I've seen Salma Hayek in several movies. Some, like After the Sunset, I liked and others, like Once Upon a Time in Mexico, I didn't like as much. For the most part, I've enjoyed the movies I've seen her in. I have also seen some of the movies that Penelope Cruz has been in. I really don't like her that much, but I will still watch movies that she is in. When I recently rented a few movies, one of the ones I picked up was Bandidas, a movie starring Hayek and Cruz.
Sara and Maria were two very different women with nothing in common before their fathers were killed in connection to the railroad that was coming to Mexico. Tyler Jackson was going around taking land from poor farmers that was in the path of the railroad. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and would resort to anything, including killing, to get the land. Maria and Sara decided to fight back and steal back what Tyler had been taking. They convinced Bill Buck, a retired bank robber, to train them. Quentin was a criminologist that was sent to Mexico to investigate the bank robberies. Things weren’t adding up for Quentin in his investigation and he ended up helping Maria and Sara.
I think that Bandidas was set in the late 1800's even though the actual year wasn’t mentioned in the movie. It was set during the time when railroads were expanding. That was a reason for why several things happened. All but one or two scenes took place somewhere in Mexico. Maria and her father lived on a small farm. Sara’s father was the wealthy owner of the local bank. The town where that bank was located wasn’t that big.
For the most part I don’t like westerns. I have seen several of them over the years and I haven’t liked most of them. I usually only like the ones that aren’t the traditional type of westerns. I do tend to avoid most westerns. After reading the case of Bandidas, I decided to give it a chance and I did end up enjoying it overall. The plot kept my interest and there was a reason for why Maria and Sara turned to robbing banks. The plot wasn’t the most original, though the fact that the bank robbers were women was a little different since most westerns - or at least the ones I’ve seen - haven’t had women bank robbers.
The case for Bandidas did call the movie a comedy and describe it as hilarious. There were a few scenes that made me laugh, but the movie was far from hilarious. I really wouldn’t even consider the movie a comedy. It was more of an action adventure type of movie with a small amount of humor added in here and there. I think that more things were intended to be funny that just didn’t make me laugh. The funniest things for me involved Quentin and even those scenes weren’t that funny. There wasn’t that much adventure in the movie either though there was enough going on to keep things interesting. Action turned up in some scenes through some gun fights and an explosion or two. For a movie described as an action adventure, there wasn’t enough action. The little violence that was in the movie wasn’t graphic.
There were a few sexual situations in Bandidas even though there weren’t any actual sex scenes. The movie was rated PG-13, so the sexual situations were relatively tame. There was a small amount of sexual tension between Quentin and both women. That was especially obvious during the scene when Maria and Sara tied up a naked Quentin on a bed, had suggestive pictures taken, and then took turns practicing kissing him. Before he was tied up on the bed, Quentin’s bare backside was shown. Maria and Sara both made a few comments about one of Quentin’s body parts. Both women showed off some skin, usually from wearing low-cut dresses. They each looked like they were ready to pop out of an outfit at different times in the movie.
Maria and Sara were the main characters and most developed even though their character development wasn’t as good as it could have been. At least one of them was in almost every scene. They spent a lot of the movie together, usually arguing or even fighting. They did end up getting along better eventually. Maria grew up on her father’s farm and had a way with her horse. She was determined to do something for the people. Sara was the daughter of a rich man and had a privileged life, even spending some time in Europe. Her reasons for robbing a bank were selfish at first. She eventually changed her thinking after she saw what was going on. Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz were good in the parts. Cruz didn’t bother me as much in this movie, but I still don’t care for her that much. Sam Shepard had a very small part as Bill, the bank robber that trained the women.
Quentin was determined to prove that scientific methods could help in police investigations. He was able to convince some people which lead to him being sent to Mexico to investigate the robberies even though pictures of Maria and Sara were plastered all over the place. He was having some doubts about what he’d been told before he met Maria and Sara so it wasn’t that surprising that he decided to help them. Steve Zahn was good in the part even though he didn’t have that much to do. He’s had bigger parts in other movies, like Sahara. Tyler wasn’t a nice man. He was willing to do anything to get what he wanted. Dwight Yoakam looked very creepy in the part. He did all right with the part.
Main Cast
Penelope Cruz - Maria
Salma Hayek - Sara
Sam Shepard - Bill Buck
Dwight Yoakam - Tyler
Steve Zahn - Quentin
Directed by Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg
DVD Information
Bandidas is now available on DVD. One side of the disc has the widescreen version and the other side has the full screen version. The extras are on both sides. The theatrical trailer was included as an extra. There was a commentary with Cruz and Hayek that I didn’t listen to. The only other extra was a short featurette called Burning Up the Set With Salma and Penelope. Both women talked about making the movie and how they had wanted to make a movie together for a while. Some footage from the filming of the movie was shown. It was really very short and didn’t include anything that interesting.
I ended up enjoying Bandidas for the most part. The movie managed to be entertaining overall even though it did have some problems. The movie can be enjoyed as long expectations aren’t too high. People that like the cast might enjoy the movie.
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