Corporate Line: Robert Rodriguez returns with the mythic guitar-slinging hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), in the final installment of the Mariachi/Desperado trilogy. The saga continues as El Mariachi makes his way across a rugged landscape on the blood trail of Barrillo (Willem Dafoe), a cartel kingpin with one last score to settle who is planning a coup d’etat against the president of Mexico. Enlisted by Sands (Johnny Depp), a corrupt CIA agent, El Mariachi demands retribution, and the adventure begins against a backdrop of revolution, greed, and revenge.
The Good: Johnny Depp takes a meatless part and makes it interesting. Antonio Banderas can’t be faulted for a dreadful script as he adds interest in a character that is never fulfilled. Much of the film feels undone.
The Bad: This is the sort of film where you wonder what the director, in this case Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids), was thinking. When you have such great leading men it seems easy to let it all go to hell. Stars can only carry a film so far and they couldn’t carry this bloated dud. Rodriguez tries to bring his Spy Kids formula to adults, he should have realized we are a lot more saavy than that. Kids like explosions and everything being blown out of proportion, but the recent box office busts, see Charlie’s Angels and Tomb Raider, should have given Rodriquez the clue that big explosions, guns and pretty faces don’t sell tickets alone.
Frankly: Do what you did when Charlie’s Angels and Tomb Raider came out… run!
+ Charlie Craine
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