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When a bar shoot out ends with El Mariachi taking a bullet, the local bookstore owner, Carolina (Salma Hayek), comes to his aide, shelters him, and nurses him back to health so he is able to continue to battle Bucho. But Bucho eventually figures out where El Mariachi is being sheltered and sends his men after El Mariachi and Carolina. El Mariachi hears them coming and shoots his way out, but when given the chance to kill Bucho, he chooses not to.

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Now that Carolina has been associated with El Mariachi she knows that Bucho won't stop until he kills her. She prevails on El Mariachi to call in some of his mariachi friends for a final showdown with Bucho. El Mariachi does, but it is remarkably short-lived as the rather silly antics of the extra mariachis get them mown down relatively quickly. This leaves El Mariachi and Carolina to face down Bucho.

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So, of course, they do. When El Mariachi finally finds Bucho's hideout, he confronts him only for the audience to finally realize that Bucho is El Mariachi's brother, which is obviously why he didn't kill him earlier. With all of the killing El Mariachi has done, Bucho is ruined and decides to take it out on his brother. Bucho offers his brother a way out by watching Bucho kill his new girlfriend. Of course El Mariachi won't stand for this a second time so he relents and guns down his brother and the rest of his men - the end.

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Well, this isn't a very good movie. What's more, it's really bad if you haven't seen the first movie, El Mariachi, for which this is supposed to be the sequel. The only redeeming quality is that it is kind of a low budget film, but that actually turns into a strike against it considering what Robert Rodriguez did with only $7,000.00 on his first feature length film. Why is it so bad?

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The story... The story is, well, horrible. I could barely follow what was going on. No one ever explains who Buscemi is or what he is doing there. Also, El Mariachi should be painfully aware that Moco, from the first movie, is the person that killed Domino, since he killed him right after he did it. But for some reason he thinks that Bucho did it. I think maybe this is explained by El Mariachi dreaming and being a bit delusional, but that is just me really trying to read into this movie, because it sure isn't explained why he is blaming Bucho for Domino's death when he knows it was Moco. Also, why doesn't El Mariachi know where his brother is and what he's doing? Come on, people get separated from family, but geez, this is ridiculous. It's like the oldest twist in the book, it's super predictable, and it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. So, the story really sucks.

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As for the acting, it's not too bad. There aren't very many really memorable characters. The one thing I do have to mention is that Antonio Banderas did do a decent job of initially making his character human - despite not being able to be hit by bullets, and frankly not caring if he is, he runs out of ammunition all of the time (where he hides all of his spare clips is beyond me) and even has a gun that goes in his groin, though he doesn't use it. But after he gets shot the first time then has three knives stuck in him, he suddenly has superhuman healing powers. He's like Wolverine from X-Men, 'all better' in a matter of minutes. The wounds don't seem to bother him for any longer than it takes to get home, patch them up, and have sex with Salma Hayek. As for the rest of the acting, Steve Buscemi and Joaquim de Almeida were alright. Also I thought Cheech Marin and Quentin Tarantino were pretty good, and Salma Hayek was okay, but the rest of the cast was pretty much non-existent as characters. Of course I have to note that for the most part the rest of the cast was made up either of members of the production crew, local townspeople, or stuntmen, so I shouldn't expect much from them, but still, they weren't great and it kind of detracted from the movie. I did like seeing the original El Mariachi play a role (he's one of the additional Mariachi's, the one with the two machine gun guitar cases).

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As for the special effects and other budget related elements, they were pretty good. But it almost seemed as though the movie were created around specific special effects. The three mariachis scene seemed that way and so did the opening bar room shoot out. Considering how bad the story was, I wouldn't be surprised if this were actually the case.

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Overall, the movie isn't very fun to watch. It jumps around, makes very little sense, and there are no really great performances. But there is a way to make it a little bit better, listen to the director's commentary as you watch it. Robert Rodriguez does do a good job of making the director's commentary interesting by explaining, again, how you can make a "low-budget" (I'd like $7 million to make a movie) film and because he is involved with pretty much the entire process (writing, directing, filming, editing, etc.) he really knows what was going on in the film. Overall, don't watch it without having seen El Mariachi first, then look for similarities between the two and listen to the director's commentary. If you do both of these things you might find the movie interesting. I think I would also only recommend this for movie buffs.

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There are also no problems with the sound. There are plenty of explosions and gunfights to really put the sound to the test. I've definitely heard better mastering for films, but this one is pretty good with decent surround sound effects and convincing explosions.

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The first look featurette about Once Upon a Time in Mexico is about the same thing as is offered on El Mariachi. It is a quick montage of clips and interviews, but doesn't really explain the story very well. I guess we'll just have to wait to see what it is when it comes out.

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I never really find filmographies to be useful additions to a DVD - I can find all of that information plus much more online, so I don't really see it as a bonus. I also don't consider trailers to be much of a bonus; if you watch them it's just free advertising for the production companies. I didn't try out the free software, it would just be more trial software that would bog down my already stuffy hard drive.

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Overall, the only thing that is really actually kind of nice is the 10 minute featurette. The rest of the stuff is kind of wasted space.