Powerful

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The first must-see film of the year.

I have loved some of Robert Rodriguez's later works like Sin City, so I was pretty excited to see this movie.The movie is extremely small budget and it really feels like it is more expensive than that. I mean, Robert Rodriguez makes this movie look like it had much more money spent on it, and that is because of his creativity and resourcefulness.The directing is really good. I loved many of the shots and scenes in this movie and the way they are edited.My problem with the film or at least my dilemma is... I just find this movie OK. The main actor and character itself is pretty lousy, the movie is too long for its own good, and the story is just OK.Many people argue that this might be justified because of the low budget. But I do believe that all of the story problems don't have anything to do with the budget. It is not as if I don't like low-budget films, I LOVE "The Evil Dead" and other low-budget films. I just find this movie uneventful, and sometimes boring.I think this film is the kind of film you should only watch once and move on with your life. I do recommend you to watch it though.

So many of the reviewers of this listing have based their reviews on the amazing feat by Rodriguez in creating a film for $7,000.The fact of the matter is that this budget figure is little more than marketing hype, promoted by Rodriguez himself in his book "Rebel without a Crew". This book has sold significant numbers to indie film makers over the years, looking to make successful films on a shoestring and has also dramatically enhanced the reputation of Rodriguez.The truth is that Rodriguez did indeed make this film for $7,000 but the final version the public got to see, the version reviewers of this IMDb listing have seen, needed a further $300,000 spent on it to bring it up to technical and commercial standards/expectations.Even for an estimated total budget of around $325,000 this is still a decent little film, demonstrating film making talent on a limited budget and it's certainly worth a viewing but don't judge it on the basis that it cost $7,000 to make!

Let's give credit where credit is due. Although this picture had an extremely low-budget, it goes to prove that a nice film can still be produced if the director has the imagination and talent to pull it off. And let's face it, the sad fact is that there are all too many movies being made today that cost much more than this particular film ($7000) but fail to deliver the same level of satisfaction. The director (Robert Rodriguez) deserves every attribute due to him. The humor was good and there were some social commentaries that I think some people might have missed. That is not to say, however, that this film was necessarily perfect. It wasn't. The acting wasn't great by any means. Neither was the script. But then, the movie was originally produced in Spanish and the version I saw was dubbed in English, so it is possible that some of the dialogue may have been lost in translation. The ending though, was unexpected and abrupt and I didn't quite like it. As far as the characters are concerned, I thought Reinol Martinez (playing the part of the gangster "Azul") did the best. Consuelo Gomez ("Domino") was attractive and put in a fair performance as well. Carlos Gallardo ("El Mariachi") was average at best. The rest of the cast were pretty much forgettable. Having said all of this, the fact that this film was produced with a low budget doesn't mean that a person should lower his standards and give it a higher score than it deserves when it comes to evaluating it. This wasn't "Gone with the Wind" so there's no need to give it an equivalent rating. The bottom line is that it was an enjoyable low-budget film and it made a hefty profit. No need to argue with that.

I suspect that the screen play was only partially written before filming started, or they ran out of money and decided to wrap up the filming early.I concluded the above because character development and the plot unfolded quite naturally in the first half of the film. Then for some unknown reason, some characters developed exaggerated facial expressions and mannerisms and the plot vanished into thin air.Further, bold characters become caricatures and meek characters become inexplicably heroic. One character who probably had never seen an automatic weapon is instantly an inerrant shot and a quick draw. Another character, who wouldn't be caught dead without his Uzi, takes on drug lord and his gang with only a hostage and pistol.In the first half of the film there were some very interesting cinematographic shots worthy of great director. In the second half, those dazzling techniques were few and far between.This could have been a very good movie, if more time had been taken in writing the screen play.