Bravo

...the stench is the only powerful thing here. Having loved El Mariachi, I hoped for another low budget sleeper, but alas, this film is a verified bowzer. I watched it since someone loaned it to me, but if you have the choice, don't bother. A candidate for "bad movie night" certainly. I need to go watch Mariachi again... - 2 of 10

I rented this, hoping to see another good movie with Carlos Gallardo- as with El Mariachi.

For this movie, its your run of the mill grade B quality movie. The acting is TERRIBLE, the characters are pretty empty, and I really don't see a reason why it even came out on DVD.

For El Mariachi, Carlos Gallardo was competent in acting as a shy sort of Mariachi singer who has had little or no luck. Carlos just did not play the Bravo character convincingly. I didn't feel he was a menace at all.

The villain was laughable.

But, then of course- the script was terrible so its hard to put the total blame on the actors. They were only working with what they had right?

The directing was pretty bad as well.

I think the best part of the movie was how the General got drunk. Pretty funny- but I don't think its convincing enough to rent. Maybe they knew it was a bad movie and played along.

When Robert Rodriguez made Once Upon a Time in Mexico, certainly his best film, he ripped off ideas from two other films: Gallardo's own "Single Action" and this film, "Bravo". I thought that was more widely known; but in any event, it ought to be.

Gallardo plays a professional bodyguard to the President of Mexico, who gets fired for having an affair with the president's daughter. We later find him having to make a living as a member of a mariachi trio. Meanwhile, a major drug boss has hired a corrupt general to throw a coup, but his timing is off, because he's still waiting for his most profitable shipment to come in from Columbia. So he has to hold the President hostage until the delivery is made. This makes time for the mariachi to pick up his guns again and try to stop the coup....

Sound familiar, hey? And four years before OUTIM.

This is a B-action film, but it doesn't pretend to be otherwise, except that it also makes a very broad comment on Mexican politics. But not knowing anything about those politics should not prevent one from enjoying this film. It is occasionally slow, and there are occasional missteps in direction and editing, but the cast is pretty solid, the story pulls us along, most of the action is well-done. I enjoyed watching more than once.

And no, it's not "El Mariachi." It doesn't need to be.