Robert Rodriguez is a unique voice in American cinema. Neglecting the high reverence contemporary Tarantino (normally) delivers, he's much happier with genre pastiches and B-Movie throwbacks. Machete and Spy Kids are series questionable in quality, but it's clear exactly what their director's going for; look no further than Machete Kills Again... In Space to see none of its meant to be taken seriously. Now happy going all in with his movies, Rodriguez didn't always have the same level of confidence that got Sin City made; his breakout feature, El Mariachi, was only ever intended to get a small video release in Spanish-speaking territories. Made for only $7000 dollars, the first in his Mexico Trilogy would go on to be a highly regarded debut, but at the time he only cared about getting it finished by any means necessary. In fact, the only reason the film ended up in cinemas was because none of the Latino distributors wanted to take his film to VHS; as a back-up he offered it up to American cinema distributors.
