Rating: 
Summary: Complete Trash
Review: El Mariachi is decent. Considering the low budget it is sort of fun to watch. Desperado however is pretty much a waste of time. I find it incredible that so many people can be giving it high marks, unless they are friends of the director's. The beginning of the film is decent (the parts with Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin and Quentin Tarantino are good.) The first action sequence is good. After that it is pure trash. No plot. Senseless, boring action scenes. A soft porn sort of scene that is truly pathetic. The director really should have spent some time getting together a good script, because he obviously has talent, he just did not use much of it on this film. Corny, boring junk. Sorry Robert, but you can do better.
Rating: 
Summary: A non-stop Mexican action/comedy/romance/drama
Review: El Mariachi is difficult to characterize, containing elements of action, comedy, romance, and drama at a non-stop pace. It is about the adventures/misadventures of a musician (mariachi) as he stops over a town in the wild west of Mexico and becomes entangled in its affairs. Although the movie was made on a shoestring budget of $7,000, it doesn't show in the movie--for example, bullets don't seem to cost anything--except to make it seem more realistic and natural. This is definitely a classic, what I would dub as the "Mexican Huck Finn."
Rating: 
Summary: 5 stars if Desperado was not included!
Review: El Mariachi is one of the best movies ever made...IT WAS A 10,000 dollar movie! ,that alone is amazing. BUt even more is that its Very Brilliant.i would have to say Roberts best.And probably the only movie i ever could watch with subtitles on .Now to Desperado----Disapointing! .I wacthed Deserado right after i watched El mariachi,,,it seeemed that rodriguez lost his Touch he had in El mariachi.Desperado was all just action that was so unreal and silly that it just plain stunk.Rodriguez or no rodriguez, this movie lacked originality and realism..the money spent for this movie was a waste...i say its one of the worst sequels out there
Rating:
Summary: 4 stars for El Mariachi; 2 1/2 cheers (stars) for Desperado
Review: El Mariachi's novel plot, taut suspense and action, thoroughly engage the audience. It quickly becomes understandable why it won awards despite its shoestring budget. Fans of tortilla westerns will enjoy it very much. Drawback: Must listen to Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles, because English soundtrack has director's voice over which is extremely annoying and distracting.Desperado is a sequel, but not a match, for El Mariachi. Desperado's excessive gun violence and Pulp Fiction-type slapstick compromise the effect and waste some of the better actors.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding DVD value!!!
Review: For action-film buffs like me, this was an easy pick. I mean, 2 feature films, a film short, two segments of great director commentary, trailers ... this is a great buy! Both movies blend lawlessness, romance with humor using the classic hero-villain formula. But Rodriguez's knack for stylish gunplay, the quick pace of the films and talent of the actors will keep your eyes gloed to the screen. I must also note the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound available in Desperado. Attention home theatre owners, the Los Lobos soundtrack and the action sequences will give your stereo system a real workout. Also note, the standard "Desperado" DVD release does not have any additional features, save widescreen format. And I'm not even sure if El Mariachi is available solo on DVD. If you like these two movies, or action films in general, you should already have Mariachi/Desperado on your shelf.
Rating:
Summary: What dvd's were made for
Review: Here is a classic example of great film making. You don't need a big budget or supe rfancy effects when you have a great story. These films are two of the best action flicks in the last few years. It tells the story of a guy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets cought up with the wrong crowd. Entertaining from start to finish, both movies rock. El Mariachi has subtitles in english as the spoken language is spanish. Other than that a perfect pair of movies. Of course Desperado is the more known of the two, but you won't be dissapointed in either
Rating:
Summary: Great Combination DVD
Review: I admit I had my doubts about "El Mariachi" but after watching both movies back-to-back, I liked "El Mariachi" better than "Desparado." It's like Robert Rodriguez (I'm sure I spelled his name wrong" said in the commentary, both movies are supposed to be spoofs on 'Western Action Flicks" and shouldn't be taken very serrioussly. Especially "El Mariachi" just because it's a foriegn film. Both movies are fun to watch and Roberts' commentaries and insightful and ammusing. (Don't take me serriously though, I'm not a film critic.)
Rating:
Summary: The finest DVD I own
Review: If you are even an avid fan of action films, you cannot be without this incredible double-feature DVD. Robert Rodriguez shines with his Mariachi films, "El Mariachi" and "Desperado. El Mariachi, filmed on a bare-bones budget of 7k, is one of the most spectacular action films I have ever seen. Mainly for it's flawless script, and the amount of depth it gives the characters, the film really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Desperado, the big-budget hollywood feature, is considered sub-par by many, but I throughly enjoyed the action sequences for what they were: A bunch of people shooting each other. And Antonio plays his character beautifully, so I didnt take the time to anylize the acting of the other cast members, or the effects, I just watched and enjoyed. If you watch Desperado for anything, watch it for Cheech, Tarentino and Trejo. Why are you even reading this? You cannot go without having this DVD in your collection, especially with this price.
Rating:
Summary: The finest DVD I own
Review: If you are even an avid fan of action films, you cannot be without this incredible double-feature DVD. Robert Rodriguez shines with his Mariachi films, "El Mariachi" and "Desperado. El Mariachi, filmed on a bare-bones budget of 7k, is one of the most spectacular action films I have ever seen. Mainly for it's flawless script, and the amount of depth it gives the characters, the film really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Desperado, the big-budget hollywood feature, is considered sub-par by many, but I throughly enjoyed the action sequences for what they were: A bunch of people shooting each other. And Antonio plays his character beautifully, so I didnt take the time to anylize the acting of the other cast members, or the effects, I just watched and enjoyed. If you watch Desperado for anything, watch it for Cheech, Tarentino and Trejo. Why are you even reading this? You cannot go without having this DVD in your collection, especially with this price.
Rating:
Summary: El Fantastico!
Review: In the early 90's a whole crop of young, new and innovative film makers started making their way into the mainstream. Robert Rodriguez among others the likes of Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher all began their film careers with auspicious debuts, Roberts probably being one of the best of the crop. El Mariachi was Roberts first feature film made with a budget of $7,000 dollars and filmed with one camera, almost an entire cast of non professional actors and Robert Rodriguez's filmaking drive and "Mariachi" came to be. The film wasn't expected to do any business it was made simply to satisfy Rodriguez's need to make a movie, it turned out to be an indie success and garnered lots of acclaim by critics and regular movie fans. The film was later put back out by Columbia and attained a firm following, the anticipation for another Rodriguez film grew. Finally, being given a seven-million dollar budget Rodriguez embarked upon making Pistolero, the title was later changed to Desperado. Traveling back to the same town where Mariachi was filmed Rodriguez set out to retell the same story (In a very Evil Dead 2 kind of way) but this time with more action and less plot, real actors, and a real budget, although in terms of summer action blockbusters Desperado had an unthinkable budget that probably wouldn't pay for caterers on any other film. Antonio Banderas took Carlos Gallardo's place as the Mariachi. The film also brought Salma Hayek into prominance as an actress. Desperado is one of my favorite films, Rodriguez one of my favorite directors. As a Hispanic person it was really good to see a mexican "superhero". This is the closest I have seen to anything the likes of 80's "neverending bullets, the hero is invincible but the movie is still very enjoyable" films. Desperado also features a very funny cameo by From Dusk Till Dawn collaborator Quentin Tarantino. Also the soundtrack is superb. As for the DVD, on the one side you have El Mariachi, on the other you got Desperado. Desperado is in Wide screen format, has an audio commentary track by Robert Rodriuez, theatrical trailer, a short made by Robert on the "anatomy of a shoot out" which was very interesting and informative. The film also has a slew of audio tracks for different languages. I do have to complain about one thing on the Desperado side, that is that there are no deleted scenes, blood and guts action nuts like myself would have liked to have seen the end fight scene that had to be edited so much that Rodriguez decided just to cut the whole thing, the unedited death of "the pickup guy" and a slew of other things that the commentary states was filmed and cut later on. El Mariachi, unfortunately the producers of this particular DVD package forgot to include the english dub audio track, subtitles are available in english but Robert Rodriguez points out that the audio track was to be included since it was something that he took part in recording. And some people like to watch the movie instead of watching it in between the time your reading the little yellow text at the bottom of the screen. Also included are several language tracks, Bedhead, a short film by Robert starring his siblings, it was pretty entertaining, Also there is a theatrical trailer and "10 minute movie making" that was very entertaining and informative, it tells a lot of neat stuff about the film and makes it all seem really simple to do. I give this three stars because this is very over priced. I payed less for the Se7en platinum series and thats a two disc set with a ton of special features. However, if you got the extra cash I would highly recommend this film.
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