El Gringo

El Gringo
El Gringo
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Eduardo Rodríguez
Written by	Jonathan Stokes
Produced by	Courtney Solomon; Moshe Diamant;
Starring	Scott Adkins; Yvette Yates; Christian Slater; Israel Islas; Erando Gonzalez; Sofia Sisniega; Valentin Ganev;
Cinematography	Yaron Levy
Edited by	Don Adams; Harold Parker; Eduardo Rodriguez;
Music by	Luis Ascanio
Production; companies	After Dark Films; Silver Pictures; IM Global
Distributed by	After Dark Films; G2 Pictures; Tanweer Films
Release date	May 11, 2012;
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English; Spanish
Budget	$7 million

El Gringo (Bad Yankee) is a 2012 American action film directed by Eduardo Rodríguez, produced by After Dark Films, written by Jonathan Stokes, and starring Scott Adkins, Christian Slater and Yvette Yates.

Plot

Following an ambush in which he is wounded, and his undercover DEA partners are killed, The Man escapes into Mexico with a case holding two million dollars, and arrives in the dusty town of El Fronteras. He faces danger from the local sheriff and his thugs, a local drug cartel, his checkered past and his former DEA boss.

Partial cast

Scott Adkins as The Man
Christian Slater as Lieutenant West
Peter Bachvarov as "Tortuga"
Zahari Baharov as Officer Bell
Minoza Bazova as Female Bus Station Attendant
Michail Elenov as Pablo
Yvette Yates as Anna
Israel Islas as "Culebra"
Erando González as Chief Espinoza
Sofía Sisniega as "Flaca"
Valentin Ganev as Deputy Chief Logan
Krasimir Rankov as Restaurante Owner
Velislav Pavlov as Officer Dunn
Bashar Rahal as Officer Sullivan
Edward Joe Scargill as Officer Conner
Atanas Srebrev as Rick
Marii Rosen as "Naco"
George Karkulovski as "El Jefe"
Vlado Mihailov as "Chilango"
Yoanna Temelkova as Shop Keeper

Production

The screenplay by Jonathan Stokes was purchased by After Dark Films in 2011 for Joel Silver to executive produce.^[2]^[3]

The film was shot in Bulgaria and Louisiana at an estimated cost of US$7 million.^[1]

Release

The film was released in the United States to theatres on May 11, 2012, with an MPAA "R" rating.^[1] As part of the "After Dark Action" bundle, the film showed for one week in ten cities,^[4] and was simultaneously released for video on demand.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Reception

The film received mildly warm reviews. Variety described it as "an undeniable exercise in third-hand coolness, with nods to spaghetti Westerns and '70s drive-in actioners, El Gringo is diverting enough", continuing, "willfully over-the-top action and character types are fun if never quite as giddily distinctive as hoped for."^[1] The Los Angeles Times summarized, "not bad exactly, but it's not especially notable either."^[8] IndieWire noted that the film's "colorful character[s] [...] don't really get much to do to emphasize their identities amidst the action", adding, "El Gringo gets bogged down in overly-plotty nonsense, but the fight choreography and shootouts are fast-paced and inventive, allowing the film to come alive in spite of its time-wasting peripherals", giving the film a "B−".^[9]