I was looking forward to Mexico, maybe a little too much. I saw Desparado, but not the first movie, El Mariachi, and I liked that second effort. I'm actually a fan of Antonio Banderas, believe it or not. Anyway, this movie offered more mid-grade movie stars than you can shake a stick at, and this summer's golden boy Johnny Depp, playing a rogue CIA agent. The plot, amazingly enough, is twisted confusing, and makes the 90 minute running time seem even longer. However, for a Robert Rodriguez movie, or an old Robert Rodriguez movie, the gore factor was low. This time, he's taken to stylistic visuals and actual acting performance from his people, instead of a splatter show. Remember From Dusk Till Dawn where the entire thing was just one big splatter of blood? Well, the new Rodriguez has changed. Doing Spy Kids for the last three years will do that to someone.
Anyhoo, Banderas seemd pretty comfortable in his role of El Mariachi, this time avenging his lover's death. That would be Salma Hayek in a post-mortem flashback role. Why she's in the credits above the title, I'll never know. And Johnny Depp has done it again. He plays everyone in this movie for suckers, gets his eyes drilled out, and still makes it alive at the end of the movie. And he wears the best t-shirts. One says "CIA: Cleavage Inspection Agency". I laughed. But, he's great. He had fun with it, much like he did with Pirates of the Carribean during the summer. I think he gets more screentime than any one person, even Antonio. Hey, I liked it, but it could have been a little more violent. How many times have you heard a critic say that? So, it gets a thumbs up and a 7 out of 10.
And now for something completely different. Cabin Fever, which starred Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, and Cerina Vincent, is another thing entirely. Basically, five college kids, who deep down, really don't like each other, go to this cabin in the woods. They get visited by some infected dude, and end up burning him and he ends up in the reservoir. He's got some flesh-eating virus, and soon, everyone drinks the water. The first to get it is Ladd's character, who Mr. Strong has a huge crush on. They're sharing a bed at one point, and he starts to be....tender. Anyway, he's going to town under the sheets, and.....well, it wasn't a good thing. Soon, everyone is turning on each other, there's rednecks killing everyone, and things go to shit in extremely gory fashion.
Now, this movie is the gorefest everyone has been waiting for. The makeup is very creative, and so are some of the death scenes. After two of the other guys are gone and presumed dead, Vincent and Strong do the nasty, and well, she's a little infected. She gets eaten by a dog, and the dog goes after Ladd, who's in a shed, suffering. Strong finds them, kills the dog, and after that goes into killing overdrive. He kills three rednecks, beats a cop, but in the end dies and is left in the lake. Where the infection begins to spread.
Okay, enough with the good stuff. Go see this one if you like zombie movies, or any really gory picture. I enjoyed it. Very innovative and, well, cautionary. The moral is, well, I can't remember. Its there somewhere. I'm giving this one a 9 of 10. And I wish I'd seen 28 Days Later. I heard it was along the same lines. Oh well, live and learn. GO SEE IT.