Movie Reviews

The first half hour of Desperado is really cool. Steve Buscemi walks into a really tough-looking bar in a run-down, non-tourist-friendly area of Mexico, wearing a cheesy getup of cowboy boots, tight jeans, and a cowboy shirt. Everyone in the bar glares at him as he wanders confidently up to the bartender (Cheech Marin), orders a beer, and begins to talk at the bartender (and at the bar's patrons) about a crazy encounter he just escaped from at another "fine establishment". See, while he was having a drink at the bar, just like he's having one in the bar where he's telling his story, a dark and mysterious man walks in, carrying a guitar-case. He whispers a few words to the bartender, doesn't get the response he was looking for, pulls a huge gun out of the guitar case, and blows everyone (except him) to bits. Everyone in the present bar looks about ready to kick Buscemi's skinny little ass while he's telling his story, until he finally mentions that one of the words he heard the mysterious man say was a name: Bucho. Suddenly everyone looks very apprehensive. Oh, and Buscemi's character is pretty sure that the mysterious man is on his way to this bar.

This first segment was pretty awesome, as director Robert Rodriguez (who also directed From Dawn To Dusk... and the Spy Kids movies. Go figure.) cuts back and forth between the present with Steve Buscemi telling his story, and flashbacks of the carnage that the mysterious man (Antonio Bandaras) wreaks on the patrons of the previous bar. The whole thing is filmed very energetically, and Steve Buscemi is such a great actor that it's fun just listening to him tell his story.

Unfortunately, there's not much that's very exciting afterwards. Bandaras is the star of the film, as a man obsessed with finding the drug-dealer who killed his family. There's really not much more to it than that. Bandaras is pretty much a standard vigilante, and Bucho the drug dealer (Joaquim de Almeida) is pretty much a standard, slimy drug-dealer. The two meet up at the end of the film, and the events that happen afterwards (well, and beforehand too) are not very surprising.

Desperado is a good looking film (hey, it does have Selma Hayek), but aside from a few inspired moments, it's decent but nothing exceptionally special.