Recent Reviews for El Mariachi
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MCT:August 7, 2008Personally, I found this to be really sweet. I mean, it's not the budget, but the constraints. It is amazing to know how devoted he was and how devoted in turn the crew was to the entire film and how they got a fantastic film in turn, and how, yet, it was fun and looked like every detail was done well. A really amazing film all in all.
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MCT:July 26, 2008So low budget, which made it so cool. I also liked the fact that the story was so awesome that the lack of known actors wasn't an issue. The beginning of Rodriguez classics!
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MCT:July 24, 2008The storyline was simple enough to be appealing. Also, the performances of the entire cast was good enough to be interesting. But it were the gritty and engaging visual "feel" of the movie and terrific cinematography that really made me like this film.
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MCT:July 13, 2008Not only is this film quick and entertaining, but it also inspires young filmmakers such as myself to work with what they've got.
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MCT:July 10, 2008
Robert Rodriquez does the action cowboy flick up a notch in this violent saga of a Mariachi gunfighter.
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MCT:July 1, 2008
I thought this was a great movie considering its very low budget.The films idea was very good which led to desperado and once upon a time in mexico
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MCT:June 26, 2008
This series of movies by Rodriguez are almost a genre unto themselves....interesting to watch...violent as hell....low tech film making at its finest.
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MCT:June 20, 2008
for a low budget first film it wasn't too bad. also, some serious action and really goofy scenes balanced the movie and made it more enjoyable. i like directors that can make you cringe and laugh at the same time.
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MCT:June 19, 2008
Because of the financial restraints of this picture, the story is forced to be told thru the creativity of all-out action in it's purest, unadulterated form. There should be a law requiring that all action films be shot & directed with as much energy & fun as this one, before any of the million dollars of special effects are added on.
Action-adventure in it's all bared-boned glory. -
MCT:June 17, 2008
A low budget violent modern-day western directed by Robert Rodriguez. Remade as Desperado with a much bigger budget and a big name cast.
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MCT:June 10, 2008
The first of the trilogy is a low-budget action film with a town-hopping Mariachi just trying to make money with his guitar mistaken for a man double-crossed by a drug lord and seeking revenge. No over-the-top action as seen in Once Upon A Time In Mexico (my least favourite of the trilogy) and I liked the main character, and would have liked to seen him in the sequels instead of Antonio Banderas although he plays the role well.
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MCT:June 5, 2008
brilliant i love the el mariachi trilogy of films they are all brilliant..i think that carlos gallardo is great as the hero of the movie....i think the director of this Action & Adventure, Art House & International
movie had done a great job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie because its a cult classic thriller movie...i think this is a brilliant movie...i have the trilogy of these movies on dvd (which i need 2 watch again because all 3 are brilliant movies)...imn not sure which is the best 1 because all 3 are brilliant in there own ways -
MCT:May 27, 2008
This movie was made for $7,000 (in essence, no budget) and it has better production value than most small (yet, much larger) budget films that I've seen. Even Clerks was done for roundabouts $30,000 and it looks like something my neighbor pieced together from old home videos when compared with El Mariachi. This excellent story started the Mariachi trilogy (Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico). While Desperado has the best dialogue and action and Once Upon A Time In Mexico has Johnny Depp, El Mariachi has the story.
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MCT:May 23, 2008
"All I wanted was to be a mariachi, like my ancestors. But the city I thought would bring me luck brought only a curse. I lost my guitar, my hand, and her. With this injury, I may never play the guitar again. Without her, I have no love. But with the dog and the weapons, I'm prepared for the future."
El Mariachi is an early film directed by now-famous filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Initially the film was intended to be a low-budget action picture that would proceed directly to video. However the reception was far more positive than originally intended and was picked up by Columbia for a theatrical release. With this film, Robert Rodriguez proves that with an astronomically small budget of only $7,000 (approximately) he can craft a superb little action picture.
El Mariachi is the story of a young Mexican musician (Gallardo) who wishes to carry on the family tradition of becoming a mariachi (a wandering musician who travels to different locations in search of work). Little does he realise that an escaped criminal named Azul (Martinez) has wandered into the same town carrying a guitar case featuring an impressive array of firearms. Azul plans to kill local crime lord Moco (Marquardt). Moco is obviously not happy with the concept of being assassinated; sending every hired gun at his disposal to target Azul. Moco's men mistake the innocent young El Mariachi for Azul due to their similarities in appearance. While being hunted by an assortment of hitmen, the El Mariachi becomes involved with barmaid Domino (Gomez) who assists him in his avoidance of being killed.
No-one ever expected El Mariachi to be very successful, hence the small budget. Although the film was shot in two weeks and was made with virtually zero crew, Rodriguez ended up making a surprisingly fantastic, entertaining action film. This film delivers the goods in its minuscule running time of about 80 minutes. Of course there is plenty of high energy action, and even the film is superior to most stunt-reliant, big-buck Hollywood action flicks. In addition to the action there is a lot of suspense and creative cinematography.
Rodriguez was in charge of lensing and editing the material. It's very evident in the final film that he had a clear vision of what he wanted and achieved his goal modestly. One of the most surprising things is that the film maintains an actual plot throughout its duration.
To save costs of hiring actors, most of the cast was filled with family members, friends and amateur actors. Make no mistake - the acting is sometimes really amateurish. On the contrary, most of the actors are very convincing at times. There is a subtle charm to the great performance from Carlos Gallardo. For the film's final showdown, Gallardo feels very naturalistic and believable. The villains are typically shown to be evil and brooding, with their henchmen unable to shoot properly. Some of these things are conventional, but for the sake of the genre we try to ignore it.
Rodriguez was literally the only person behind the camera. He put so much into this movie and his efforts shine as brightly as the morning sun. The man was determined to do what he could with a small shooting schedule and a miniature budget. As a fellow film student I find his action scenes to be well cut and well shot, abundant in visual elegance. Most of the budget must have been channelled into the fake blood and special effects. The action is always extremely violent.
There are a few minor problems with this movie such as a few poor performances and some dumb action movie conventions; however credit of the highest order must go to director Robert Rodriguez for producing a great quality film made with such a tiny budget that one could barely afford a car with it! Copious amounts of fake blood are well expended here. There is little wonder why the director went on to continue making a lot of violent movies. His reputation began with this little movie. Now his career is very well deserved. Followed by a remake/sequel entitled Desperado. -
MCT:April 24, 2008
For a low budget movie, its really entertaining! Really gory hence its high age restriction, but since there was not a lot of money spent on special effects it is not really realistic gory stuff. The storyline was interesting and if you like westerns you should like this.
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MCT:April 24, 2008
This is easily one of the greatest low budget movies ever made. Shows the director's dedication and love for film making. Strongly recommended to everyone...
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MCT:April 20, 2008
Robert Rodriguez's directorial debut is a great ride. Kind of a stereotypical story but it's got some great scenes and a tragic ending.
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MCT:April 19, 2008
Most films spend more on tea bags than this ones entire budget. And while it's not exactly pretty, it shows that the most important parts of a movie are the script, the actors and the director. While far from perfect, this is a concise movie with a clever plot and some unique moments. Let down at times by dodgy acting (the female lead and Moco towards the end being the biggest culprits) and some iffy shooting/editing probably due to budget constraints, this is a damned fine first film
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MCT:April 2, 2008
las actuaciones son malisimas, pero igual es un clasico. una de las peliculas mas rentables de la historia, hace que todos los directores nuevos aspiren a ser un "rodriguez"
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MCT:April 1, 2008
You know, for a foreign film on a low budget, it was actually pretty good, despite some of the cheesiness. I can't wait to see the sequels.
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MCT:March 17, 2008
it's great for the amount of money they had to spend; otherwise, on it's own merits & forgetting the budget, it comes up slow & far short of interesting. though its originality was good. all in all its def worth watching.
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MCT:March 12, 2008
It's pretty cool that this movie was made on a 7,000 dollar budget, thats what the 3 stars are for. I'm not a big fan of Robert Rodriguez but he earned my respect, if you want to see a great movie of his though, see From Dusk Till Dawn and Sin City.
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MCT:March 10, 2008
What's amazing about this is the fact that he made it on $7000. A great unique story about a mix up between a Mariachi and a killer who keeps his guns in a guitar case
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MCT:February 12, 2008I cant really say iam a fan of Rodriguez. I usually find his films to be with out any real substance. But for a budget of $7,000 he does a pretty incredible job. I wonder who he had to blow to get this film to look like it was made for $25,000 Pretty impressive. That aside i didnt really care for this film. It was loaded with a ton of annoying camera angles and the zanny antics only made me more annoyed. But still for $7,000 it is a hell of a feat!
The English dub sounds like it was performed by the Peublo Colorado theatre troupe' , i cant blame the film for that. I never hold the dubbing against a film. But it sure was awfull. I have never seen the other two films in this trilogy, but i will give them a shot.
A 2 star film that gets 2 1/2 stars for delivering this on a budget that would only buy lumber for a small tool shed! -
MCT:February 5, 2008
Okay, I'm on another quest. I do these quests just to make Flixster more interesting. So if you are reading these reviews, understand that I'm doing these for you. *sigh* I also don't have a girlfriend.
My newest quest is to complete as many franchises as possible. Sure, I've usually seen one or two movies of a lot, but all of them? Nah. What's odd is that I decided to start on Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi series. Sure, I love Robert Rodriguez, but my first exposure to him was Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I can't say that I was a huge fan.
By itself, El Mariachi is fairly entertaining. You can really see that Rodriguez is really green behind the guills on this one though. I really get the early Kevin Smith vibe out of this film with him settling for shooting on location in unideal situations. The regular "who's-that" of actors fills this film, but if you ignore all that, it's pretty fun. It's a really ridiculous concept with a lot of cheeseball visuals, but you really start to get a feel for Rodriguez's love for just over-the-top action. And that's where this movie really shines. The hot girl who isn't so hot doesn't do anything, but you add some gun fights and ridiculously show stealing fight choreography and you have a halfway decent movie that really shouldn't be owned by anyone.
I kind of wish that I was drunk when I saw this because then this would just be another four star review for me. But it wasn't that great. I know it's kind of absurd to really take this movie seriously because it doesn't take itself seriously (which is why I kind of respect this film). But there's some major plotholes in this movie. Really, a lot of the heartache in this film could have been avoided if the Mariachi just decided to change his clothes once he found out that people were looking for his "not so" double. Also, I have to question Rodriguez's casting of the white drug lord. Okay, his acting was bad enough, but the sunglasses in every scene. He didn't look evil. He just looked community theater. (Which, in its own way, is evil enough.)
I hope you get ready for a lot of reviews resembling this one because that's what's probably going to happen on this quest. Although my pop culture knowledge is going to go through the roof.
