Desperado

Good stuff man.

Quite a different experience when you have a budget. Made just 2 years after El Mariachi and gaining a budget of $7,000,000, Robert delivered big time with this movie, picking up a little ways after the first with Antonio Banderas in the lead role as he hunts the people who offed his lady friend last film and meets a new lovely lady woman played by Salma Hayek. Gunplay and hey hey ensues. All in all, a splendid time. You can clearly see the same style employed from El Mariachi but much more refined, it still has the quick cuts, alternating angles, and slightly artsy cinematography but it looks real clean and doesn't at all look like it was shot in the 90s. The action gets much more coverage and it gets butt wild, more blood packs than you can shake a stick at this time, lots of wire work, powerful explosions, the whole sh-bang. Super well done, balances with comedy bits, it's just very fun to watch. 90s Antonio Banderas is the bomb dot com, he gets this character and I fully believe he can shoot em' up while still being charming and super cool. Salma Hayek, blimey she looks super young in this even though I know this was just a year before From Dusk Till Dawn, and God only knows how I can go off on a massive tangent about how she only improves with age, but I'll just say the first scene she is in she causes a car accident because she is so attractive. This is completely accurate and indeed factual. Incredibly sweet, has that fire in her eyes, gets swept up in the action, and has quite lovely chemistry with Antonio. Will however completely understand her apprehension to appear nude in the film, hun I get it and you are far braver than I. Joaquim De Almeida is more the same from El Mariachi but with a tiny twist at the end, he looks familiar but I can't place the face but a decent performance nonetheless. Special shout out of course to Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, and Cheech Marin who are awesome as always. Speaking of Cheech Marin, plot twist fun fact: This movie is in the same world as From Dusk Till Dawn, you see the crotch gun Tom Savini used first appeared in this movie and boy wouldn't that be a rad crossover? Antonio Banderas blasting vampires with George Clooney and Harvey Keitel, I smell an Oscar folks! Awesomely fantastic music again, the big highlight being the huge shootout score mainly because I heard that tune more times than I care to admit as the intro for the first ever let's play I watched oh so many years ago. All in all, pretty damn good! I had a real fun time with it and appreciate the evolution of Robert's directing and style. I give it 4 stars, 8/10, and we got one more to cap it all off tomorrow. Here's hoping for another hit.