The Mexican

Jerry Welbach is a small-time mob courier who finds himself caught between two demands he cannot easily satisfy. His boss wants him to travel to Mexico and bring back a valuable antique pistol known as "the Mexican," while his girlfriend Samantha wants him to walk away from that life entirely. Jerry chooses the job, hoping to stay alive, but the gun proves harder to hold onto than expected, and Samantha is drawn into the pursuit.

Gore Verbinski directed the film, his second feature after MouseHunt, and J.H. Wyman wrote the screenplay. Brad Pitt plays Jerry, with Julia Roberts as Samantha and James Gandolfini as Leroy, alongside J.K. Simmons, Bob Balaban and Sherman Augustus among a credited cast of 49. The production, backed by DreamWorks Pictures and Newmarket Films with Lawrence Bender among the producers, cost about 57 million dollars and returned roughly 148 million worldwide, a solid commercial result even though its reception was mixed.

On IMDb it holds 6.1 from about 121,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 from around 1,665 votes. A critics' rating of 6 from 134 reviews lands close to those audience scores, suggesting general agreement rather than a sharp divide over this blend of action, comedy, crime and romance.