I have seen Tequila Sunrise many times now, and I still really enjoy the movie. It was actually one of the first movies I saw on the VCR at home after my mom and step dad finally got one. It was the first movie that I actually bought a copy of. I still have it on VHS, and it is one of a very few VHS movies I have watched since I got my DVD player last year. I know someday I’ll pick Tequila Sunrise up on DVD too. I’ve seen it a few different times, but I just haven’t gotten it on DVD yet for some reason.

CAST

Mel Gibson - Dale McKussic (Mac)
Michelle Pfeiffer - Jo Ann Vallenari
Kurt Russell - Nick Frescia
Raul Julia - Escalante
J.T. Walsh - Hal Maguire
Gabriel Damon - Cody
Ann Magnuson - Shaleen
Arye Gross - Andy Leonard
Arliss Howard - Greg

Robert Towne - Writer/Director

Tequila Sunrise is rated R from some violence, some sexual content, some drug use, and language. I don’t think young children should see the movie because of the language and violence, but it would probably be ok for teenagers. Parents should watch the movie to make the decision for their children themselves. Parents know what they want their kids to see and what their kids can handle. The movie was made in 1988 and is 116 minutes long.

PLOT

The plot of Tequila Sunrise is complex, and there is a lot going on in the movie. It will take me a little longer to explain the basics of what is going on since it is complicated.

Dale McKussic, Mac to his friends, is trying to start a new business. He has been a very successful drug dealer for several years, but he has decided it is time to get out. He is having some trouble getting out of the business though. His ex wife, Shaleen, is demanding more money to fix her Mercedes. She isn’t happy about Mac changing jobs because she likes the money. His cousin Greg tries to get him involved with helping him sell some drugs. His lawyer, Andy Leonard, gets Mac to help him sell some cocaine. Mac realizes they are being set up and he gets rid of the drugs. He doesn’t want his lawyer to end up in jail.

Nick Frescia, a long time friend of Mac’s, is a narcotics detective. He shows up at the sale and does everything but throw Mac out of the room to get him out of there. Nick doesn’t want to arrest his friend. The buy turns into a three-ring circus with all kinds of police and DEA showing up. Hal Maguire, a DEA agent from Washington, is behind the attempted bust. He is determined to arrest Mac. He seems to be disgusted because Nick doesn’t want to bust Mac. Nick doesn’t like Hal too much, and the two men clash a lot. Hal even goes so far as to suggest that Nick plant or manufacture evidence so they can put Mac away. Nick didn’t like that idea, and he isn’t shy about letting Hal know.

Hal has Mac under surveillance all the time. Hal has an informant that is saying Carlos, a big time drug dealer from Mexico is coming to town soon. Carlos and Mac have been friends for years. Hal is sure Mac is involved in some big drug deal with Carlos. Mac is one of only a very few people who can actually identify Carlos. Hal and Nick both want to arrest Carlos, and they hope Mac will lead them to Carlos. Mac eats at a local restaurant a lot. He seems to be friendly with the owner, Jo Ann Vallenari. Hal thinks that Mac is at the restaurant all the time because he is selling drugs in the restaurant. Hal even thinks that Jo Ann may be involved somehow. Nick goes into the restaurant to talk to Mac, and picks up on the fact that Mac has some feelings for Jo Ann.

Nick decides that Jo Ann probably knows something, so he uses her to try to get information about Mac and Carlos. He over hears Jo Ann and the bartender discussing the chef who was drunk. Nick then has the chef watched until they can pick him up for drunk driving. He and Hal try to get Jo Ann to give them information about Mac by saying the chef will be deported. Hal looks like the bad guy, and Nick steps in, making himself look good to Jo Ann. He convinces her to spend time with him. He does like her and enjoys spending time with her, but he is still after information about Mac and Carlos. Mac is very interested in Jo Ann, but he is hesitant to ask her out because of his past as a drug dealer. He feels like he isn’t good enough for her. He and Jo Ann do spend some time together and get to know each other a bit. Mac’s son, Cody, meets Jo Ann and really likes her. He manages to get her to come take care of him one day when Mac is busy. Mac and Jo Ann do become intimate.

Hal has an informant that is feeding him information about Mac and Carlos. The informant is wrong a lot, but Hal continues to deal with him. He is obsessed with catching Mac. The Mexican police also show up, hoping to catch Carlos when he arrives. Escalante is in charge of the Mexican police working on the operation. He can also identify Carlos. Mac’s house is under even more surveillance on the date that Carlos is supposed to show up. The local police, DEA, and Mexican police are all watching him. Does Carlos show up? Was the informant right for once, or wrong again? Who is the informant? Is Carlos caught? Does Hal arrest Mac? What happens between Mac and Jo Ann? To find out how everything works out, you have to watch the movie.

**End of Plot Discussion**

Tequila Sunrise is a very good movie. I’ve watched the movie many times over the years and I still really enjoy it every time I watch it. When I watched it this time, I actually picked up on one or two little things that I had missed noticing in my past viewings of the movie. Tequila Sunrise is a complex movie with a lot going on. The first time you watch it, it can be a little hard to keep track of who is doing what and who is using whom. There are some twists here and there throughout the movie. Just when I thought I had figured out something, some thing would happen and show that I was wrong. The movie isn’t so complicated that it is impossible to tell what is going on, but things aren’t always as they seem in the movie. I had no idea what would happen next the first time I watched the movie. It really kept me guessing. Now when I watch it, I do know what will happen since I’ve seen it before, but I still really enjoy watching the movie.

Tequila Sunrise is a drama with some mystery in it. Mac is trying really hard to get a legitimate business going, but things keep popping up, dragging him back to his old life. Mac has a lot to deal with during the course of the movie. Jo Ann also has a lot to work through. She has to figure out what is going on and whom she is going to trust. Nick has to work closely with a man he can’t stand and try to arrest a close friend. There is a lot of conflict between the different characters.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding Carlos in Tequila Sunrise. He is a very successful drug dealer from Mexico. He is wanted by the DEA and Mexican government, but very few people can actually identify him. The authorities have no idea who Carlos really is or what he looks like. The mystery part of Tequila Sunrise revolves around Carlos. Who is he? What does he look like? Is he coming to town? Is Mac involved? There is also a little bit of mystery concerning the identity of Hal’s informant.

There is a little bit of romance in Tequila Sunrise from the relationship between Mac and Jo Ann. Mac has had feelings for her for a long time, but he has kept them to himself. He doesn’t think he is good enough for her because of his past as a drug dealer. He and Jo Ann do end up in bed together. Well, in the hot tub, and they later get to a bed. Their relationship does develop rather fast. The speed with which their relationship develops isn’t too realistic, but it is a movie, so not everything has to be realistic. There is a sex scene in the movie, but it isn’t extremely graphic. There really isn’t any actual nudity, though there is some skin shown. I don’t think that scene would offend anyone, but I could be wrong. People who don’t like to see any sort of sexual scene in a movie should probably avoid Tequila Sunrise. There is also some talk about sex between a few characters once or twice.

Tequila Sunrise is mainly a drama, but there were some funny scenes in the movie here and there. At least there are some things that I thought were funny. One thing still cracks me up every time I watch the movie. Mac is having a party, and Hal is convinced it is for Carlos, so there are cops all over the place watching Mac’s house. Back at the station, Hal is in some room overseeing the surveillance. Nick shows up. He wants to know why the Harbor Patrol had been involved. As Nick says, they are watching a house. A house is not going to float away. Hal was just sitting there at a desk with a silly looking expression on his face. It isn’t going to move. I just find that funny for some reason.

There is a lot of swearing in Tequila Sunrise. Nick and Mac swear repeatedly throughout the movie. At one point, Nick gets a little creative in stringing some together to call Hal a rather nasty name. Hal did his share of swearing too. Jo Ann didn’t swear as much as the male characters, but she did use a word here and there. The word that rhymes with luck is used a lot by most of the characters. Jo Ann even uses it twice when she was upset with Nick. The swearing is somewhat excessive in Tequila Sunrise, but I have seen other movies that had more swearing. Some people could be offended by the swearing in the movie since there is a lot of it. There is also some drug use shown during the movie. There isn’t a lot of it, but it does show up once or twice, so people who don’t want to see drug use in a movie should probably avoid seeing this movie.

I thought that the acting was very good in Tequila Sunrise. Mel Gibson played a character that was a bit different from other characters he had played before this. Mac is a good guy for the most part, but he has some flaws. For many years he was a criminal, but now he is getting out of that. This was actually one of the first movies I had seen Mel Gibson in. I think when I first saw Tequila Sunrise that I had only seen him in one other movie, Lethal Weapon. I may have also seen Lethal Weapon 2 before Tequila Sunrise, but I can’t remember for sure when that movie came out. Mac is a bit messed up too, but he isn’t as unstable as Martin Riggs was in Lethal Weapon.

Kurt Russell’s character of Nick was a bit different for him too, or at least different from the few movies I had seen him in before this. I didn’t really get to start seeing a lot of movies, especially movies for adults, until after we got the VCR. Before seeing Russell in Tequila Sunrise, I had seen him in Overboard, Big Trouble in Little China, and maybe one other thing, but I can’t remember what now. Nick is very different from the characters Russell played in those other two movies. He is a more serious character. Russell also looked a bit different in Tequila Sunrise too. He was wearing his hair all slicked back with all kinds of hair goo in it. It looks like he has an oil slick in his hair in this movie. I think it is icky looking.

When Tequila Sunrise was made, Michelle Pfeiffer wasn’t really popular yet. This movie came out during the time when she was becoming well known. She also did two other movies around the same time, Married to the Mob, and Dangerous Liaisons. The characters she played in all three movies were very different, and really helped to show her range as an actress. As Jo Ann, she had an air of elegance around her. Jo Ann owned a very successful, expensive restaurant, and she was involved in running it. She was always dressed nicely, in classic, elegant looking clothes. They were simple designs, but they looked elegant on her. The way she moved and talked added to her character. Jo Ann was able to keep her composure in some difficult situations, and even then, she still managed to look elegant and classy.

I thought that J. T. Walsh was really good in his role as Hal Maguire. I didn’t like Hal too much. He seemed to be a bit power hungry at times. He was obsessed with catching and arresting Mac. I really didn’t like his character. I thought he was a jerk. Raul Julia wasn’t in much of the movie, but he was good in his scenes. This was the first movie I ever saw him in.

CHARACTERS

Mac - He is a former successful drug dealer who has started a new business. He decided he wanted out of selling drugs. His ex wife isn’t happy because she likes the money he made as a drug dealer. His lawyer wants help selling some cocaine. The police and DEA are still watching Mac because they don’t believe he has retired from the drug business. Mac has a son, Cody, that he is very close too. He is a good father. Mac is interested in Jo Ann, but he is worried that he isn’t good enough for her.

Jo Ann - She owns a restaurant in L.A. that Mac goes to all the time. She works as a hostess and walks around talking to her customers. She has a good relationship with the bartender and chef. She does know Mac, but not that well. She is unsure of him because of some things she is told by another person. She does end up spending time with Mac and getting to know him. She is a kind woman who is willing to go and take care of Cody when she hardly knows him. She doesn’t like to be used.

Nick Frescia - He is a narcotics detective. He has been friends with Mac for years, since they went to school together. Nick does want to catch drug dealers, but he doesn’t want to arrest Mac. In fact, he seems to go out of his way to make sure that he won’t have to. He is a good cop, but he is willing to use people and maybe bend a law or two to help his investigation.

Hal Maguire - DEA agent from Washington that is in LA. He is obsessed with arresting Mac. He is willing to plant evidence if that means he’ll catch Mac. He doesn’t seem to think straight at times, and his obsession with catching Mac may drive him over the edge.

Greg - Mac’s cousin. He seems to be around a lot. He keeps trying to get Mac to help him sell drugs. He comes up with ideas, wanting Mac to help him. He wants to use Mac’s reputation to set himself up as a big time drug dealer. Mac isn’t interested, and keeps trying to convince Greg it isn’t a good idea.

Carols - A well known Mexican drug dealer. He and Mac are friends. Mac is one of only a few people who even know what Carlos looks like. Carlos is planning to come to town for some reason. The Mexican police and the DEA both want to catch him.

Cody - Mac’s son. He does live with his mother, but he spends time with his dad too. He is close to his dad. He meets Jo Ann and really likes her. In order to get her to come over and take care of him, he sends his baby sitter home and tells Jo Ann that his dad left him home alone.

Escalante - Mexican police officer who can identify Carlos. He arrives in town to help with the operation to catch Carlos when he comes to town. Escalante and his men are helping to watch Mac’s house.

Tequila Sunrise is a good movie that I really like. It is entertaining and enjoyable. People who like any of the main actors or who like this type of movie should also enjoy Tequila Sunrise. It is definitely worth watching.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age