Stars: Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gomez, Peter Marquardt, Reinol Martinez, Antonio Banderas, Joaquim De Almeida, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Summary: In 'El Mariachi' a man trades his guitar for a gun. In 'Desperado' a man seeks revenge for the murder of his girlfriend.

A DVD twinbill from Robert Rodriguez. EL MARIACHI, the director's Sundance Award-winning indie debut, highlights the un-asked-for adventures of a solitary would-be Mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) whose appearance in a small town sparks a lethal case of mistaken identity. In the big-budget sequel, DESPERADO, the unnamed Mariachi (Antonio Banderas this time) seeks an action-filled showdown with a notorious Mexican druglord and his platoon of henchmen.

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Before Robert Rodriguez' El Mariachi, Mexicans in North American action films were typically maids, drug dealers or prison inmates. Even if the Cisco Kid was a friend of yours, you handled a dust cloth or a Mac-10 if you lasted in Hollywood longer than a New York minuto.

But when El Mariachicrossed the border in 1992, things changed. Granted, it still involved a drug lord in a shoot-em-up but this time the good guy was a Mexican.

Austin-based Rodriguez made El Mariachifor a fistful of pesos and a little help from his friends. He wrote, directed, coproduced, edited and operated the camera. Plus, he assembled a cast that had never acted before to work por nada.

Desperadocontinues the outrageous action adventure. Working with a much bigger budget, Rodriguez returns the nameless mariachi to non-stop action. Again thrust into a world he never made, the hero takes his guitar-case arsenal deep into the criminal labyrinth of Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida), el gran chingon of the Mexican drug lords. With an amigo (Steve Buscemi) and a beautiful bookstore owner (Salma Hayek), el mariachi confronts an outrageous cast along the way, including a bartender (Cheech Marin), a drug-deal, pick-up guy (Quentin Tarantino) and the original mariachi (coproducer Carlos Gallardo) as a new-found compa'.

Antonio Banderas has the lead this time, and if he's not quite up to the challenge, it's probably because he's Spanish, not Mexican, a distinction not lost by anyone raised on what the popular media now calls "ethnic food."

That said, Desperadois not to be missed. Using intelligence, romance and humour--as well as plenty of explosive, surreal violence--Rodriguez again showcases the timeless struggle between the forces of darkness and light. And, in the process, he's recasting the mould for the contemporary action hero--kids now argue about who gets to play the Mexican. --Stephan Magcosta, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.77 Wide Screen, 1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English, Latin American Spanish
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Filmographies, US Theatrical Trailer, Directors Commentary, Music Video, Scene Selection, Ten Minute Film School
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1995
Release Date:	November 1, 1999
Runtime:	181 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R P 774
Keywords:	Action, General, Wide, Screen, Desperado, Adventure, El, Mariachi
Genre:	Action/Adventure