Desperado (DVD)

Synopsis ********* Having seen the love of his life murdered in front of his own eyes and then his hand shot through from point blank range, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) travels from town to town in search of the men responsible for his loss. With the aid of his hapless friend Buscemi (Steve Buscemi) they target the local bars, where Buscemi tells all that will listen about a huge Mexican who will stop at nothing until he finds the man who destroyed his life, a man name Bucho. Having regaled this tale to the latest in a long line of bars, Buscemi is beginning to tire of their mission as El Mariachi has turned from being a highly talented guitar player ...  Read the complete review

This action film definitely has a Tarantino feel to it even though he has nothing to do with it, I would describe it as a modern day spaghetti western with some enhanced stunts and stylised action scenes. Antonio Banderas greases up his hair and gets his smouldering broody stare in shape to play El Mariachi, the guitar playing killer, who goes on a rampage of revenge after seeing his girlfriend killed and having a bullet put through his own hand. He is helped by a slimy drifter played by Steve Buscemi who enters a bar to tell the story to the sleazy low lifes in it about the fabled killer who is hunting down the man known as Bucho, after leaving the bar ...  Read the complete review

This film does not have a lot going for it plot wise, or even in the way of a script, but it is a landmark film in the shoot-out genre. What we are given is a no-holds-barred gun fest, which jumps from the ludicrious to the unbelievable and back again. And do you know what? We love it. We really do. Antonio Banderas is outstanding as the mysterious lead with few words and fewer emotions. As he lays waste to drinking holes and the scum inside in his mission of revenge, he creates a kind of urban myth, letting his enemies know that he will come for them, and that he will kill them. What is unbelievable is that he walks into a couple of places, ...  Read the complete review

After his recognition, director Robert Rodriguez drew on his earlier work El Mariachi to retell the story of a lone musician fighting against a gang boss in a dusty Mexican town. Although presented as a sequel, since the lead character remembers events from the earlier film, much of the plot is directly recycled, but with the addition of better known stars and more special effects. Antonio Banderas is the title character, a musician seeking revenge on the criminal underworld. He is assisted by Steve Buscemi, a sleazy low-life, and bookstore owner Salmaya Hayek. Villain Joaquim Almeida plays the boss, but turns out to have a closer link to the hero. Scenes are ...  Read the complete review

After proving that he could make a decent action film for next-to-nothing in El Mariachi, Robert Rodriguez was given a much larger budget, real actors, and a real effects team to create a big-budget sequel to the highly-influential indie film. While the action scenes are incredible and top-notch and the actors have great chemistry, the script is laughable and the film lacks any sort of depth. The plot, for anyone who's really interested, involves the Mariachi (played in this movie by Antonio Banderas, in one of his earliest American film roles) and his quest for vengeance against those who killed his girlfriend and destroyed his hand. (This all happened in ...  Read the complete review