Garrulus Grommeler

The final movie in Robert Rodriguez's pulp Western, Once Upon a Time in México is not only chock full of stars, it's also chock full of gun-totin' action. Starring in this movie are Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes, Danny Trejo, Enrique Iglesias, Marco Leonardi, Cheech Marin, Ruben Blades, and Willem Dafoe. With names like that on the roster, I think it's fair to say that this movie far surpassed the $50,000 budget for El Mariachi . Wouldn't you agree? It was fun. It was kooky. And, for Johnny Depp's character, it was outta sight.

I had wanted to watch El Mariachi, the first movie in this trilogy. I'd rented it, in fact, but . . . for whatever reason, the DVD would only play the director's track. Nothing personal, but I wanted to watch the movie, not listen to Robert Rodriguez. So, I had to skip El Mariachi, and moved right on to Desperado , starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, and featuring a guest appearance by none other than Quentin Tarantino. It wasn't bad, but I preferred the duology of movies Rodriguez and Tarantino did together more recently, Grindhouse , Rodriguez's contribution being Planet Terror .