From the first moments of the film, it was very apparent that the budget for this project was quite low (approximately seven thousand dollars). What made this most apparent (and most frustrating) was the horrible use of camera throughout the entire film. Shot-for-shot, I believe that this is one of the most poorly filmed (and edited) films that I have ever seen. The camera angles were not just poor, they made the film difficult to follow; many times Robert Rodruiguez (writer and director) chose to use cameras in a first person point-of-view and this was, without a doubt, the worst choice he could have made. By literally attaching cameras to people, rather than using a dolly or another type of mounting equipment, Rodruiguez made it difficult for his viewers to physically follow what was taking place and, in turn, made the events less interesting than they could have been. To further the issues regarding the cameras, through a bit of research I came to learn that rather than reshooting to correct mistakes made by actors, scenes were cut short as a way to “avoid” the mistakes. Furthermore, it seems that Rodruiguez took on too much when attempting this film; acting as the entire crew: director, writer, editor, etc, Rodruiguez put entirely too much on his plate and was unable to successfully complete each job. The acting only made the film worse. As the film progressed and the story moved forward the actors regularly performed in a way that made the situations less intense than they were meant to be. Through poor acting, and essentially poor everything else, a story that had so much potential fell short in so many ways. While the idea that a black jacket and a guitar case could lead to such incredible confusion between competing drug lords/dealers is actually quite comical, I thought that, in general, the story line was one that could have presented itself in a dark, but energetic, way, leading to an hour and twenty minutes of intensity and fun. This story’s potential success, however, was heavily dampened by each of the previously mentioned issues. Considering the fact that this was one of Robert Rodruiguez’s first major projects and that he had to pay for much of the film himself, one may have to cut him (and the film) some slack. If one considers these things, the film truly did have potential, however, in the grand scheme of things it fell short of success. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104815/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
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