El Mariachi / Desperado (Double Feature) [Blu-ray]
D**X
A great combo for those who have only seen Desperado
Two movies for a great price. Now the movies: I have owned Desprado on DVD for a while and love the movie. I would give it more than five stars if I could. As for El Marachi surprisingly another fine Robert Rodriguez film. Frankly I never before had heard and believed that it was Desperado but in Spanish. I was wrong and found out what El's motivation for killing drug dealers came from. Thank goodness the film was transferred as is and was not ruined with a computerized enhancement. You see the grain of the film which added grittiness to the film. The only thing that I highly recommend that you turn on the English subtitles and listen to the original Spanish audio. The English dub track is Godawful you will enjoy the film much better. As an avid anime and Chinese Kung Fu fan I have heard worse dub tracks and this is the same. You will get more enjoyment and the translation of the subtitles give more depth to the story then listening to the dubbed audio. In wanting to match lips to dialog inevitably is butchered when English I'd synced to the film. All that said both films are trademark Robert Rodriguez movies. These are not masterpieces in need of an award, but they are great action films for guys to enjoy with humor mixed in with the blood and guts.I am happy these were released together. Otherwise I most likely would have watched it on cable with the horrible English dub.Even though it is said that Once Upon A Time In Mexico is the finale of the movies it does nothing but embarrass Robert Rodrigez. I am sure it was made with a bigger budget and they tried to make up for the poor script with some big named actors and blood and guts. These two are all you need to see IMHO
T**R
Terrific pair of films
El Mariachi is Robert Rodriguez's first commercial effort, but it is amazing in that the brilliance that inhabits his later works are already on display. The film is a little unpolished compared to the later ones, but it is very effective none-the-less and provides a good starting point for the subsequent films 'Desperado' and 'Once Upon A Time in Mexico". The English dubbing isn't bad either, which always helps.Desperado is fabulous. Antonio Banderas is perfect as the now very intense El Mariachi. The story is great. It bristles with humour and intelligence, which are true for all Robert Rodriquez's efforts. I'm making an assumption, but some of the gunfight scenes owe a little to John Woo. However, at the end of the second gunfight (the first is narrated by 'the American'), I've never seen gunfighters picking up the weapons of the fallen and so consistently having them not work. It's very funny in a bloody sort of way.The collection did not include 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico', which, believe it or not, is even better. I recommend watching all 3 in a mini Robert Rodriguez film festival. You will not only see 3 excellent films (of their genre, of course), but have an opportunity to see a great director develop his craft.Very highly recommended.
B**E
Hard to find
I am happy to find this, both are hard to find, having them in a "twofer" , especially at this price is awesome! These are both good movies, Cheech, Johnny Depp, Quentin, Antonio, Selma, and who could forget Danny and his throwing knives?!?
D**.
Good but Could've been Better.
Great movies but the presentation itself is not that impressive. This BD is very standard, nothing to brag about. No booklet, a rather thin BluRay case, no reversible cover nor anything else worth mentioning. The Grindhouse Double Feature at least had a cool case sleeve and reversible cover. This one is barebones.The menus are just as uninteresting. It's just the words and some footage of the movies playing in the background. The fonts are not interesting or stylized and it's not fun to look at or explore, there are very few graphics that actually go into it for style. It's all just kinda there and it really doesn't impress.The video quality for El Mariachi is not great but that was always going to be the case. There is no getting around the fact that this was filmed for $7000 and this is all you can hope for when the original print of the movies is made with such a cheap budget so be aware. That only applies to that movie, Desperado looks and sounds solid so no complains on the quality of that one.Extras are good, too, but considering that Desperado was censored and had a whole shootout scene at the end that was filmed but left out this could've been the best time to add a sort of original cut to the movie or at least showcase the deleted scenes. There are commentaries, there is trivia and there are some video presentations, good stuff, but I'm pretty sure all of the extras were just the hand me downs from the DVD versions so nothing new. Again, it's all good but there is nothing special.If there was to be an ultimate version of these movies, or even of either one, then this ain't it. It's got the movies, some extras and it works just fine, and for $15 it's worth the asking price, but there is nothing special about this so If you ARE just looking for the movies and something decent for a good price, this is the one, but if you are as big a fan of this movie as I am it's not going to scratch that itch for a definitive or best available version on BluRay then this falls shy of anything remotely that. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no such edition anywhere. There is a Best Buy steelbook edition, which I don't own, but as far as I know aside from the case and being regions free that on is also not that much different from this one. It's too bad there is no such version but if you want to own the movies of BD this might be the best venue without going international.
M**Y
5 STARS FOR EL MARIACHI!!!! Desperado pails in comparison.
I bought this for El Mariachi, I heard Robert Rodriguez made it for $7,000 and that it was good. I watched it and was suprised, it's pretty great, such raw passion, such fire.... Carlos Gallardo played a fantastic Mariachi and It's just an amazing little gem! Buy it for this movie alone!Desperado is not the same story. Because El Mariachi was so sucessful and so cheap, they threw 7 million at the sequel and well, it's nowhere near as entertaining El Mariachi. Desperado feels unfocused, has too many jokes, and Antonio Banderas doesn't hold a candle to Carlos as the Mariachi. It looks nicer and has better effects, but I feel no passion.In short Buy for El Mariachi, and maybe you might like Desperado.
F**S
Buena compra.
Edición de un disco blu-ray qué contiene las dos películas; “El Mariachi " y su continuación “Desperado" (Pistolero) ambas con imagen en 1080p High Definition /1.85:1, Audio en Español, Inglés, Inglés descriptivo y Francés. Subtitulos en los mismos idiomas. Se incluyen extras en imagen estándar con audio en Inglés Stereo / Mono y subtitulos en Español. Los extras contenidos son: La sala de edición de "El Mariachi" y "Pistolero", Comentario con el director Robert Rodriguez, Escuela de cine y el cortometraje estudiantil de Robert Rodriguez: "Bed Heat". Ahora bien, la navegación para cambiar de una película a otra - ya al estar viendo alguna- es a mi parecer un poco enredada, se supone que basta con seleccionar el icono de un carrete de película qué aparece en la pantalla para cambiar entre una y otra, pero llega a ser confuso. Es más simple ir a selección de escenas (foto incluida) y ahí seleccionar qué película se quiere ver. Este problema no se encuentra cuando uno mete el disco ya qué de inmediato se carga un primer menú donde se selecciona sin mayor problema la película qué sé quiere ver. En cuánto al precio, me pareció un poco elevado. En realidad a mi solo me gusta la primera película, pero tomando en cuenta lo complicado de conseguirla y sobre todo en bluray, se termina compensando.
S**B
Kult!
genug Filmrezensionen dazu im Internet! Kaufen! Schauen!
H**D
What's in the Case?
This Double video feature is pretty good giving these movies a nice remaster. Grew up seeing Desperado but never seen El Mariachi til i bought it. Only down side is that it needs Once upon a time in Mexico which i know has its own collection but then is charged up more for it. Still 2 timely Classics worth seeing / revisiting.
M**K
Great speed in Delivery
Arrived on time and in great condition
A**R
Desperado & El Mariachi Blu-Ray film Reviews
This man with no man style theme Mexico Texas style is awesome. Great shoot outs & fight scenes, Great Spanish musica , Salma Hayek is smoking hot!!!El Mariachi the precursor to Desperado is good but not as great, it's more like a pilot movie. For me there is only Desperado & Once upon a time in Mexico with Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi and hopefully a third soon.
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