The Battalion
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Desperado is a bit of a sur-
ise—a high-budget sequel
iatdelivers the goods.
Director Robert Rodriguez’s
iwerto his acclaimed El Mari-
Mfeatures Antonio Banderas
the lead role. He plays a for-
lermusician-turned-gunfighter
legend is just as powerful
the arsenal he carries in his
litar case.
This time El Mariachi is back
settle the score against Bucho (Joaquim De
eida), the drug lord who was responsible for
the musician’s girlfriend in the first film.
lIMariachi is out for revenge, and he won’t stop
itilheputs a bullet through Bucho’s head.
His search takes him to a small Mexican village
here Bucho uses the town people as couriers for
drug business.
He immediately makes an impact when he
looking for Bucho in a local bar and finds
self in the middle of a bloodbath with the
ig lord’s henchmen.
ElMariachi’s revenge quest gets the attention
his prey, and Bucho starts to fight back, send-
his cronies all over the city to fight the vigi-
ite. Meanwhile, El Mariachi finds himself
ling in love with Carolina (Salma Hayek), a lo-
Desperada
Starring Antonio
Banderas, Joaquim De
Almeida and Saintd
Hayek
Directed by Robert
Rodriguez
Rated R
Playing at Hollywood 16
of five]
*** (out of five}
owner who also runs drugs for Bucho.
The war between El Mariachi
and Bucho continues until the
two finally confront each other
in an exciting showdown with a
surprising twist.
Desperado is Rodriguez’s first
shot at big-time film, and he
makes a respectable debut. His
cinematography focuses heavily
on the face and emotions of the
characters.
Banderas is believable in the
title role. He does a good job
playing the musician as part-lon
er and part-romantic, dancing
across the line with good balance.
De Almeida and Hayek turn in solid supporting
performances, and cameos from director Quentin
Tarantino and Cheech Marin make the film a little
more enjoyable.
The film’s strength lies in its over-the-top action
sequences with Banderas as the trigger man. He’s
smooth and brash, going in with guns blazing.
However, the film slides when Rodriguez
shifts to a more contemplative, romantic film.
The romance between Carolina and El Mariachi
could have been left out, and more attention
should have been paid to the animosity between
Bucho and El Mariachi.
Overall, Desperado is a solid follow-up to the
first film. Rodriguez is a bit unpolished but still
talented enough to overcome the film’s shortcom
ings and present a suave action film.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
In 1988, the world knew lit
tle of the Asian nation of Bur
ma that lay beyond Rangooh, i
the nation’s capital.
Now with the new John
Boorman film, Beyond
Rangoon, we know more. The
problem is the story doesn't re
ally make us care.
a v i e R
Beyond*
Starring Pal
Arquette and If Aung Ho
Directed by John
Boorman
Rated R
Playing at Hollywood
★★ (out of five)
brings semester's first dose of comedy
Town Hall brought comedienne Margaret Cho (left) to Rudder
Theater Friday night. Cho was suffering from throat difficulties
and spent hours sitting over a humidifier before the show, but
she performed for over an hour to a crowd of 1,057.
Cho made light of the cancellation of her show, All-American
Girl, but candidly admitted that it was hard to deal with.
Alpha Phi Alpha is working with Town Hall to bring another
comedy show this semester.
Freudian Slip (below), the Aggie Players' impromptu comedy
team, opened the show with a brief performance. The group
will have its first full performance of the semester this Friday.
ves
Beyond Rangoon chronicles
the struggle for democracy of
the small Asian nation. The
film also follows the tale of
Laura Bowman — Patricia Ar
quette — an American tourist '
searching for a new beginning
after her life is destroyed when
her family is murdered.
Touring Burma with her sis
ter, Bowman gets caught up in.
the Burmese democratid mqvet
ment. She befriends Aung Ko,
a political exile and former pro
fessor at Rangoon University,
who takes her off the tourist
track and into the real
Burmese countryside. x
Ko shows Bowman the dark >
er side of Burma, where the \
military dictatorship guns
down all opposition and kpeps
the rest of the world out.
Bowman’s life with the •
Burmese protesters lands hey
on a raft flowing down a river
with Ko, who is suffering froth
a gunshot wound. While keep-:
ing her friend alive, Bowman
tries to find a way to escape
the hell she has found.
With such a promising plot,
Beyond Rangoon is amazingly
hollow. The characters, whose
constant suffering should
scream for sympathy, don’t get
any from viewers. The charac
ters simply walk through a
poorly-developed plot like card
board cut-outs.
The acting is average. Ar
quette is surprisingly good in
her latest dramatic role. U Aung
Ko, a Burmese political activist,
plays his namesake with a spe
cial fervor. He is the one bright
spot in the drab movie.
But Ko’s performance cannot
3 T
Patricia Arquette plays a tourist in
country's struggle for democracy.
save a film with a story that
just does not work.
The plot jumps around, leav
ing huge holes in the storyline
that seriously damage the sto
ry. The story leaps from Lau
ra’s difficulty dealing with the
loss of her family to her dive
into the pro-democracy rally in
Rangoon. The audience doesn’t
know Bowman’s motivations for
getting wrapped up in the
rebels’ fight. The movie doesn’t
Burma who gets caught up in the
show how much the Burmese
people are suffering, and the
audience doesn’t care because
of it.
It’s a shame that Boorman
didn’t do more with such a po
tentially riveting story. He
could have explored tbe emo
tions and suffering and made it
a truly glorious production.
Instead, we get a watered-
down attempt at sincerity at
best and a flimsy film at worst.
I!
TOR
TITOR
R
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