Desperado

There is not much new under the scorching hot Mexican sun in the action drama Desperado compared with its predecessor, the effective low-budget film "El Mariachi".

Antonio Banderas as the film's hero does, however, have far more charisma than the lead actor in "El Mariachi". He returns to the dusty provincial town with his guitar case full of weapons so that he can take revenge on his girlfriend's murderer, the drug boss Bucho, who has the town in the palm of his hand. El Mariachi receives unexpected support from the attractive Carolina, who runs a small bookshop but is also in Bucho's pay in order to survive.

The flimsy story is basically just a pretext for a series of extremely stylish and rather violent action sequences. The stylised violence is spiced with a little black humour, supplied among others by Quentin Tarantino in an amusing supporting role and Steve Buscemi as the film's narrator and El Mariachi's best friend.