Wednesday 9 May 2012

How I Spent My Summer Vacation review

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (15, 96 mins)
Director: Adrian Grunberg
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Ever more shunned by Hollywood, Mel Gibson’s latest didn’t even get a cinema release in the States. That’s a slap in the face for what’s actually a fairly decent action comedy that starts with Gibson’s unnamed thief on the run from the police and forced to jump the border wall into Mexico where he ends up in a bizarre prison cum village. The early stages take a while to manoeuvre, setting up the villains who run the prison and the gangsters and corrupt cops who’re after Gibson and the money he stole, but the action heats up in a second half that also gets a bit bogged down in plot convolutions and too many side players. Gibson’s character is well suited to his style, a tough and colourful wise-ass anti-hero who knows how to play the angles to his advantage. So it’s a shame he’s in, or possibly beyond, the last chance saloon because on form like this, it’s clear why he used to be a star.

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