Desperado from start to finish is a damn perfect action movie and Antonio Banderas is the only actor who could pull off El Mariachi, he is so damn charming and charismatic, not to mention he is actually playing guitar in the movie and his playing is impeccable. Monica Belluci and Banderas also have great chemistry.
Desperado has one of the best opening sequences to any action film ever made, when Steve Buschemi wanders into a lonesome saloon, deep in the heart of cartel ridden Mexico and warns the bartender of a lone gunman, who controls the very shadows around him as he clears a bloody path throughout Mexico looking for the man who killed his beloved.
The action is so over the top it borders on being a live action anime and its such a stylishly shot film you'd have thought it would have come from Tarantino. Everything about Desperado works, its a modern day western on steroids and i love everything about it.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico feels like it should have been the third entry in the series, I think we needed just one more film with Banderas and Hayek as co-leads, their chemistry together is missed a little in this movie and it would have helped to make her absence a lot more impactful, that said, it is still a very good film.
Robert Rodriguez makes some unusual choices in this movie, actors who played characters that were more than dead in Desperado make an appearance, either by reprising the same role or by being cast in a different role entirely, without any explanation. I think what happened was is that Rodriquez wanted to use the other Sons of Mexico, Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin again so badly that he didn't care how he wrote them into the script, and honestly, while its noticeable, the series is so over the top it doesn't matter too much.
The action is still stylish, comic book like and gracefully put together,
the story is still engaging, though not as tight as the first film. It does feel a little convoluted at the start but it all ties together at the end. The newest addition to the series that works the best is the inclusion of Johnny Depp's corrupt FBI hitman, Sands, who has some of the best moments in the whole film.
Overall, its not as good a film as the original,
but it is definitely worth watching.
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