Review of Desperado (1995) by Blake B — 14 Jul 2009

Desperado is pretty vastly different from El Mariachi, it's much, much lower-budgeted predecessor, but that's not a bad thing. Desperado is more stylish, more violent, and a better action movie. It also has Salma Hayek at her most beautiful, hot, and sexy, and led to many collaborations between her and Rodriguez (and thank god for that, because the dancing scene in From Dusk 'Til Dawn is nothing without Hayek).

Desperado picks up, presumably, a while after the events of El Mariachi. Antonio Banderas is still sporting the scars (emotional and physical) of his confrontation with the boss, and he's coming down to the end of his path of vengeance. Complications ensue, blood is shed, new scars are formed, friends are lost, love is found, revenge is eventually achieved...there's nothing new or deep here. It doesn't have the same playfulness of El Mariachi, but it does have some funny little moments. It does take itself a little too seriously at times, and some of the more interesting characters all die rather quickly (sometimes unexpectedly so). The climactic gun fight at the ranch is extremely strange, and I don't know why Rodriguez chose the route he did. Were they over-budget (which would be ironic considering his work with El Mariachi)? Lazy? Wrote themselves into a corner and didn't even attempt to get out? I don't know, and I don't think I'll ever know.

Had they not killed off so many good characters and had the ending been handled a little differently, I might have a better rating for it, but Desperado still earns a high mark for style, acting, and music. Most action fans will love the first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes, but may lose interest in the middle, especially if character-development is not high on the list of what makes a good movie (action movie, anyway). Rodriguez succeeds despite the perhaps bloated budget, but Desperado would have benefitted from the fiscal tightness that its predecessor required.