Desperado

Although expensive and shiny-looking, the movie is irritatingly fragmented into bite-size, or MTV- size, segments.

Within Rodriguez' pulp formula stories are little pockets of ingenuity.

Rodriguez's follow-up is unquestionably formulaic but mercifully free of the flat dialogue and arch one-liners that undermine so many action films.

A slicker, more expensive version than El Mariach, except that what was promising and charming for $7,000 now looks tiresome and repetitious for $7 million