Robert Rodriguez’s big-studio sequel to his breakthrough 1992 debut, El Mariachi, this glaringly reveals the very weaknesses that the modest Mariachi allowed us to forgive. Here the emphasis on violent spectacle and effusive gore nearly snuffs out the comic flair of the first film. (Rodriguez seems to forget his mariachi’s own advice: “It is easier to pull a trigger than play a guitar. It is easier to destroy than create.”) There is something to be said for big-budget stars, though: Antonio Banderas, as the mariachi, and Salma Hayek, as his new love, quicken pulses far more than any of the gunplay.
