Amazon.com video review:
It's Sergio Leone meets Sam Peckinpah meets Quentin Tarantino
in this ultraviolent, mythological shoot-'em-up by auteur Robert
Rodriguez. In Desperado, Rodriguez creates larger-than-life,
genre-tweaking stock characters and puts them through their paces. As
they stride bravely through an Old West lightly dusted with camp
humor, they're periodically called upon to nimbly dodge bullets and
fireballs through outrageously choreographed displays of Hollywood
pyrotechnics. In this bigger-budget semi-remake/semi-sequel to
Rodriguez's indie sensation, El Mariachi (made, famously, for
$7,000), Antonio Banderas is the darkly charismatic El Mariachi, the
Mysterious Stranger in town; Steve Buscemi is perfectly cast as his
weasely, motor-mouth Comic Sidekick, laying the groundwork for El
Mariachi's entrance by spinning saloon stories to build up his legend;
Cheech Marin is a standout as the Bartender, who really knows how to
handle a toothpick; and gorgeous Salma Hayek is, well, the
Girl--treated to the kind of full-blown, slow-mo introduction the
movies traditionally lavish on beautiful new stars. It doesn't add up
to much, but it's a kick. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.com video review:
It's Sergio Leone meets Sam Peckinpah meets Quentin Tarantino
in this ultraviolent, mythological shoot-'em-up by auteur Robert
Rodriguez. In Desperado, Rodriguez creates larger-than-life,
genre-tweaking stock characters and puts them through their paces. As
they stride bravely through an Old West lightly dusted with camp
humor, they're periodically called upon to nimbly dodge bullets and
fireballs through outrageously choreographed displays of Hollywood
pyrotechnics. In this bigger-budget semi-remake/semi-sequel to
Rodriguez's indie sensation, El Mariachi (made, famously, for
$7,000), Antonio Banderas is the darkly charismatic El Mariachi, the
Mysterious Stranger in town; Steve Buscemi is perfectly cast as his
weasely, motor-mouth Comic Sidekick, laying the groundwork for El
Mariachi's entrance by spinning saloon stories to build up his legend;
Cheech Marin is a standout as the Bartender, who really knows how to
handle a toothpick; and gorgeous Salma Hayek is, well, the
Girl--treated to the kind of full-blown, slow-mo introduction the
movies traditionally lavish on beautiful new stars. It doesn't add up
to much, but it's a kick. Be careful not to blow out your speakers
with the DVD's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.com video review:
Before Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi, Mexicans in North
American action films were typically maids, drug dealers, or prison
inmates. Even if the Cisco Kid was a friend of yours, you
handled a dust cloth or a Mac-10 if you lasted in Hollywood longer
than a New York minuto.
But when El Mariachi crossed the border in 1992, things changed.
Granted, it still involved a drug lord in a shoot-em-up, bang-bang,
but this time the good guy was a Mexican.
Austin-based Rodriguez made El Mariachi for a fistful of pesos and a
little help from his friends. He wrote, directed, coproduced,
edited, and operated the camera. Plus, he assembled a cast that had
never acted before to work por nada. All for a paltry $7,000, a
milagro without a beanfield war.
Desperado continues the outrageous action adventure. Working with a
much bigger budget, Rodriguez returns the nameless mariachi to nonstop
action. Again thrust into a world he never made, the hero takes his
guitar-case arsenal deep into the criminal labyrinth of Bucho (Joaquim
de Almeida), el gran chingon of the Mexican drug lords. With an
amigo
(Steve Buscemi) and a beautiful bookstore owner (Salma Hayek), el
mariachi confronts an outrageous cast along the way, including a
bartender (Cheech Marin), a drug deal pick-up guy (Quentin Tarantino),
and the original mariachi (coproducer Carlos Gallardo) as a new-found
compa'.
Antonio Banderas has the lead this time, and if he's not quite up to
the challenge, it's probably because he's Spanish, not Mexican, a
distinction not lost by anyone raised on what the popular media now
calls "ethnic food."
That said, Desperado is not to be missed. Using intelligence,
romance, and humor--as well as plenty of explosive, surreal
violence--Rodriguez again showcases the timeless struggle between
the forces of darkness and light. And, in the process, he's recasting
the mold for the contemporary action hero--kids now argue about who
gets to play the Mexican. --Stephan Magcosta
