Desperado -- 1995 -- R

When Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi, he was thinking about a video release, and then doing a sequel to it with a bigger budget. Well, El Mariachi got a wide release, and this sequel does have a bigger budget...a lot bigger. Desperado is "El Mariachi 2" and now we have a star cast, Hollywood equipment, and RR still calling all the shots.

We pick up many years after the end of El Mariachi with the mariachi (he isn't given a name) hunting down a drug lord called Bucho. He has become a man with a haunted past, and the source of the legend of "the guitar player", who is a guy who carries his weapons around in a guitar case. He holds this Bucho personally responsible for the death of his girl, Domino, and blowing a hole through his hand. This relationship from Bucho to Moco from the first film is never really explained, but we're supposed to go with it. While on this quest, he runs across another girl who takes him in after he saves her life. There's a romance there, and lots of shootouts, with a final conclusion to the whole thing including a bit of a twist.

Most of the film is action. Like the first one, this is an action film with some character development, but most of the focus is on the running and shooting. Given the simplicity of the overall plot, there's not much in the way of problems with it. Guy walks into a bar and kills everyone. Simple as that.

One thing I wanted to know that was never explained is the mariachi's relationship with the narrator guy at the beginning. It is established they know each other somehow and they're friends, but it never goes into their history on how they got to know each other. I would have liked to know that.

I will say that some of the dialogue sequences run painfully long, especially Quinten Tarantino's joke. It was long, and I had trouble figuring out what it had to do with the plot. It seems slowing down an action movie for something like this doesn't work so well.

So, like the first, this wasn't a bad movie. It was all action, chase, and shooting...and shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting, and did I mention shooting. I did get tired of shootouts here. Other than that, it worked pretty well.

As an added note, one of the two guys in the guitar-gun sequence is Carlos Gallardo, the original Mariachi from the first film. I recognized him immediately. Kinda neat.