DVD & BLU RAY REVIEWS
Reviews by JAIME PINA
The Mexico Trilogy
Arrow Films/MVD
Robert Rodriguez has built an amazing career off of his first ultra-low-budget debut film El Mariachi. As much as I enjoy his films there is not one I enjoy more than his first, a down-and-dirty action film about a down-on-his-luck musician who is the victim of mistaken identity. Rodriguez has directed action flicks, kid’s movies, horror, comic book adaptations and more. Yet for many, the first film in this trilogy remains his best and now the three films featuring the Mariachi are available all together in a box set for the first time. El Mariachi was produced and filmed in Mexico with hopes of getting it released straight to video for the Mexican market but after sending it to a few US distribution companies it was picked up and it connected with fans looking for something funky and fresh. Carlos Gallardo stars as a Mariachi on the road looking for gigs and when he comes into a town and meets a sympathetic female bar owner he thinks he is in luck. But things go bad when the bar owner’s patron and a rival gangster revive their feud and the Mariachi is mistaken for the rival leading to several well staged chases and shoot outs.
The second film, Desperado, is a sequel in the vein of Evil Dead II and is not so much a sequel as a re-imagining on a higher budget. Antonio Banderas plays the Mariachi and the plot involves him seeking further revenge by hunting down the employer of the man who killed the bar owner of the first film. The film is fun with an interesting cast, including Salma Hayek as the Mariachi’s new lover, but fails to match the inventiveness and true fury of the first installment.
In the third film, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, the Mariachi is hired by the CIA to go after a drug lord he has crossed paths with before. Again there is an interesting cast, great action and direction but the series has really lost its focus from its low budget roots. Johnny Depp stars a s ruthless CIA agent who gets his eyes ripped out but somehow survives and ends up involved in a shoot out after losing both eyes and lots of blood.
All three films are on Blu-ray discs with only the second film available in 4K. Desperado is represented with two discs, one for the Blu-ray and the other for the 4K with no additional extras on the 4K disc. This is odd since El Mariachi and Desperado were shot on film and Once Upon A Time In Mexico was Rodriguez’ first film shot in digital.
Arrow has come up with a lot of extras for the films including commentaries on all three films by Rodriguez, his fun Ten-Minute Film School featurettes plus a Ten-Minute Cooking Class. For the latter two films there are featurettes with the stunt and special effects people but for me the best stuff is on the first disc as El Mariachi is the film I am most interested in learning about. There is a talk with the OG Mariachi Carlos Gallardo and he comes off as cool in real life as you want him to be. His insights on low budget filmmaking and how the film came together are essential to fans and first-time filmmakers. There is a featurette on the music plus Rodriguez’ early short film Bedhead. There is also a booklet, art cards and trailers for all three films.
Crocodile
Synapse Films
This JAWS “tribute” film (more like JAWS 3) was produced and shot in Thailand, where life and production values are cheap! Two doctors, one with a wife and daughter and the other with his fiancé, go on a vacation that turns ugly when an oversized crocodile starts terrorizing their vacation spot.
The cultural differences become apparent right away as there is a rather uncomfortable scene where the doctor undresses his pre-pubescent daughter and his eyes just sort of linger on her like he is Gary Glitter checking out his underage Thai stick delivery boy. There is a scene with an actual croc getting its belly split open with a knife that led the film to get on the American Humane Association’s no-no list. Another offensive to some sequence involves a legless man having special effects bloody stumps attached. He swims around the mechanical giant croc with the gristle and blood all over the place and it may be one of the best parts of the film.
Overall this film is total grindhouse fare but without the humor or inventiveness of films like BLOOD FEAST or THE CORPSE GRINDERS. It is more like a mondo flick in that it can be hard to watch but compelling in a way that you can’t take your eyes off of it and want to see it through to the end no matter what the emotional consequences may be. The Blu-ray looks as good as it can under the circumstances with the production limitations. And the grimy look of the film suits the sleaziness of the whole affair. There was an international cut of the film which has differences but that cut is not included, however there are deleted and alternative scenes included along with a trailer, a commentary and interview and a slipcase known as the “nude” cover with nekkid ladies.