In the wake of Robert Rodriguez’s lo-fi sleeper El Mariachi and the bigger-budgeted hit Desperado, the Mexican movie industry was somewhat reinvigorated to make more films in a similar vein, with much cheaper effects, more explosive set pieces and far bloodier product.
One of these forgotten flick is the mostly shoddy El Mariachi Narcotraficante (or The Drug-Trafficking Mariachi) in 1999. As to be expected, it’s really not that great, but better than a lot of straight-to-video dreck back in the day.
Over the pre-millennium Videonics title cards, a young man (the middle-aged Sebastian Ligarde) and his pretty pathetic mariachi band are trying to play for a shitty club owner who, in a fit of rage, unloads on him and makes a run for it.
The mariachi’s home life isn’t much better, as his wife is kind of a bitch and he dotes on his mom who, melodramatically, has heart problems as she cries on her bed. Man, does this guy need a change of scenery or what?
Meanwhile, a slick “narco” character makes an official drop, presumably over large quantities of drugs. Making a deal, they are ambushed by the husky, plainclothes cop (the husky, plainclothes Jorge Rey) over oil barrels with his .357, squibs-a-popping.
Eventually, the Narco and the Mariachi cross paths — apparently, they are old friends — and, in a torrent of bullets, they go on the run and combine forces. Initially, they are successful. But after the Narco is gunned down and his mom is kidnapped, the Mariachi goes on a mission with, of all weapons, simulated swordplay.
After all parties are summarily executed, the surviving Mariachi has a good time with laughs and love with his mom as a freeze frame ends the whole movie.
With these narco-set 1990-something crime films taking the place of the sexy comedies of the 1980s, the macho façade that most of the protagonists project are here — and more than erect, with their steel guns (and flaccid dialogue) taking up most of the screen.
Sure, the direction is more “push a button” than anything else, with the film’s moneymaking intentions right there on its mariachi-ed sleeve. To be fair, it tries to be something different than a typical narco film, even if it doesn’t work much of the time.
In other words, unlike like Rodriguez’s flicks, El Mariachi Narcotraficante was a bad action movie with entertainingly good intentions. So, that’s something, right? —Louis Fowler