Desperado movie review

This review was originally slated to run on http://www.bluntforcebeating.com/ but unfortunately the site folded due to various reasons I can't get into. I was of course one of the contributors to the site and worked my butt off, so I was very sorry to see it go under.




Desperado is one of the first movies I saw from Director Robert Rodriguez and of course afterwards i went and found El Mariachi and so began my love affair with Rodriguez's many films he would come to direct. I figure why not start with the movie that first captured my attention.

Call this a classic movie review.

Desperado

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Joachim De Almeida, Quentin Tarantino, Steve Buscemi and Danny Trejo.

Runtime 104 minutes

MPA Rating: R

Genre: Action,Thriller, Crime and Drama.

Robert Rodriguez has proven himself as a Director time and time again with the multitude of movies that he directed. He continues to be the most visually creative and fun to watch Director from his generation. To me it seems like he does his best work when he has little to no interference from the big Hollywood Machine.

There is a big aspect of Rodriguez;s work that has impressed me time and time again. Of course we could list his work ethic, his visually ability to tell a story concise and clearly and while those are all big aspects of what I love about this Director. The biggest thing that continues to impress me is his ability to take whatever his budget is and make it look 10 times bigger than what it actually is. In this day and age I think this is very admirable. Some people never consider somethig like this when they watch a movie but this is one of the first things I look at. I love to see and feel like the Director not only used his budget to make the story more impressive but actually took things a step further. Just consider what Desperado cost to make back in the day: 6 Million dollars. Now I know this might seem like a lot to the average person but when it comes to a movie's budget this is chicken feed. At the time an average action movie would cost upwars of 30-100 million dollars. Now that figure has jumped to an insane dollar value, just go back and rewatch the movie and you'll see what I mean.
He truly does blow my mind with how he takes the cooler elements of the Grindhouse era( like Tarantino) and bring it seemlessly into our era.

Spoilers-------------------Spoilers-----------------Spoilers------------Spoilers---------------

Desperado is the sequel to Rodriguez's first film El Mariachi ( which if you haven't seen it and you love action movies, do yourself a favor and go and watch it), even though he changed the actor playing his main character, who is now played with an intense demeanor by Antonio Banderas, this doesn't diminsh anything with this sequel. In fact this is one of the few instances where a sequel actually eclipsed the original film that started a franchise. Banderas is beyond flawless. Very similar in style and character develpment as a John Woo movie ( see- Bullet In The Head,Hardbolied, The Killer and a Better Tommorrow), which is saying a lot right there.

Salma Hayek. Wow. This was the first movie I saw with her and man o man did she set the screen on fire. You could literally see every male in the movie theater follow every move she made when she was on screen. Aye Caramba indeed. Her incredible sex appeal and innocence broke more hearts and jump started crushes than any female star of her generation.

Cheech Marin as a sleazy bartender, talk about perfect casting. Personally I kept wanting to yell out where is Chong during the movie but I didn't want to get lynched or thrown out of the movie for that matter.

Desperado begins right after El Mariachi ends with Banderas looking for a man called Bucho, who is one of the biggest drug dealers in all of Mexico. Even if you've never seen El Mariachi, Banderas' reasons for hunting Bucho become very apparent in a flashback scene that sets the story and action in motion.

If you want your action sequences bloody,violent and extreme, then you've come to the right place because that's what you'll get from this movie. In spades. The acting is dead on without ever becoming a parody of itself or talking down to the viewer. The overacting and mugging for the camera is kept to a minimum. Even when Tarantino does his thing, while being very self indulgent and obvious it still works within the confines of the story that Rodriguez has established.

Well worth dusting this baby off, popping her into your dvd player and giving her a spin.

Now this is an action movie.

Rich.