By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterIF YOU liked Desperado, you're going to go bonkers for Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
The saga of the almost mythic guitar-slinging hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), continues in Robert Rodriguez's bold, non-stop action epic. This movie is a tribute to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone's classics A Fistful of Dollars so it would be politically correct to call this new breed of Mexican films, 'burrito' westerns.
The new adventure is set against a backdrop of revolution and greed. Haunted and scarred by loss, El Mariachi (Banderas) has retreated into a life of isolation. He is forced out of hiding by Sands (Johnny Depp), a corrupt CIA agent. Sands recruits the reclusive hero to sabotage a plot by the evil cartel kingpin Barillo (Willem Dafoe), who is planning to assassinate the president of Mexico. El Mariachi has his own reasons for joining the quest to save the republic retribution and revenge.
Now, together with his capable cohorts Lorenzo (Enrique Iglesias) and Fideo (Marco Leonardi), the legend of El Mariachi attains new levels of excitement that match and surpass even the swashbuckling style of Desperado.
I am not sure if Sands was supposed to be that quirky a character in the script, but super-talented actor Johnny Depp does a remarkable job making Sands perhaps the most memorable character in the film. He changes his outfits almost every scene, and at various times, wears a cowboy hat, a prosthetic left hand, a moustache, a priest's cowl, and at a bullfight, he even wears a T-shirt with the words CIA written on it. There is also a funny scene where he is on his cell phone near a clock tower, and asks the person on the other line, 'Can you hear me now', an obvious knock-off of the Verizon Wireless ads.
Later on, even though Sands is a decidedly despicable character, he forms a bond with a young boy that tugs at the audience's heart strings, and creates a conflict in the minds of audience whether to root for Sands to live, or cheer for his dispatch from this astral plane. Pretty interesting stuff.
Banderas does an excellent job as the mysterious El Mariachi (yes, El is his first name), and his action scenes are packed full of adrenaline and hair-raising stunts. One of the best scenes occurs when he 'surfs' down a staircase and points his gun at the crotch of a pistolero and asks him, 'What do you really want?'
Banderas has some great scenes with the sexy Salma Hayek, who plays Carolina, the knife-wielding lover of El Mariachi. The scene where the two get married in chains is quite funny, a new take on the old ball-and-chain routine. However, it is a breathless, show-stopping descent from the fifth floor of a hotel while still chained together where they dodge bullets, and swing from ledge to ledge onto a moving bus that is the stuff of pure action genius. The film is stylishly shot, and the soundtrack of the movie sets the mood and tone of the film, with songs such as Cucha Rocka.
Perhaps the only criticism of this movie could be the fact that it has too many characters, and consequently, too much of a muddled plot. You have Mickey Rourke playing Billy Chambers, a U.S. criminal with a Chihuahua, Cheech Marin as the Belini, Willem Dafoe you may remember him as The Green Goblin in Spiderman as cartel leader Barrillo, and Eva Mendes playing Ajedrez, the daughter of the cartel kingpin.
However, despite this one drawback, I have to say, long live the 'burrito western', because the art form is 'eminently digestible' and I can't wait for the next instalment.
