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5/23/00 -Robert Rodriguez is an idol for the independent film crowd. He made one of the most entertaining, and well put together, low budget films of all time, El Mariachi. With \\$7000 of his own money, (much of it earned working as a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company) he wrote, shot, directed, edited, mixed sound, and sold a very tight little Spanish action film to an American audience. An incredible task, that almost drove him mad. There is a great book documenting this entire struggle, "Rebel Without A Crew". If your interested in making your own films, or just have a love of film, I recommend you pick it up.
Desperado, a sequel/remake for Mariachi was Robert's 2nd feature film. Again he pulled off a very tight action picture, that is a lot of fun to watch. But it's basically Mariachi with bigger explosions. Four Rooms, an experimental four part film made with Tarantino and 2 others. Was a very disappointing film, not Robert's fault though, as his section is the best of the four. "The Misbehavers", concerns Tim Roth's bellboy character becoming a babysitter for two little brats. Everything goes wrong, such as finding a dead body under the mattress.
The Faculty, a pretty awful film. It moves along quickly, and it's not too painful to watch. But I just think that some of his magic is gone from the film. The way it was shot and edited, it just didn't feel like a Rodriguez film to me. He's currently working on a childrens film called Spy Kids. I have high hopes for it, and hopefully it won't be a disappointment like his last one. 11/20/00 - I saw the Spy Kids teaser in front of The Grinch this weekend. It looked awful. I couldn't believe what I was watching was a Rodriguez film. It is most definitely aimed at the kiddies, low grade humor, with a redundant plot. Now don't get me wrong, I love kids movies, I can put myself in their shoes for an hour and a half and really enjoy great films on their level. (For example, Iron Giant was one of my favorite films last year.) But they still have to be well made, with an engaging story. Spy Kids just looks lame, with a one joke set-up, that being 2 little kids kicking big people's butts. (Home Alone 12: Now We're Spies) There's even Matrix style action sequences. (God, I'm getting so tired of this.) My one hope left is that this is just a badly put together trailer, and that the film is actually a lot of fun. Or I may have to move my Rodriguez section from the up-and-comers list to the has-beens. 3/15/1: The final Spy Kids trailer hit the web yesterday. Makes it look slightly better than the teaser did. I'm going to see this film of course, but I'm not really looking forward to it. 3/30/1: I saw and reviewed, Spy Kids last week and you know what, I was wrong. I'm glad I was too, Spy Kids is a great film. A very fun film for kids and adults. It is such a Rodriguez film too, everything about it screams that it's his.
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