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Once Upon A Time in Mexico


Zixar
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I don't know why I've liked every Robert Rodriguez movie I've ever seen. Even though OUATIM is supposed to be a sequel to "Desperado", which was supposed to be a sequel to "El Mariachi", you'll only get confused if you try to link the 3 movies up. Like, Carlos Gallardo, the Mariachi from "El Mariachi" is in "Desperado", but he's a different mariachi. Antonio Banderas is the mariachi character from the first one in the second one. And the third one, kind of. Then, Cheech Marin, the bartender from 2 shows up again in 3, despite the fact he was ventilated through the forehead in 2. Also, Danny Trejo, the knife-throwing assassin from 2, who got swiss-cheesed in that film, shows up again as another assassin in 3. Salma Hayek, who was the bookstore owner in 2 shows up again in 3, which is ok because she survived 2, but she's only shown in flashback in 3 because the bad guys killed her in 2-1/2. Or something.

Oh yeah, and Johnny Depp is in 3. I looked for him in 1 and 2, but he wasn't in either, so I suspect he just wandered onto the set of 3 and was so creepy nobody wanted to ask him to leave.

Mickey Rourke uses a chihuahua as a fashion statement, and Willem Dafoe tries to out-creep Johnny Depp, but misses by a mile, even after having his face cut off. Then there's Ruben Blades, just because there weren't enough Hispanic actors with goofy roles.

That's what you get if you try to put the continuity together--a headache.

No matter.

OUATIM is an action movie, made by a man who loves Hong Kong gun-fu. It's set in Mexico. It has two hot actors for the ladies to stare at, enough bullets to make even the most jaded redneck drool with envy, and an hour and forty minutes of escapist entertainment. That's all you really need to know. icon_wink.gif;)-->

The fool hath said in his heart, "PFAL is the word of God..."

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Personally, I think El Mariachi has the best story line, but the effects are definitely low budget. Still, it's a great film and it helped me become more fluent in Spanish.

Desperado was good, but I agree it doesn't have much in common with El Mariachi. The guy is supposed to be the same, but you can't go from a Parker Lewis lookalike tragic accidental hero to an Antonio Banderas badass killer that quickly.

The main thing that bothers me for some reason is how unrealistic the movies are. El Mariachi could have been some podunk redneck town in Mexico, but the places of Desperado and OUATIM don't exist in that sense. Mexico has about as much a chance for a general taking over by killing an unguarded president as the U.S. has. Mexico also has paved streets in most of the areas that are not mountains and such. I just saw their portrayal of Mexico as bad as if you combined the West Wing with Deliverance to show how the U.S. is a backwater country where the president plays banjo all day and rapes fat guys in the woods.

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well... I'll see it this weekend probably... 6er, no wonder I couldn't understand what my stepson was telling me... I saw 1, he saw 1&2, now the way you describe it makes (no) sense but matches what he said which made (no) sense... so I'll just enjoy the movie, because I like his movies too...

... confusion will be my epitath...

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I have the 2-pack El Mariachi/Desperado DVD and one of the best parts is Robert Rodriguez' "Ten-Minute Film School" shorts. I had a much greater appreciation for the movies after I watched those.

The fool hath said in his heart, "PFAL is the word of God..."

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quote:
Originally posted by Zixar:

I have the 2-pack El Mariachi/Desperado DVD and one of the best parts is Robert Rodriguez' "Ten-Minute Film School" shorts. I had a much greater appreciation for the movies after I watched those.


Is that the one where it has the girl that falls on her head and gets the super power to tease her brother, or something like that?

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quote:
Originally posted by Zixar:

I have no idea what you're talking about...


I got a DVD that has El Mariachi on one side, along with some other stuff by R.R., and Desperado on the other side. One of the extras was the film school thing, and another was some short film he made about the weird stuff I mentioned above. I think the girl was riding her bike or something, her bratty brother made her fall off and hit her head. She went to the hospital, and woke up with some sort of super powers that she used against her brother.

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quote:
Originally posted by Zixar:

You're right. That was his "Bedhead" short. No, I'm talking about the ones where he shows how the films were shot on such a low budget.


I think I remember that now...it was where he talked about how he couldn't afford to buy a black guitar case so he painted the one he had, and how he had to shoot with the same camera multiple times from different angles to make it look more professional like he had several cameras.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Saw it

liked it

still can't believe he blew the guy's legs off his bones then his bones break.

It was funny and nasty and made me feel like a sick individual.

Johnny Depp was good.

He said "savvy" again as he did in Pirates.

I like that word.

not used enough these days.

It don't mean a thing, all you gotta do is swing.

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