Get the Gringo is a Mel Gibson action movie that dumped me into El Pueblito in Mexico, a prison of a different kind, and didn’t let me go.

Much of the dialog was authentic Spanish trash talk, with English subtitles. Mel Gibson plays a border thug whose trash car is being chased by a couple of SUVs of the U.S. Border Patrol. He manages to get into Mexico out of their clutches, only to be picked up by the Mexican police, who confiscate his loot and throw him into the proverbial Mexican jail.

El Pueblito is a teeming hellhole which the Gringo, in his narration, aptly describes as either a prison or the world’s worst mall. The inmates carry guns and they have taken over the black market. “You can buy anything,” one character states, “except your way out.”

The movie slowly builds. Initially I thought it was simply going to be senseless, endless violence of the worst kind, violence to children, women, and of course the male inmates. As the plot evolves, it gets more interesting and complex, and the ending is as unexpected as it is shocking.

Watching Get the Gringo had me saying to myself many times: “That’s why I don’t go across the border to Mexico.” I never want to end up in a Mexican prison, no matter what. Especially after watching this movie.

Rating: ** 1/2