I thought all the bad guys in El Mariachi died in the first movie, but NOPE. There’s a villain even higher up the Mexican crimeworld ladder whom our sensitive mariachi still needs to kill. It’s the bullet-strewn big studio sequel to the low-budget independent hit, Antonio Banderas takes over the lead role, and writer/director/editor Robert Rodriguez shamelessly recycles most of the previous film’s ultra-simple story. It’s alright, though. It’s campy and it knows it. It reaches the peak of its ridiculousness in the scene where a guitar case turns out to be a full-fledged bazooka. More importantly, it co-stars a young and goddess-like Salma Hayek (this is the film that made her a star) as the put-upon bookstore proprietress whom Antonio gets to sleep with when he’s not shooting down assassins. Highlights here include the funny opening scene with Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino stopping by for moment to tell a joke and get shot in the face, and Salma Hayek naked by candlelight.