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El Mariachi (1993)

Made for a paltry $7,000 for the Hispanic home video market and eventually raking in worldwide nearly 300x that, writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s much-acclaimed action-comedy tells the tale of a Mariachi singer (Carlos Gallardo) who finds himself in the middle of a gang rivalry when he’s mistaken for a gun-toting killer. Hip, funny, and explosively violent, the indie classic co-stars Consuelo Gomez, Peter Marquardt, Reinol Martínez. 81 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. C/Rtg: R

Desperado (1995)

Robert Rodriguez’s remake of his made-on-pennies sensation "El Mariachi" is an explosive actioner starring Antonio Banderas as the swaggering guitar-playing loner who takes on a series of hombres in a Mexican town ruled by a druglord (Joaquim de Almeida) with whom he has a score to settle. Salma Hayek is his fetching romantic interest; cameos are turned in by Quentin Tarantino, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo. 103 min. C/Rtg: R

Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)

In the third and final entry in Robert Rodriguez’s series, Antonio Banderas’ gunslinger, El Mariachi, is out for vengeance after his wife (Salma Hayek) and their young daughter are killed by drug kingpin Barillo (Willem Dafoe), who is about to have the president of Mexico assassinated. Before he can bring down Barillo, however, Mariachi must deal with a rogue CIA agent (Johnny Depp), an ex-agency operative (Ruben Blades), and a Barillo associate (Mickey Rourke). With Eva Mendes. 102 min. C/Rtg: R