“I lost my guitar, my hand, and her.”

Justin’s rating: Hey, if it gave us The Faculty, I’ll kiss its feet for that right there

Justin’s review: A couple years ago, Drake was right in rebuking us for not having Desperado up on the site — which I honestly thought we had, because it was such a ’90s action staple. But it’s an equal sin to neglect covering its prequel, El Mariachi, especially considering how this was director Robert Rodriguez’ debut film that established him as an up-and-comer in the indie field.

Made for peanuts — about $7,000 — El Mariachi kicked off the Mexian trilogy with grit, guns, and guitar cases. A nameless man, El Mariachi himself (Carlos Gallardo, who would be replaced in the sequel by Antonio Banderas), wanders into a town looking to make a name for himself as a musician.

Unfortunately, he does so on the day that two drug lords are having some sort of major showdown. Even more unfortunately, El Mariachi is mistaken as one of the bosses (he’s got a normal guitar case that looks just like the one filled to the brim with guns that the bad guy uses) and immediately has to fight for his life and try to make it out alive.

But hey, maybe there’s a silver lining to all of this unintended homicide? Maybe he’ll bump into a cute girl named Dominó and fall in love? Oh wait, Dominó is the crush of one of the drug lords, so now our friendly neighborhood bard has even more reason to fret for his life.

In less than an hour-and-a-half, El Mariachi’s life and fortunes change from an aspiring musician to a revenge-fueled assassin. The only difference is what’s in his guitar case.

Rodriguez caught a lot of attention for his directorial skills, which include a lot of stylistic flourishes that you might expect from, say, Sam Raimi. He’s all about slow-motion, zippy close-ups, and making gun fights — and their preludes — look as cool as possible. That confident sense of style would serve him well down the line with titles like Sin City and From Dusk ‘Till Dawn.

He’s trying to do a lot with a very little here, selling us on dusty Mexican towns and posing gun fighters and crime feuds. The battles are the key selling points and are always preceded by tense, ahem, Mexican standoffs. It’s energetic and at times very, very watchable.

But there’s no denying that El Mariachi is a rough and raw product, even if Hollywood invested another $200,000 in cleaning it up for release. This isn’t the slick production of Desperado in the least, but there’s the spirit of it peeking out from a corner.

Ultimately, I didn’t find El Mariachi quite interesting enough to pass along to you. It needed to be wall-to-wall action, but too much filler kept what could’ve been a terse and tense flick from rising to its best.

Intermission!

• You swim a half-lap in a pool and then you’re done? That’s it? Guess it was for the slow-motion.
• I think this prison guard is going to retire on bribes
• Cheesy fast-forward scene is cheesy
• SEVERED DREAM HEAD
• When unarmed, take a free flail from the hotel mirror
• The dog with sunglasses made me laugh because it was so out of nowhere
• If a girl slaps you, she probably likes you
• That guy’s got a lot riding on whether or not he can play the guitar well