Original Sin (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Erotic, mysteriously dark with beautiful cinematography!  Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas sizzle in “Original Sin”!

Images courtesy of © 1977 Metro Goldwyn Mayer. All Rights Reserved

TITLE: Original Sin

FILM RELEASE DATE: 2001

DURATION: 118 minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (widescreen 2:35:1), English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French

RATED: UNRATED (This Motion Picture was released previously in a version rated R for strong sexual content and some violence.  This unrated version contains material different from the original and rated version).

COMPANY: Metro-Goldwyn-MayerTwentieth Century Fox

RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011

Directed by Michael Cristofer

“Waltz into the Darkness” novel by Cornel Woolrich

Screenplay by Michael Cristofer

Produced by Denise Di Novi, Kate Guinzburg, Carol Lees

Co-Producer: Edward McDonnell

Executive Producer: Sheldon Abend, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman

Line Producer: Michael S. Glick

Music by Terence Blanchard

Cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto

Edited by Eric A. Sears

Casting by Libby Goldstein, Junie Lowry-Johnson

Production Design by David J. Bomba

Art Direction by John R. Jensen

Set Decoration by Beth A. Rubino

Costume Design by Donna Zakowska

Starring:

Antonio Banderas as Luis Antonio Vargas

Angelina Jolie as Julia Russell/Bonny Castle

Thomas Jane as Billy/Walter Downs/Mephisto

Jack Thompson as Alan Jordan

Gregory Itzin as Colonel Worth

Allison Mackie as Augusta Jordan

Joan Pringle as Sara

Cordelia Richards as Emily Russell

James Haven as Faust-Stage

A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.

Erotic, mysteriously dark with beautiful cinematography!  Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas sizzle in “Original Sin”!

In 2001, Angelina Jolie reunited with writer/director Michael Cristofer (“Gia”, “The Witches of Eastwick”, “Casanova”) and starred alongside Antonio Banderas (“Desperado”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”) and Thomas Jane (“The Mist”, “Deep Blue Sea”, “Dream Catcher”) in possibly her sexiest, most erotic film yet.

“Original Sin” takes place in 19th century Cuba and we see a woman awaiting her execution and telling her final story to a priest.

The story begins with Luis Vargas (played by Antonio Banderas), a wealthy Cuban businessman who awaits American Julia Russell (played by Angelina Jolie) to come to his country and become his bride.  The first thing that Luis notices is that she looks nothing like the photos she had sent him and wonders if he can trust her.  But Julia tells him that she was only being deceptive because she wants a man that is not interested in just a pretty face and Luis admits that he was also being deceptive into making her think that he was a poor man but in reality, he is the wealthy owner of a coffee company.

Within hours, the two get married and immediately, the two become passionate with each other.  Also, to find out that she awakes with nightmares for some apparent reason.

But Luis starts to feel weird about his new wife when Julia’s sister Emily is worried about her and has been trying to contact her, so Luis forces Julia to write her sister back, so her sister wouldn’t worry.  But for some reason, Julia is reluctant to.

As Luis starts to fall heavy in love with Julia, he wants to make her happy and so he adds Julia to his business and also access to his bank accounts. And all seems to be good for Luis, until he meets with Emily, Julia’s sister and finds out that the letter that she has received is not from Julia and it is not her handwriting.  Surprised by all this, he goes back home to talk to Julia, to find out that she is gone.  But not just her, she ran away with all his money.

Luis finds out that he has been conned and that she took everything from him.

Now Luis wants revenge and teams up with detective Walter Down (played by Thomas Jane) to find out where Julia is but what he doesn’t know is that Walter and Julia are working together…. or are they?

VIDEO:

“Original Sin” is presented in 1080p High Definition (widescreen 2:35:1).  Picture quality for “Original Sin” is very good!  A lot of detail can be seen on the original print, from the clothing to Banderas’ chest hairs.  Colors are vibrant, skin tones are natural and black levels are good.  I did notice some banding but nothing too distract your viewing.

I do give credit to the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (“Brokeback Mountain”, “Babel”, “21 Grams”) which is actually quite beautiful.  A lot of cut scenes and the sex scene between Banderas and Jolie was well-shot and tastefully done.  But for the most part, the film looks good on Blu.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Original Sin” is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and French 5.1 Dolby Digital.  “Original Sin” is pretty much a dialogue driven film, there were moments in which you can hear crowd ambiance and there are times where the action sequences (mainly gun shots) are heard through the surround channels but for the most part, the film is driven by its dialogue and Terence Blanchard’s (“Inside Man”, “X”, “Talk to Me”) musical score.  So, the lossless audio is good, not too immersive but for a dialogue driven film, the soundtrack is appropriate.

Subtitles are English SDH, Spanish and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Original Sin” comes with the following special features:

• Audio Commentary by Michael Cristofer – An insightful commentary by Michael Cristofer who talks about the differences between the novel and the film, working with Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas, shooting various scenes and more.
• “You Can’t Walk Away” Music Video – Gloria Estefan’s music video for “Original Sin”.
• Trailer – Original theatrical trailer for “Original Sin”.

When this film came out on DVD, needless to say, the films reputation was more popular for those who wanted to see the Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas sex scene.  It’s rather interesting that the film is known more for its sex scene than its story and the question is, whether or not the story is worth it.

I know that film critics were split when it came to this film and for me, when I first watched this film back then, I was not surprised by the twist nor was I enjoying the storyline.  If anything, I found myself wondering if the film was about the occult or a vampire film because it had those dark elements.  But the truth is, “Original Sin” was good for its first half but by the second half, I realized that this film was primarily eye candy for Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas fans.  Yes, the two sizzle in their sex scene but the pacing of the film was all over the place that I was growing bored.

I also have to say that Angelina Jolie has come a long way acting-wise since this film.  According to the audio commentary by director Michael Cristofer, he saw a transformation of Jolie as she had married Billy Bob Thornton and as their relationship was sexually driven, we saw her becoming Julia in the film.  I felt that the sexual chemistry was good between both talents and each time they were on film, that is when the storyline peaked my interest but this cat and mouse chase that ensues was not exactly the best.  The twists and big reveal was tame.  Especially if you compare it to the twists that people watched with Jolie’s “Salt” and even “The Tourist”, it was much better planned in these films versus “Original Sin”.

The fact is that I know people flock to this film for the unrated sex scene and director Michael Cristofer does explain that Jolie insisted that she did not want the patch and to make this scene real, she had to go all out, which Banderas agreed as well.  So, that was an interesting tidbit of information.

While the Blu-ray of “Original Sin” does look very good in HD and definitely warrants an upgrade from its DVD counterpart.

But overall, “Original Sin” was an OK film that is filled with sexual tension and an average storyline.  If you enjoyed the film, then it’s definitely worth checking out, otherwise, if you are a person who is in it just for the sex scene, the Blu-ray is pretty much recommended as a rental.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Woody Allen returns with a karma-esque romantic comedy with an all-star cast that is entertaining, romantic and delightful.

Images courtesy of © 2010 Mediaproduccion S.L., Versatil Cinema S.L. and Gravier Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

FILM RELEASE DATE: 2010

DURATION: 99 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:78:1), English, French LCR DTS-HD MA (Discrete Surround), Subtitles: English, English SDH, French

COMPANY: Sony Pictures Classics

RATED: R (Some Violence)

RELEASE DATE: February 15, 2011

Written and Directed by Woody Allen

Produced by Letty Aronson, Jaume Roures, Stephen Tenenbaum

Co-Producer: Nicky Kentish Barnes

Co-Executive Producer: Jack Rollins

Associate Producer: Mercedes Gamero

Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond

Edited by Alisa Lepselter

Casting by Patricia Kerrigan DiCerto, Gail Stevens, Juliet Taylor

Production Design by Jim Clay

Art Direction by Dominic Masters

Set Decoration by John Bush

Costume Design by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor

Starring:

Gemma Jones as Helena Shebritch

Pauline Collins as Cristal

Anthony Hopkins as Alfie Shebritch

Naomi Watts as Sally Channing

Josh Brolin as Roy Channing

Freida Pinto as Dia

Antonio Banderas as Greg

Lucy Punch as Charmaine

Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Jonathan

Narrated by Zak Orth

Neil Jackson as Alan

Two couples discover the grass may not always be greener on the other side in Woody Allen’s breezy comedy on wry, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Hoping to relive the pleasures of youth, Alfie Shepridge (Anthony Hopkins) dumps his wife of 40 years (Gemma Jones) and pursues a young call girl (Lucy Punch). So when daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) develops a crush on her boss (Antonio Banderas) and husband Roy (Josh Brolin) becomes obsessed with the beauty (Freida Pinto) who lives across the way, the entire clan’s fantasies take on reality as their passions not only drive them out of their marriages, but out of their minds as well.

With a Woody Allen film, I always come with an expectation of an enjoyable time.  A few films have been misses but for the majority of Woody Allen’s oeuvre, they have been its, not all masterpieces but still, with a filmmaking career that has spanned over 50 years, even now, you can’t help but enjoy a Woody Allen romantic comedy.

Which brings us to his latest film “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger”, a film that literally is split amongst film critics.  Some who feel that the 75-year-old Woody Allen can never match his style of filmmaking during his peak and others who feel that he is able to create enjoyable films.

In “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”, I look at this film as a story of karma biting one back in the rear.

The film revolves around the Shebritch family and everything is coming undone.  Both Helena (played by Gemma Jones) and Alfie (played by Anthony Hopkins) are ending their long marriage as Helena has become more and more opinionated and blunt about her husband especially during their older years and for Alfie, he wants to retain that youth, so he works out and wants to be look good.

Unfortunately, because of their differing opinions later in their life, the two often clash and sure enough Alfie leaves his Helena.

Helena is so much in a mess that she has been seeing a psychiatrist and wants to put her on medication.  But for now, all Helena can go to for comfort is her daughter Sally Channing (played by Naomi Watts).

Sally is married to Roy (played by Josh Brolin), a writer who has had two bestselling books but is unable to come up with another.  The Channing’s are barely able to survive and pay their rent and bills and Sally is becoming disenchanted with their marriage and overall progression of their livelihood.  She wants her marriage to progress and Roy to get a job and Roy tries.  But because he writes at night, a day job has become difficult and when he had a job as a chauffeur, he was tired and got into an accident and lost his job.

But Sally is trying to be as supportive of her husband as best as she can and hopes that his latest book will get approved by the publisher and not depend on her mother (who is paying their rent).

As for Roy, he knows that life is not going so well for him but the only happiness he has found in his life was each time he looks out the window, he sees a woman across the building, playing the guitar and just finds her alluring.  And the two eventually start communication from their window.  Roy immediately becomes a voyeur and looks forward to each time he can watch the woman from the other building.

Meanwhile, Alfie has changed his life since leaving Helena.  He has gotten a tan, living in a posh apartment and has been hanging out with his young employees to find a young woman to be with.  Eventually, he manages to get hooked up with a prostitute named Charmaine (played by Lucy Punch) and despite his pursuit of youth, Alan is traditional in his beliefs that if you have a romantic fling, you want to marry the woman and thus he becomes engaged to Charmaine.

Needless to say, this shocks Helen and she keeps visiting her daughter which angers Roy because Helen is very opinionated on everything.  In order to feel stability, Sally has helped her mother find someone to go for counseling, a fortune telling guru named Cristal (played by Pauline Collins).  Sally and Roy knows she is a fake but if it keeps Helen at ease (and not have her spend much money), then they will support her.

So, as Helen tries to figure out her life through Cristal, Alfie now with a younger woman (who loves to spend money), Sally feeling not so loved in her marriage, goes to take a job with an art gallery owned by Greg (played by Antonio Banderas) and as for Roy, he initiates contact with Dia (played by Freida Pinto), the woman he has been watching across the street.

For Sally, working with Greg has exposed her to a lifestyle that she wants and finds herself falling for Greg but he is married and she is married.  As for Roy, he finds himself falling for Dia, but he is married and she is getting married.

How will life eventually play out for these individuals?

VIDEO:

“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:78:1).  As usual with Woody Allen films, he tries to bring out the city he films in.  In this case, London.  Collaborating once again with his cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “The Bonfire of the Vanities”, “The Witches of Eastwick”), who worked with Allen in his last London-based film “Cassandra’s Dream” (2007).

While the film does provide some parts of London and possibly one awesome shot in the rain when Roy gets to meet Dia, most of the film is shot indoors especially inside Sally and Roy’s apartment.  For the most part, the lighting is good and picture quality definitely shows a vibrancy at times, especially when focusing on Dia’s red dress.  Skin tones are good and you can see Roy’s shaggy hair (Probably one of the worst hair styles in the film for Josh Brolin) to a tired and disheveled Sally (Watts).

But overall, the picture quality is very good, colors range from natural to vibrant, black levels are nice and deep and I saw no hint of artifacting or banding.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is presented in English and French LCR DTS-HD MA.  The film is pretty much a dialogue and music-driven film.  Most of the scenes are with two people talking and there may be scenes with crowds (like at a bar) but for the most part, this is a dialogue-driven film and most of the sound is coming through the front and center channels.  There was one scene with heavy rain but I was expecting a more immersive sound at that point but I didn’t really hear it coming from the surround channels.  So, for the most part, dialogue is clean and understandable as with its jazzy music (which works for this film and a style that Woody Allen is known for), the lossless soundtrack is good but don’t expect anything  immersive.

Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

It is well-known that Woody Allen is not fond of special features and no matter what release you watch of his, the most you’re going to get from a Woody Alley DVD or Blu-ray is a theatrical trailer.  And the theatrical trailer of “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (1:36) is included.

When Woody Allen created “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”, his reasoning to create the film was because of his interest in the concept of “faith in something”.  Those who successfully delude themselves seem happier than those who can’t.

What I got out of this film were two things.  One, the power of faith and believing something positive and the other is “karma” and how it can come back to get you.

For a Woody Allen film, at first glance, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is quite interesting in how Allen is able to take a normal family and easily throw believable things that can literally destroy it.  In the case of this family, Helena is the matriarch but she is so opinionated and blunt that it upsets those around her.  She can’t stop, its her nature to say how she feels.  While she seems like it’s right, others don’t feel that same way.  And thus karma gets her in which her husband leaves her and alienates her family.

But where Helena manages to redeem herself is finding faith, even though the person she believes in, may not be genuine (ala fortune teller), she’s happy and the changes she makes in her life leads to happiness.

On the other hand, for Alfie, it’s one thing to not like getting badgered by your wife but leaving her to pursue a young woman (a prostitute) and try to live young and live a luxurious lifestyle which he shouldn’t have done.  You don’t know how much you miss someone until their gone and in Alfie’s case, he finds himself in a situation where he goes for a very sexual woman that attracts men and the fact that he is older, he realizes that her lifestyle and how she is…it’s too much for him and will probably lead him to a quick death because now he constantly worries about her promiscuity and how much of his money she spends.

And for the daughter Sally, she wants a better life as her once famous novelist of a husband doesn’t make money nor can he hold a job.  She wants to grow in her relationship but its not happening.  While most audiences probably may feel sympathetic to her character, the problem is that she is the person that helped egg her mother on to going to a fortune teller in order to make her happy and while it’s a success, it ultimately becomes the major force in hurting Sally.

As for Sally’s husband Roy, the problem lies in the fact that he starts becoming a voyeur and falls for the woman across the street, gets closer to her and prevents her from finding happiness with another man she is to marry and does the unthinkable by stealing a dead man’s novel and gets it published.  Unfortunately, karma will end up biting him in the rear as well.

And the film comes full circle with the fact that Helena does find happiness thanks to her newfound faith in a crooked fortune teller.

“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” was definitely a delightful film that has enough of Woody Allen’s humor to make it enjoyable.  But I can see why some people watching this film may feel it was a bit of a drag.  Because really, it’s not a film about happy endings, happy marriages and such.  It is a movie about a dysfunctional family and how it begins to impact those into making impulsive decisions.    There is no fighting for the marriage, there is no counseling, these characters think they found their way out by finding love elsewhere.

Gemma Jones does a wonderful job of portraying Helena as a neurotic and paranoid woman.  Anthony Hopkins plays an older man finding a second wave of youthfulness.  Naomi Watts does a great job of playing the wife who wants more and Josh Brolin as the husband and voyeur.  Everyone in this film manages to play their role quite well and Lucy Punch was a much better choice in playing Charmaine and there is just no way I can see Nicole Kidman, who was originally supposed to play Charmaine, in that role.  And Freida Pinto brought a more elegant side to the film as she is the total opposite of Sally.

Overall, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” may not be a Woody Allen classic and I know many film critics feel that he’s just churning out movies that do not reach the levels of the types of films he once created.  But I do believe that every filmmaker goes through various life differences, adjustments in life and as much as some would like original Woody Allen ala 1970′s, it’s surely not going to happen.

So, far I have managed to enjoy a lot of Allen’s later films and while they may not have the resonance of “Manhattan”, “Sleeper” or “Annie Hall”, they are still quite enjoyable and fun.

“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” was delightful!

El Mariachi/Desperado Double Feature (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

The first two films of Robert Rodriguez “El Mariachi” trilogy” receive the HD treatment.   For fans of the director Robert Rodriguez, these two films are classics and if you want to be a filmmaker, these two films give you the best insight on how Rodriguez created “El Mariachi” for only $7,000 and how he also was able to keep “Desperado” within its budget.  If you own the double feature DVD’s, its definitely worth the upgrade to Blu-ray!

Images courtesy of © 1993 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved., © 1995 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: El Mariachi/Desperado Double Feature

FILM RELEASE DATE: El Mariachi (1993), Desperado (1995)

DURATION: El Mariachi (85 Minutes), Desperado (104 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: El Mariachi: 1080p High Definition (1:85:1), Spanish, English and French 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD MA, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish/Desperado: 1080p High Definition (1:85:1), Spanish, English and French 4.1 Stereo DTS-HD MA, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish

COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: R (For Strong Bloody Violence , Strong Sex Sequence and Language)

Release Date: January 4, 2011

El Mariachi

Written and Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Produced by Carlos Gallardo, Robert Rodriguez

Associate Producer: Elizabeth Avellan, Carmen M. De Gallardo

Music by Eric Guthrie, Chris Knudson, Alvaro Rodriguez, Cecilio Rodriguez, Mark Trujillo

Cinematography by Robert Rodriguez

Edited by Robert Rodriguez

Desperado

Written and Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Produced by Bill Borden, Robert Rodriguez

Co-Producer: Elizabeth Avellan, Carlos Gallardo

Music by Los Lobos

Cinematography by Guillermo Navarro

Edited by Robert Rodriguez

Production Design by Cecilia Montiel

Art Direction by Felipe Fernandez del Paso

Costume Design by Graciela Mazon

“El Mariachi” starring:

Carlos Gallardo as El Mariachi

Consuelo Gomez as Domino

Jaime de Hoyos as Bigoton

Peter Marquardt as Mauricio

Reinol Martinez as Azul

Ramiro Gomez as Cantinero

Jesus Lopez as Viejo Clerk

“Desperado” starring:

Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi

Salma Hayek as Carolina

Joaquim de Almeida as Bucho

Cheech Marin as Short Bartender

Steve Buscemi as Buscemi

Carlos Gomez as Right Hand

Quentin Tarantino as Pick-Up Guy

Tito Larriva as Tavo

Angel Aviles as Zamira

Danny Trejo as Navajas

Abrahama Verduzco as Nino

Carlos Gallardo as Campa

Desperado – Antonio Banderas, Joaquim De Almeida, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin and Quentin Tarantino star in this stylish shoot-’em-up described as a south-of-the-border PULP?FICTION, now remastered in high definition for Blu-ray™. Writer/director Robert Rodriguez follows up his legendary debut film, EL?MARIACHI, with this sexy sequel about a mysterious guitar player (Banderas) searching for vengeance against the men who murdered his girlfriend. El Mariachi – All he wants is to be a mariachi, like his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather before him. But the town he thinks will bring him luck brings only a curse of deadly mistaken identity. Forced to trade his guitar for a gun, the mariachi is playing for his life in this critically acclaimed film debut from writer/director Robert Rodriguez, now remastered in high definition for Blu-ray™.

Ten Minute Cooking School

Ten Minute Flick School

The Anti-Hero’s Journey

When it comes to stories of how young director’s break into Hollywood, Robert Rodriguez is perhaps one of the most inspiring filmmakers to have emerged back in the early ’90s.

Rodriguez had the filmmaking bug at a young age but because his grades weren’t that great, he attended the University of Texas (College of Communication) and would showcase his talent as an illustrator and create cartoons for the student newspaper “The Daily Texan”.

But his passion would still be with filmmaking.  He went on to create a short titled “Bedhead” in 1990 and enter it in a local film contest and he won an award for it.

So, he was determined to create his first film titled “El Mariachi” with money raised by his friend Carlos Gallardo and also money that Rodriguez would make by taking part in medical research studies.  But with his knowledge of film editing using home software and having to cut corners to get the shots that he needed, he would go on to create the film “El Mariachi” which he figured that he could make money and have it released on video in Mexico.

So, both Rodriguez and Carlos started to shop the film to several Mexican companies in hopes that he could get a filmmaking job and also earn a little money.  One company offering $25,000 for “El Mariachi”.  But knowing that there was interest in his film, Rodriguez wanted to see how other companies felt.  Bigger companies.

By 1991, Rodriguez was desperate so he sent his video to ICM veteran Robert Newman in Beverly Hills, how Rodriguez knew about the industry veteran was that Newman was supposed to give a seminar in Texas.  Calling the number out of the blue, Rodriguez and Gallardo got the opportunity to meet with him and Newman gave him the advice to make three films.  Rodriguez gave him a copy of the trailer and over the weekend both Rodriguez and Gallardo took their time enjoying the sights of the area but then he received a call from Newman.  Newman told Rodriguez he loved the trailer and that he loved it and wanted a subtitled copy of “El Mariachi”.  After viewing it, Newman wanted to represent Robert Rodriguez and even got his support to try and send it to Miramax, despite it being a longshot.

By 1992, several studios have seen “El Mariachi” and were impressed and Columbia Pictures made their first offer, while other movie studios wanted to get their hands on “El Mariachi”.  In the end, Columbia Pictures offered Rodriguez a pretty substantial deal for a young filmmaker.  $125,000 for distribution rights, 25% on video sales and for a film created for $7,000 and the chance to be screened with other major Hollywood films at festivals was an incredible moment for Rodriguez.

Although the film did not make a huge earning in the box office, the film went on to make $1.5 million in video sales and for Robert Rodriguez, his dreams of becoming a filmmaker came true as he went on to make two TV movies in 1994 and the sequel to “El Mariachi” titled “Desperado” which would cost $7,000,000 and became a box office hit while the final film in the trilogy “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” (2003) would meet incredible financial success in the box office.  Since “El Mariachi”, Robert Rodriguez has inspired filmmakers who have dreamed of getting a shot in Hollywood and his story of his adventures in making “El Mariachi” was written in his book “Rebel Without a Crew”.

With successful sales on VHS, LD and on DVD of “El Mariachi” and “Desperado”, the trilogy will now be released on Blu-ray in January 2011 (note: “El Mariachi/Desperado” as a double feature and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” will be reached simultaneously).

“El Mariachi” is a Spanish film which stars Carlos Gallardo as El Mariachi, a man who is looking for a job to play his guitar and sing and going town to town in hopes of finding a job of being a Mariachi like his father and grandfather.  El Mariachi arrives to the small town of Acuna in hopes of getting work.

Meanwhile, a criminal in jail named Azul is being targeted by his former partner named Moco.  Azul wants his cut of profits but he doesn’t know that his former partner has sent men to the jail to kill him.  Expecting such a move, Azul and his men easily kill Moco’s men and walks out of prison and wants revenge.

As El Mariachi tries to find a job at a local pub, he is turned away.  Moments later, Azul who also carries a guitar case like El Mariachi, pulls out several guns and kills Moco’s men inside the pub.  The bartender calls Moco’s men and tells them to look for a man in black carrying a black guitar case.

Needless to say, in a case of mistaken identity, Moco’s men start going after El Mariachi instead. Not knowing why these men are out to kill him, Carlos manages to find refuge at a bar owned by a woman named Domino who tries to help him. But now Moco’s men are searching the whole town for El Mariachi, meanwhile the real killer Azul wants his revenge on Moco and the only person he knows that can take him right to Moco is Domino (since Moco finances the bar).

In 1995, Robert Rodriguez was given the opportunity to make a feature film with a higher budget and a film that would star Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.

In “Desperado”, El Mariachi (played by Antonio Banderas) wants revenge for the tragedy (which took place at the end if “El Mariachi”) and is in search of a man named Bucho.  With the help of Buscemi (played by Steve Buscemi), Buscemi goes to bars trying to get information on where Bucho is.

At one bar, Buscemi sees how the bartender (played by Cheech Marin) and his sidekick Tavo (played by Tito Larriva) behave when he tells him a story about a man who gun downed people at a bar at another town and is determined to get revenge against a man named Bucho.  Giving the information to El Mariachi, El then goes to the bar and begins executing the men who are loyal to Bucho.

When El Mariachi leaves the bar, thinking he is done.  He is unaware that Tavo is behind him and is warned by Carolina (played by Salma Hayek).  Tavo shoots and  El Mariachi knows that the woman will be hit, so he pushes her out of the way and takes the bullet and killing Tavo with a shot. As Carolina nurses him and fixes his arm up, both El Mariachi and Buscemi are unaware that a killer named Navajas (played by Danny Trejo) is after them.

Meanwhile, Bucho fearing El Mariachi sends all his men to kill El Mariachi and El knows he’s close to getting his revenge against Bucho.  Or is he?

VIDEO:

“El Mariachi” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1) and “Desperado” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1).

Starting off with “El Mariachi”, the fact that this is an older film from 1993, it was a low budget independent film and there is only so much that can be done to make this film look great.  Surprisingly, the film does look a lot better on Blu-ray.  I’m noticing the textures of the blue walls and paint coming off and just details that never really caught my attention until now.

So, for those who have owned the VHS, LD or a DVD copy of “El Mariachi”, the picture quality on Blu-ray is much clearer.  Not spectacular but definitely the best looking of the version film thus far.

As for “Desperado”, definitely a film that looks great on Blu-ray.  Blacks are nice and deep, earth tones and reds pop, good amount of grain.  Also, a good amount of detail can be seen.  From the sweat beeding off of El Mariachi’s face to the detail of the textures of Carolina’s booksstore to the cafe and even Bucho’s painted red walls and more.  Colors and detail look very good!

There are scenes where hair splitting, skin pores, beads of sweat are much more evident and clear on Blu-ray!

While “El Mariachi” does show its age as a shot in 1991 film, “Desperado” doesn’t show it’s 1995 age (just only the beginning when we see a group of Americans in ’90s clothing).

For those who owned the “El Mariachi/Desperado” Double Feature on DVD or even “El Mariachi” in its previous video formats, the jump to Blu-ray is definitely recommended!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“El Mariachi” is presented in Spanish, English and French 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD MA.  “Desperado” is presented in English, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA and in Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital.

“El Mariachi” is pretty much front channel driven and with it being in lossless, there is more clarity to the soundtrack.  But where people are going to hear the best use of sound is in “Desperado”.

Gunshots and action sequences utilize the surround channels quite effectively and I was very impressed to hear how the film sounds in lossless.  The lossless audio definitely enhanced my experience in watching the film again.  Dialogue and music is very clear through the center and front channels.  Great explosions utilize LFE and definitely a film that sounds great on Blu-ray!

Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“El Mariachi/Desperado” are presented in standard definition, English Stereo/Mono and with Spanish subtitles. Special features include:

El Mariachi

• MovieIQ - If you have a Blu-ray player that is connected to the Internet, while watching the film, you can access trivia, facts and information about the “El Mariachi”.
• The Cutting Room – Allows viewers to edit and cut footage from a film and send it to friends online.
• Director Robert Rodriguez Audio Commentary – A wonderful audio commentary by director Robert Rodriguez who breaks down the scene and talks about how he was able to make certain scenes without a large crew, high production equipment and creating his film for $7,000.
• Robert Rodriguez’s Student Film: “Bed Head” – (9:08) A B&W short film about a girl named Rebecca narrating about why she is in the hospital and it all started with her brother’s severe case of bed head and how she tried to make it go down.
• 10 Minute Film School – (14:39) A wonderful featurette about how Robert Rodriguez created “El Mariachi” with for $7,000 and revealing his secrets on how he pulled off various scenes of his film and edited the movie at home.