Desperado *** (out of 5) (1995)

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin

Directed by Robert Rodriguez


The musician who was mistaken for a hitman in EL MARIACHI is back, this time as a hitman mistaken for a musician. Avenging the murder of his girlfriend and the ruthless maiming of his guitar playing hand, he seeks revenge on Bucho, the man responsible for the incident.

Director Robert Rodriguez impresses with his Peckinpah-ish style once again in this sequel (which is almost a remake) of EL MARIACHI. DESPERADO does lack some of the freshness of it's predecessor, but still has a lot of style on it's own. Banderas turns in a good macho perfomrance and Salma Hayek is impressive in her breakthrough role as his love interest. The downside of the film is the lack of a compelling plot and the excessive time spent with Rodriguez trying to send the action WAAYY over the top. As a matter of fact, you probably could have excised about 90 minutes of scenes that neither push the plot along nor add to character development (of which there is almost none.) Superficial stuff, but fun to watch.


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