For the last seven years, the public has been waiting for the next installment in the El Mariachi trilogy, the story about a mysterious gun slinging stranger that carries a arsenal of weapons in a guitar case. Antonio Banderas returns to play El Mariachi in the sequel to 1995’s Desperado, along with Selma Hayek. The movie also includes a cast full of new characters including cameos by the likes of Enrique Iglesias, Cheech Marin, and William Defoe. The highlight of the movie although isn’t Banderas surprisingly, it’s Johnny Depp role as CIA agent Sands. Depp’s sarcastic outlook and humor is one of the best parts of the movie. His outrageous love for fried pork leads him to the point where he kills chefs if the food is bad. The movie also pokes fun at the Verizon guy, “Can you hear me now?” with Depp on the phone half the movie. The only thing bad about this movie is the plot, which tends to get a little confusing at times. The story line seems more than a roller coaster that just keeps twisting and turning than keeping you on the ground. The Robert Rodriquez film is short on words, but makes up for it in action like his other films like From Dusk till Dawn. Movies like Once Upon a Time in Mexico remind us that the best plot doesn’t always make the best movie. The plot of this movie can easily be summed up as bad guy wants to take over good guy’s land, other good guy finds other good guy and together good guys save good guy from bad guy. Brainless action movies are now considered short-lived but like Once Upon a Time in Mexico proves us wrong showing that they can once again entertain us. El Mariachi (Bandreas) is now living a life of solitary after the slaughtering of his wife (Selma Hayek) and their daughter. Sands (Depp) comes along asking for help in the protecting of the Mexican president from the drug cartel lord Barillo played by William Dafoe, a villain role that he pulls off beautifully like his role as the Green Goblin in last’s year Spider Man. At first, Sands seems more like a bad guy with his constant disguise changes, his odd sense of humor, and elaborate use of fake arms. In time, the cartel sources start thinning out characters, and El Mariachi and Sands are the only ones left standing to stop an invasion of Mexico City by the evil General Marquez. The overthrowing of Mexican government and betraying of Sands by the AFN tend to give the movie more political edge, but what you don’t know about corruption is corrected with the movie’s action sequences. To cut it short, the action in this movie is more than plenty. The endless fighting between El Mariachi and sunglassed goons never gets old. The plot does have its holes but the movie makes up in other places with its action. Depp’s outrageous performance as the stylish Sands is by far the best in the movie, outdoing even Antonio Bandreas. Sands’ rigging of bullfights and ways of dealing with dead bodies are some of the movies better moments. By the end of the movie, Depp resembles a blind lone ranger dressed in black that won’t even back down from a gunfight after the cartel gouges out his eyes for his troubles. Such a loss doesn’t even ruin his mood, he dons a pair of shades and looks a Virgin Mary where it looks like he’s crying blood and then goes off to fight the bad guy. Other expected performances like the beautiful Selma Hayek only made what seemed like a cameo compared to her role in Desperado. She only appears in the déjà vu flash backs of El Mariachi, where she ends up being killed by General Marquez. Enrique Iglesias playing Bandreas’s male whore companion is funny enough, the time you spend wanting to see him to get shot you miss his performance as El Mariachi’s amigo wielding a guitar flame thrower and killing people by the pileful. Bandreas’s performance seems low key compared to the likes of Depp in this movie, but the very romanticism of El Mariachi does all the work for him. A movie like this is going to be remembered more for things like Depp’s performance and the action than the ideal of the avenging El Mariachi. Don’t let the plot scare you away from this one. Grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the blood fest.
Plymouth State University
Sunday, June 29, 2025