Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
moonie-02272
A spaghetti western in every sense of the word, "Desperado" is an exhilarating ride from start to finish. Stylish, humorous, and thoroughly engaging, it tells the tale of one mariachi's quest for revenge and redemption. Banderas delivers the performance that made him a star as the titular desperado. Smoldering and suave, he knows how to shoot up a bar as well as he masters the more romantic elements in the film, especially when the equally stunning Hayek comes into the picture. Their escape from a hotel together, resulting in the famous jumping off the roof scene, is pure pulp entertainment. Rodriguez should focus on making more films like this -- homages to great B- movies produced on an A-level scale.
powermandan
When it comes to action and action alone, Desperado is one of the all-time greats. Robert Rodriguez makes too many mistakes for this to be a timeless giant like Terminator or Die Hard. But because of how good the action and writing are, it is in the same realm of true action masterpieces.Desperado is the bigger-budgeted sequel/remake of Robert Rodriguez's first film entitled El Mariachi. This is one of those sequels where it might help watching the original one first. Even by watching El Mariachi first, it does not clear up anything flaw that Desperado has.The one and only flaw I have to give this is the poor transition between the two films. El Mariachi is about a talented guitar player (played in that by Carlos Gallardo) who comes to a town in search of work, where he becomes the subject of a huge case of mistaken identity and bears witness to drug lord, Moco, murder his girlfriend, Domino. He shoots El's hand and El shoots and kills him. In this El (now played by Antonio Banderas) seeks vengeance against another drug lord known as Bucho for murdering Domino. Bucho had nothing to do with the first film, and he already got his revenge against Moco, whom he knew was responsible. There's even a flashback scene with Domino and Moco. This unclarity was the main reason why this meant any sort of negativity. The most logical assumption was that Bucho was a high-ranking drug lord just above Moco, But that assumption does not give our hero a truly clear motive for going on a killing spree. This is a revenge story, but the movie never gives any point behind it all.My inference to this is like Hamlet. (This is just what I interpret). After El kills Moco, his hand is maimed, his girlfriend is dead, and he is out of work. He has no other reason to live. Carolina says to him: "I've heard of you, you kill drug dealers." Given how much longer the character's hair has gotten and how much he's improved in his shooting abilities, it is evident that some time has passed. So El must've gone on a killing spree, getting everybody underneath Bucho. How is this like Hamlet? Hamlet has no reason to live, until he plots to avenge his father's death. Avenging his father's death has given him a reason to stay alive, so he procrastinates actually going through with it. After he gets revenge, he has no other point in living. El is pretty much the same way. If he doesn't go after all of Bucho's men (then Bucho himself) he has no point in living. Revenge has consumed their entire lives, giving new meaning, which they don't want to let go of. Well, this is my interpretation of it anyway!El arrives in a new town in Mexico where he destroys Bucho's goons with the help of his special guitar case. The lack of identity has Bucho paranoid, while El falls in love with bookstore owner, Carolina (Hayak) who works under Bucho. The relationship between Carolina and Bucho is exactly like Domino and Moco. There's a few other details which give this a remake feel. Desperado is a modern-day spaghetti western. Our nameless hero, only known as El Mariachi, battles armies by himself, where clichés are always around. A bunch of guys shoot him at close range with machine guns and miss, but El shoots them once and they die. Although the clichés are noticeable, the action sequences are loud, intense, gory, and awesome. Although this was made long after gunfights became an art form, almost every action scene this has beats many classic action movies. When it comes to violence, I know good from bad and this is full of some of the best. The first time I watched this (before I exactly knew good movies from bad ones) I was blown away. Despite my knowledge in movies growing since then, it still rocks me every time I see this. Although the action is really what makes this, it is not the only redeeming quality. Whenever there is music playing, it fits. There's rock, blues, and Spanish music put in their respective places, making the scenes that much better. The love story between El and Carolina is even pulled off, despite being generic. And Rodriguez constructs each character to a high degree. He is able to do this by creating killer dialogue, including a hilarious joke given by Quentin Tarantino. So even though there is a big gap between this and the first resulting in a shallow general plot, Desperado is a dynamite tribute to spaghetti westerns with fill redemption which will remain one of the best action movies ever.
ucmenw
I absolutely loved this movie, and ever since watching it as a young boy, it has become a classic and a must have movie in any collection. Desperado is a film about a former traveling musician who seeks revenge for the murder of his lover, and the maiming of his guitar hand by drug dealer. The main character comes to focus his anger and hate on "El Bucho", a high ranking drug cartel responsible for much of drug trafficking in the community. This is made clear within the first 20 minutes of the movie, which I thought was awesome. The main character, El Mariachi, has already killed the murderer of his lover in the last film, yet he continues to kill drug dealers. I felt like this gave the main character a great opportunity to grow in the film, he was obviously still reeling from the loss of his woman, and the inability to express his love of music by playing guitar because of his hand. I felt that when he got revenge on the murderer he didn't feel the relief he thought he would feel, so he transferred his rage to the next drug dealer, and the next until finally deciding that maybe bringing down the leader of the cartel would finally bring him some peace. I think it was great how he eventually overcame his sorrow through the help of Carolina.
Ben Larson
Sure, Director Robert Rodriguez created one of the very best indie films with El Mariachi on a shoestring budget. Now, with bucks in his pocket and a name cast, there is room for excellence. Some may say that the low budget effort is better, and I won't totally disagree from an artistic standpoint, but from an entertainment standpoint, this venture with Antonio Bandaras and Salma Hayek is truly a cut above many other films.The state-of-the-art special effects and polished effort Rodriguez put into this film, make for an enjoyable and explosive ride. And did I mention Salma Hayek and her chesty chimichangas?