Movies are rated on
a Scale of 1 to 4 stars with 4 stars being best.
By El Mayimbe
Mexicali
Script Review
RATING:
Yo!
Everybody's Loud, Lovely, Large, Latin and Lewd El Mayimbe in
house coming at ya from the 818.
Just got back from this past weekend's tour of The New York International
Latino Film Festival to check out the show and the ladies. Both
were on point. I want to send a shout out and much Dominican love
to the gang over at Totalaxis.com
for making the event a success.
Onto the review.
Mexicali
by Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring
Let me start by saying that this is one of my very favorite screenplays
from the duo who bought us the Vin Diesel flick "A Man Apart"
when it was know as "Diablo." These two writers are
no joke. I've read their other screenplays "Den of Thieves"
and "Wish You Were Here" (which I will review for the
site as those pictures come to fruition) but Mexicali is hands
down my favorite from this pair. The draft I got is dated 8/02/02.
When Mexicali was mentioned in the past Friday's Hollywood Reporter,
writer Patrick Kelly has been brought in for a rewrite (whch I
have no fucking idea why, since I found nothing wrong with this
draft). I hope MGM doesn't fuck this script up because it was
fine to me as is. A page turner full of suspense and "Oh
shit moments."
The script is an action thriller that tells the story of a retired
stuntman RAY BENERON, who travels with his wife to the west coast
of Mexico. While sailing off shore, they witness a murder, ostensibly
committed by members of a drug cartel. The rest of story details
the efforts of the stuntman, who becomes separated from his wife,
to evade the traffickers and return safely to the U.S.
Some history.
I've been tracking this script for the longest because I think
it's a dope story. Like most screenplays, Mexicali is no different
and has been through some shit on it's way to the movie screen.
Originally it was picked up in the summer of 1999 by Destination
Films to be directed by Roger Avary and starring Bill Paxton as
Beneron. After going from Destination, to Columbia, and to Screen
Gems, it finally landed at MGM. Now the film will mark the driectorial
debut of film editor Pietro Scalia, whose credits include "Black
Hawk Down," "Gladiator," "Good Will Hunting"
and "JFK." Pierce Brosnan will now play Beneron and
from what I gather, Beneron is now a businessman on vacation instead
of a stuntman. Solid casting choice. Will be Interesting to see
what changes they make to the script.
Like most of my screenplay reviews, this one will be as spolier
free as possible.
Ray Beneron and his lady ALEXA are vacationing in their sailboat
in the Sea of Cortez, 25 miles off the coast of La Paz, Baja.
Ray is plotting a course on a map, a blip goes off on his radar
screen. A boat has come within range due west. He goes up on deck,
whips out his binoculars, looks off into the distance and spots
a huge luxury yacht. Alexa comes up to Ray in a Bikini after taking
a swim, Ray gets turned on and they go below deck and fuck each
other's brains out. After boning, a second blip goes off on the
radar screen near the distant yacht. Ray goes up back on deck
and and uses the binoculars to spot a speedboat heading towards
the yacht. Alexa comes up with a videocamera to tape the gorgeous
sunset. She puts the camera down to go make some tuna steaks,
leaves the videocamera with Ray. Ray uses the zoom of the vieocamera
to get a closer view of the speedboat that circles the yacht.
A LARGE MAN appears at the stern of the yacht. The speedboat moors
along the yacht. A MUSTACHIOED MAN from the sppedboat boards the
yacht, faces the Large Man. The Mustachioed Man and the Large
Man bullshit for a moment, then the Large Man collapses! Oh shit!
At the moment 4 other figures from the speedboat board the yacht,
and disappear into the interior.
Through the view finder: a BLACK-CLAD FIGURE suddenly emerges
from the cabin, dragging a MAN IN A SILK-ROBE. The man is pushed
to his knees at the bow of the boat. The Figure raises a pistol
with a black-gloved hand, presses it to the back of the kneeling
Man's head, says something to him.
The figure squeezes the trigger. BLAM! The kneeling man in the
sill-robe collapses face down, dead. Oh shit! There is a commotion
inside the cabin and a series of muzzle flashes can be seen. Ray
pans to the stern of the yacht and tenses up. The musctachioed
man stands there with a pair of binoculars looking directly at
Ray! Ray se jodio! His ass has just been caught. The mustachioed
man and his crew of four quickly board the speedboat and head
in Ray's direction. Oh! Oh!
Ray goes below deck and loads his shotgun, gets Alexa and takes
cover. The speedboat approaches and sprays Ray's yacht with automatic
fire. Dozens of bullets tear through the deck and hull. Alexa
gets shot. The bad guys from the speedboat then throw molotov
cocktails onto Ray's boat. Ray's boat catches aflame. The speedboat
breaks out and leave Ray and Alexa for dead to die in the inferno
of their boat. Ray grabs his injured wife, puts the videocamera
into a drybag and jumps into the ocean. Ray struggles and swims
with his shot wife towards the luxury yacht 500 meters away. He
makes it to the luxury yacht and finds the silk-robed man, the
large man, two mexican children and their mother, all dead as
freestyle, shot execution style to the back of the head. Ray finds
a medical kit and tends to his barely alive wife, Alexa. Ray looks
around, strapped to the starboard side of the luxury yacht is
a motorized ZODIAC life-boat. Ray boards the life-boat with Alexa
and make it to La Paz Harbor around midnight. A carnival (Dia
de los Muertos) is taking place in downtown La Paz. Ray carries
Alexa through the crowd and finds a doctors office. Ray leaves
Alexa with the doctor, says I love you and breaks out. Ray goes
out to report the incident to the cops. He goes to the police
station, tells the clerk RAMOS, he saw a murder off-shore, whips
out the videocamera, lays it on the counter, tells Ramos he recorded
the whole thing. Ramos goes to the back to talk with his SUPERVISOR.
The supervisor is a large man seated in a chair with his back
to Ray. The supervisor turns around and Ray freezes because it
is THE MUSTACHIOED MAN from the speedboat. One of the killers!
Oh shit! The mustachioed man we will come to know as COMMANDANTE
SANTANA, a big fat fucking mexican who wears tight ass black nuthugger
jeans, cowboy boats, a western shirt with a silver belt buckle,
barely visible over his protruding gut. You know the type, corny
motherfuckers straight out of Los Tigres Del Norte.
Ray bolts out of the police station with his camera. A chase ensues,
Ray loses the drybag with the videocamera in a sewage canal and
seconds before he makes it to the doctor's office, he gets caught
by Santana and his goons. They throw Ray into the back of a van
and knock him the fuck out. In a nutshell, Ray gets arrested,
interrogated by Santana and his goons, gets tortured and the shit
kicked out of him, and thrown into a Mexican shit stained jail
cell. Santana wants the videocamera, but Ray won't give it up
or else he's a dead man. Ray goes to Mexican prison and hooks
up with a white boy JACK. To make matters worse, Ray gets framed
for the murders on the luxury yacht, gets convicted to 5 counts
of murder and is sentenced to 35 years in mexican prison.
Now how fucked up is that! Man let me tell you, back in my college
days, a couple of my boys and me got thrown in Mexican jail in
Cancun for fighting and all I will say is that American jail is
a fucking country club compared to Mexican prisons.
Call me a cocktease, but that is all I'm going to give you. You
have to go see the movie when it comes out. Ray has to find a
way to escape from Mexican prison, find his lost video camera,
find his wife if she is still alive, prove his innocence, deal
with Santana and his goons, and get all the way back across the
fucking border. Talk about pressure. That is why this script was
so dope. Ray's situation only gets worse before it gets better.
Dope screenwriting which will hopefully turn into a dope movie.
That is all from the Displaced Dominican New Yorker in LA. Stay
tuned for other upcoming script reviews. Here is a taste of what
is next.
INTO THE BLUE by Matt Johnson (goes into production next month
starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker, also from MGM, directed
by John Stockwell)
BLADE 3 by David Goyer (also shooting now)
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY by Tony Gilroy
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK by David Hayter (the voice of Solid
Snake from Metal Gear Solid)
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX by Jim and John Thomas
CONSTANTINE (starring Keanu Reeves, being shot now, forgot at
the moment who wrote it)
and...
a TOP SECRET SUPERHERO SCRIPT that only we have about a man in
a cape from Warner Brothers, hmmm.
I don't fuck around, my script gathering skills are on point.
