El Mariachi

Famously shot for around $7000, El Mariachi follows a young musician (Carlos Gallardo) as he arrives in a small Mexican town and must subsequently fight for his life after being mistaken for a ruthless criminal. It’s immediately apparent that El Mariachi‘s rough-around-the-edges feel, which is reflected in its myriad of attributes, is rarely as problematic and distracting as one might’ve feared, as first-time filmmaker Robert Rodriguez delivers an impressively stylish thriller brimming with exciting, visceral bits of over-the-top action. There is, as such, little doubt that El Mariachi remains surprisingly watchable for the duration of its somewhat erratic yet appreciatively brisk running time, although it’s hard to deny that the movie’s non-action beats and sequences are generally not quite as compelling or intriguing as Rodriguez has obviously intended. (This is especially true of the half-hearted romantic subplot.) The violent and relatively engrossing climax ensures that El Mariachi finishes on a decidedly positive note, and it is, ultimately, certainly not difficult to see why Rodriguez went on to such success within the action genre.

**1/2 out of ****