Mar. 19, 2004 - 8:23 am
this has definitely been a very bland week for movies that i've been watching, as you can probably tell by all of the 6/10 ratings i've been giving. but they seriously just haven't been that good. well, a few months back i started watching the first two films in the El Mariachi series in preparation for this film, but then i never actually got up and went to the theater to see it. looks like it was just as well. this series of films really went downhill i think.
the plot to this film is actually fairly terrible i would say. it's confusing because there are so many villains and most of them are either idiotically constructed or you simply don't get enough insight into them to care one way or another what happens to them. i won't bother describing most of it. basically the mariachi has to defend the president of Mexico from a general who killed the mariachi's wife and daughter at some point in the past.
i really enjoyed Johnny Depp in this of course though. he's a very interesting character; both heartless and hilarious. then at the end of the film he has his eyes drilled out and still manages to shoot a bunch of people just because he can hear them moving. very cool stuff. not realistic, but then that's not what Rodriguez's movies are about. they're about showing off.
he's a very interesting director. really a true "auteur," meaning that he (from start to finish) makes his movies himself. he does the writing, directing, cinematography, editing, scoring, production, special effects, you name it. there haven't been many examples of successful auteurs in history (Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) and VERY few in recent years. i'd say that Woody Allen is the closest other one i can think of, but he still doesn't do everything in his films.