can easily have the conversation on the water as on dry land. While on the boat George is unsuccessful in dissuading Floyd from reporting him to HR, which he has the intention of so doing the next day. Later that evening George returns completely wet through from head to toe. Justine is sat in her car and observes George wringing wet walking back to his car. She confronts him about his affair with Willis. As Justine drives off, George follows her, catches her up and runs her off the road, placing her in hospital in a coma. Later that evening, Catherine learns of Floyd's death over a radio broadcast, and Justine's car accident.

Later George arrives home and notices Catherine has packed up the car as she prepares to leave with Franny. George puts a sedative in Catherine's protein drink. He quickly learns about her plan and a fight breaks out between the pair. Catherine falls unconscious on their bed and George murders her with an axe with several blows to her abdomen. The next morning George goes to work, and instructs Cole not to disturb Catherine, stating she is unwell. Later that afternoon George returns home, where he pretends to discover her body. The police suspect George, but have no proof and release him. He takes Franny to his parents' home in Connecticut. Catherine's soul joins Ella's. They awaken Justine and show her everything that George did. Justine speaks to the Police. George attempts to escape on the 'Lost Horizon'. A storm is seen brewing and as it intensifies and he makes vain attempts to control the boat as a hole opens up in the ocean, swallowing George, in an image seen throughout the film.

Like George says when he first takes Catherine on an inspection of the old farmhouse, it's an old place, 'but it has good bones' and the same can be said of this film. Sure, the story has a solid enough foundation and the cornerstones are there to underpin the various plot threads, but this film left me wanting so much more than what was ultimately delivered. I wouldn't call this a horror film and there's nary a jump scare in sight - it's more of a psychological thriller or a marital drama with a house haunted by a friendly ghost, a couple whose dysfunctional marriage slides from bad to worse, and a murdering two timing husband who gets his comeuppance at the hands os some unseen malevolent force all makes for a fairly predictable offering that really gives us anything new. Seyfried and Norton are grounded enough in their roles delivering solid performances as do the rest of the supporting cast, but in the end whilst this film will be heard and seen, it will quickly fade from the memory. 

'Things Heard & Seen' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MANK : Tuesday 24th November 2020.

'MANK' which I saw at my local independent movie theatre this week, is an M Rated American biographical drama film Directed and Co-Produced by the multi-award winning and nominated David Fincher, whose previous film making credits include his debut 'Alien 3', then 'Se7en', 'The Game', 'Fight Club', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'The Social Network', and 'Gone Girl' amongst others. This film is based on a script written by David Fincher's father Jack Fincher which he wrote in the '90's with David wanting to film it following 'The Game' in 1997 but it never eventuated because David wanted to shoot the film in black & white to maintain an authenticity of the period in which the film is set ie. the Hollywood of the 1930's and '40's. At that time no studio wanted to shoot a film in black and white and when father Jack died in 2003 the film was put on the back burner, until mid-2019 when Netflix International Pictures put the movie into production. The film has garnered positive critical acclaim, and went on a limited cinematic release from last week before streaming on Netflix from 4th December. 

The film opens up in 1940 with a car motoring along a dusty highway and turning off at Victorville and driving up to the North Verde Ranch where Herman K. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) alights from the vehicle on crutches, assisted by his good friend and writing collaborator John Houseman (Sam Troughton) and English typist Rita Alexander (Lily Collins) and a German nurse Fraulein Frieda (Monika Grossman). Mankiewicz (or 'Mank' as he shall be known) has a broken leg in three places from a recent motor vehicle accident. Laying down in an adapted bed he receives a phone call from Orson Welles (Tom Burke) about a screenplay he has been commissioned to write in ninety days, only Welles tells him that he now has sixty days. Mank is not happy about the news but relents and accepts the direction from the Producer, Director and star of the upcoming film, which the studio, RKO Pictures, have given him complete creative control over - not bad for a 24 year old untried and largely unproven movie maker.

And so Mank gets to work on the script at the alcohol free ranch much to his chagrin, although he is able to get dosed up on bottles of barbiturates provided by Houseman instead of whisky, which has the effect of knocking him out cold for twelve hours at a time. Ultimately, Mank is able to smuggle in to the ranch a crate loaded full of his favoured whisky, unknown to Houseman. With Mank dictating the words to his script for Rita to write down long hand and then type up at night, the process is sporadic at best and with the sixty day deadline looming he has still only one hundred pages completed in what Houseman describes as beautifully written, but incoherent and too high brow for American audiences to grapple with for their 25cents cinema ticket price. Mank however, persists along his chosen path.

In the meantime, we see constant references and flashbacks to various key dates in the previous decade, and his meetings, run ins, business and personal relationships with the likes of screen Actress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried) and mistress to William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) the famed American businessman, newspaper publisher and politician, whose life story was to be the main inspiration for Mank's screenplay of Charles Foster Kane - the lead character that would be portrayed by Orson Welles in the 1941 film 'Citizen Kane'. 

In addition we see his dealings with Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard) of Metro Goldwyn Mayer fame; prolific Hollywood film Producer Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley); American film Producer, Screenwriter and Executive David O. Selznick (Toby Leonard Moore); Mank's brother and Director, Producer and Screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Tom Pelphrey) and of course Mank's long suffering but fiercely loyal wife Sara (Tuppence Middleton). 

And naturally there are sub-plots along the way that centre around Mank's heavy drinking and alcoholism (which would eventually kill him in 1952 at the age of just 55), his propensity to gamble on almost anything, the successful attempt by Irving Thalberg who was an MGM Studio Executive at the time to swing the 1934 California Governor's election against the socialist candidate Upton Sinclair (Bill Nye), and his declining relationship with Hearst, which culminates with a drunken rant by Mank at Hearst Castle at San Simeon aimed at Hearst and Mayer and in front of other Hollywood movers and shakers who all one by one get up and leave the dinner table out of disgust or embarrassment or both. And of course the ever looming deadline counting down on sixty days by which time Mank has his final draft of three hundred pages, but doubts that it is really any good until Houseman and brother Joseph tell him that it is probably his finest work. 

In the final analysis Mank's script for the film that would become 'Citizen Kane' was nominated for an Academy Award in every possible category, but won the award only for Best Original Screenplay for co-authors Mank and Orson Welles. Neither Welles nor Mankiewicz attended the dinner, which was broadcast on radio. Welles was in South America filming 'It's All True', and Mank refused to attend. George Schaefer, who was President of RKO Pictures in 1941 when the film was made, accepted Mank's Oscar in his absence. It should be noted that Mank and Welles clashed over the writing credit for 'Citizen Kane', with Welles reportedly offering Mank a bonus of US$10K if he would let Welles take full credit. Mank went to the Screen Writers Guild for a determination, and they eventually laid down a joint credit with Mank's name appearing first. Welles maintained that he had always intended to share the writing credit. 

'Mank' is a beautifully shot film looking as though it was filmed in the late 1930's in crisp black and white by Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt; the dialogue is sharp, emotive and mature; the production values top notch; and the cast are all uniformly good but special mention must go to Gary Oldman who once again inhibits his character in every sense and every scene - just as he did with his Academy Award winning turn as Winston Churchill in 2017's 'Darkest Hour'. And Fincher here has crafted a film that serves as a stirring footnote to Hollywood's 'Golden Age' of domineering studios, those who ran them, and the rot that lurked largely hidden beneath. The film is entertaining, thought provoking, stylishly made, has a haunting soundtrack by regular musical collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and Fincher has here once again proven that he is right up among the best that Hollywood has to offer and is at the top of his game. Oscar bait for sure and worthy of repeat viewing that will be right up the street of every cinephile, but if you're not one of those, then there is a chance this film will be lost on you.

'Mank' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve at Odeon Online-

GRINGO : Tuesday 5th June 2018.

'GRINGO' which I saw this week at my local multiplex sat in a near empty theatre is brought to us by Aussie Stuntman, Actor and only second time Director of a full length feature film, Nash Edgerton who brings us this American comedy crime caper, which he also Co-Produced. Nash Edgerton is the older brother of Actor, Director, Writer and Producer Joel Edgerton. Nash's previous feature length Directing credit was the 2008 Australian thriller 'The Square', and he has worked as Stunt Coordinator or Stuntman in numerous Hollywood movies over the years and occasionally acts too. For this film Nash has assembled an all star cast that takes in David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Harry Treadaway, Paris Jackson and brother Joel amongst others. The film was released in the US in early March, has received mixed or average Reviews, and has so far taken US$10M at the Box Office.

Here, hapless mild-mannered and unassuming Nigerian born U.S. businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) works for a Chicago based medical technology firm that has developed the 'weed pill' (a medical marijuana that has been simplified into a pill format). Harold's bosses, CEO Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) and Co-owner Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron) are interrupted having office sex by a telephone call from a frantic Harold claiming that he has been kidnapped in Mexico and that his captors are demanding a ransom of US$5M. This news takes Richard and Elaine off guard who are understandably unprepared for such an eventuality, and cut the phone call short to buy them some thinking time.

We then rewind two days and find Harold going about his business for the company he works for, Promethium, seemingly happily married to his wife Bonnie (Thandie Newton). In a coffee shop meeting over a latte, Harold meets with his Accountant, who shows him that he is verging on bankruptcy largely because of Bonnie's reckless spending habits and her huge business overheads for servicing one single Client. The Accountant also alerts Harold to the fact that he shouldn't trust his employer and that the word on the street is that the company is going to merge with another.

Harold sees that all of a sudden his livelihood is at risk, despite his long lasting and close friendship with Rusk. Arriving back at the office Richard announces unexpectedly that he, Elaine and Harold are to fly down to Mexico the next day to attend an important business meeting with the manufacturer of the weed pill, and to cease supply to a Mexican drug lord which up to now has proved very lucrative for all parties, but it must now stop for fear of jeopardising the planed merger - a fact that Harold is unaware of officially, and when quizzed, Richard is very coy about.

Meanwhile, in a city guitar shop run by Sunny (Amanda Seyfried) and her boyfriend Miles (Harry Treadaway), Nelly (Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael, in her screen debut) enters the shop to tell Miles that someone down Mexico way wants him to smuggle a small consignment of drugs into the U.S. He refuses the initial offer of US$10K for the project and then reluctantly agrees when the ante is upped to US$20K, and decides to take Sunny with him.

Harold, Richard, and Elaine arrive in Mexico where they are met at the airport by Angel (Yul Vasquez), a friend of Harold's from his previous visits. They meet with their company rep named Celerino Sanchez (Hernan Mendoza). Richard and Elaine enter his office while Harold is ordered that his presence at the meeting is not required. Richard delivers the news to cut off, forthwith, any and all supply to the Cartel, and that he isn't afraid of the idle threats of some little wannabe drug lord. The meeting is over very quickly, although Sanchez is noticeably shaken by the prospect of having to deliver this news to the head of the Cartel.

Later that night, after a stilted and hastily abandoned dinner, Harold is on a Skype call with Bonnie, where she announces that she doesn't want to be married to him anymore, and that she has met someone else, but wouldn't disclose who. She hangs up the call, leaving Harold distraught. Elsewhere in the city, Sunny and Miles have arrived. Miles maintains contact with his Mexican connection, while Sunny is oblivious to his intentions. Sanchez drives out later that night to the estate of Cartel leader Villegas, aka 'The Black Panther' (Carlos Corona). Sanchez advises Villegas about the latest development by Promethium. The drug lord is led to believe that Harold is the boss of the company, and therefore the only person equipped to open the vault at their manufacturing facility. He orders his henchmen to go locate Harold after having them cut off Sanchez's toe with bolt cutters to show that nobody messes with The Black Panther.

With Richard and Elaine having departed for Chicago early the next morning, Harold is left in Mexico to attend to business, with the Cartel now hunting him down. Harold fakes his disappearance from the hotel leaving his clothes, mobile phone, laptop, suitcase and still made up bed in the room, as though he left in a hurry. He checks into a downbeat motel in the arse end of town run by a couple of young Mexican likely lad brothers whom he later convinces to create background threatening sound effects while he calls Richard with the news of his kidnapping. After their meeting down in Mexico the previous day, Richard and Elaine are now fearful that the Cartel are catching up with them, and believe Harold's story. Richard has a plan, and calls his brother Mitch (Sharlto Copley) who is experienced at taking people out and high level extractions having served as a mercenary, but now reformed and doing humanitarian work in Haiti. Mitch agrees to the safe extraction of Harold for US$200K.

Harold spends the night feeling sorry for himself in some local cantina getting steadily drunk. The bartender who has a connection to the Cartel, alerts them and soon afterwards two of Villegas's henchmen descend upon Harold and take him for a ride home. Being able to speak Spanish, Harold recognises the banter going on between his two new 'friends' and quickly comes to his senses, when he spies one of them with a pistol resting on his lap, poised to use it in the event of any trouble. Harold in a state of panic, struggles with the armed man for the gun causing a single shot to fire out killing the driver with a bullet to the head. The car veers out of control, crashes down an embankment and comes to rest in a crumpled heap. The next morning, Harold is limping dazed and confused down a country road, when who should happen by but Sunny and Miles driving their small little compact car. Sunny urges Miles to stop, and he reluctantly does so, just as Harold passes out on the roadside. Coincidentally, all three are staying in the same motel, which is how Sunny recognised Harold.

Back at the motel, Sunny nurses Harold back to consciousness and tends to a head wound. Sunny from this point on calls Harold, Harry, because there are more famous Harry's in the world than Harold's. At this point the two likely lads in charge of the motel, attempt to kidnap Harold to claim a reward for his delivery to Villegas. Wearing full face masks and at gunpoint, they storm Harold's room. Within no time, Mitch is on the scene taking out the two would be kidnapper brothers and Miles in the process. Mitch manhandles Harold outta there and reassures him that by this time tomorrow he'll be safely back in Chicago.

At the airport Harold does a runner just before checking in believing that he is being kidnapped again, and Mitch gives chase. Mitch catches up with him and takes him back to his room where he injects him with a nano tracking device to know where he is at all times. Mitch makes a deal with Harold to try and get Richard to pay a larger sum of money for Harold's return - a share of the US$2M kidnap insurance payout. When Mitch calls Richard to make that deal, Richard tells him that the company is planning to collect a life insurance claim on Harold if he were to end up dead which is valued at US$5M. Unbeknownst to Harold, Mitch agrees to take him up on that offer for a US$2M share. To celebrate their freedom and their insurance windfall, Harold and Mitch go out on the streets where they are seen by the two brothers from the motel. In a moment of clarity, Mitch admits Richard's plan with the insurance payout. Mitch is then struck by a car driven by the brothers and winds up face down in the river. Harold is then taken to see Villegas.

The brothers rock up to the Villegas estate with a bound Harold in tow. Villegas promptly shoots dead each of the brothers, and reassures that no harm will come to Harold, as they merely want access to the drug company's vault to take a stash of surplus weed pills for themselves. Meanwhile Miles, is making his way toward the same location for his own stash of what he came for. Upon arrival the Cartel henchmen get involved in a huge firefight with the Police and Security guards with casualties inflicted on all sides. Harold recognises Angel, who reveals himself to be an undercover DEA Agent who has infiltrated both the Cartel and Promethium and has nothing good to report about either organisation.

Making their getaway outta Dodge City, Harold and Angel are run off the road by Villegas henchmen with their car ending up on its roof by the side of the road on the outskirts of town. Harold and Angel crawl out of the upturned car just as the henchmen turn back towards them. Another firefight ensues in which Harold takes out one and Mitch (who has recovered from his near death experience) having tracked Harold, takes out another, only to be shot in the head by the first henchmen who was not quite dead yet, until Harold finishes him off. Harold gives Angel a stickdrive with the information he secretly uploaded from Richard's computer a few days earlier containing the data needed to take Richard down. Harold admits he can't return home since he no longer has a job or a wife to return to, now knowing that Richard was carrying on with Bonnie in a relationship that has subsequently gone south. Angel replies that people simply vanish in Mexico all the time, and that he will turn a blind eye to allow Harold to fake his own death. Harold briefly mourns over Mitch's lifeless body before taking the taxi he commandeered, which contained several rolls of US$100 bills and forged passports, one of which was ready for 'Harry' to skip Mexico under a new identity.

In the washup, Villegas and his Cartel, along with Miles, are all arrested by Angel and the local authorities. Harold is declared dead back home, and a funeral is held for him, which a now remorseful Bonnie attends. Richard is arrested and sentenced to fifteen years jail time, and Elaine takes over the company pleading ignorance to Richard's nefarious ways. Somewhere on the Mexican coast at a deserted beach Harry has opened up a bar. He maintains contact with Sunny and sends her a message on her birthday. He looks directly at the camera with a wry smile on his dial.

Despite its impressive cast which promises so much, the film under delivers and offers nothing new that we have not seen in other similar genre movies. The characters are largely lifeless, except for Charlize Theron's Elaine who has the pick of the rapid fire one liners and delivers some great dialogue that is too risqué to reproduce here, but great fun nonetheless and to see her so brazenly flaunt her sexuality as the take no prisoners, potty mouthed, full of herself, opinionated and super confident corporate exec. is the highlight of an otherwise predictable by the numbers film. There is a lot going on in this film as story threads get compounded and short changed, never being full fleshed out until everyone gets their payday in the last five minutes. In summary, the black comedy really failed to materialise for me, it's violent in places but not overly so, and its a crime caper of sorts only - all of which failed to manifest in any real meaningful way. You don't have to see this on the big screen and can easily wait for the BluRay, DVD, digital download or streaming service to catch it from the comfort of your own home.

'Gringo' merits two claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-