How I Spent My Summer Vacation Review
So who do you call when you want some off-beat, off-kilter humour lashed with a few scenes of playful, yet graphic ultra-violence, set in a generally non-English speaking district involving a lead character who is by and large, rather unpleasant, but likeable with his rouge charm and unconventional ways.
So Mel Gibson plays Driver, on the run with someone else’s money, caught by the corrupt border patrol and thrown into a shanty town excuse for a prison while the corrupt officials start spending the money for themselves.
Inside he observes the pecking order among inmates and meets a young kid who is being protected by some of the head hombres within for reasons unknown.
The film is shot with rather over exposed colour to give the film more pizaz! (remember the Benecio Del Toro segment of Traffic – almost like that). It is shot with some energy as Gibson makes his way to and fro, but the pace of the film sadly lulls in the middle. Probably because there were many characters to introduce in the opening , not to mention a lot of motions for characters to go through before Gibson ends up in the prison. And from there it has to set up more characters and motivations before you have any rough clue what his plan is.
Sure there is plenty of blunt humour, but not enough colourful characters around him. Peter Storemare phones in another bad-guy cameo (much like he did with Lockout) and provides a giggle or two, but is basically just a sleepier, fatter version of every other sleazy villain he has played a million times before.
Naturally it is being released through Gibson’s production company Icon, but he also has a high listed writing credit on the film.
The film in the end starts up messy, gets bogged down in contrivance, but loosens it’s shirt a bit for some fun in the last half hour. A real editing botch job in terms of keeping the pace running, but Gibson pretty much powers it through the end to a satisfying degree.
Steven Hurst