Like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez created some of the 1990s’ best action-crime films. And, also like Tarantino, he’s slightly branched out from what made him a household name (a rarity for a director when compared to the acting profession). In fact, he’s branched out even more than Tarantino did from his Pulp Fiction days with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Rodriguez has jumped genres quite a bit, but like any of the best directors, his particular style remains present in them all. This includes in children-focused movies as much as sci-fi epics and adaptations of graphic novels.
What really separates Tarantino and Rodriguez, though, is that Tarantino has been a bit more consistent in the quality department. However, Rodriguez has directed more films than his Grindhouse collaborator, and what follows are the 10 best entries on his filmography.
10) The Faculty
The Faculty is supposedly getting a reboot, which makes a degree of sense, but what it is first and foremost is a showcase of up-and-coming ’90s talent. There’s something about this film that can’t be replicated, even if the source material it’s clearly paying homage to, Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers, has been adapted multiple times.
The Faculty gets plenty of points for style. It’s one of the better star-studded movies to come out in the wake of Scream‘s massive success. It also comes with a fairly surprising villain twist. But, at the end of the day, if there’s a movie here from his early days that doesn’t feel particularly Rodriguez, it’s this one.
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9) Machete Kills
Machete Kills is a huge drop down from the effectiveness of the first film, but it still holds its charms. The primary issue with it is there’s simply too much movie here. It jumps all over the place. Furthermore, it often seems as though the film is trying to outdo its own ridiculousness at every turn, which was both absolutely the point and not an illogical tactic to take. But the movie accomplishes its goal too well.
However, it’s still fun to see Danny Trejo thrive in a lead role. It also has a shot of Trejo and Mel Gibson sitting in an X-34 Landspeeder from Star Wars, which surely counts for something. Even still, it’s for the best that the promised Machete Kills Again…in Space never comes to fruition, because it would only heighten what was already a problem in Machete Kills.
Stream Machete Kills on Prime Video.
8) Alita: Battle Angel
If any Rodriguez movie deserves a sequel, it’s Alita: Battle Angel. Based on the manga series by the same name, it’s an ambitious and visually impressive film that has a wider appeal than just fans of the source material.
Rosa Salazar is wonderful as the cyborg protagonist, while Jackie Earle Haley and Eiza González have a lot of fun as more monstrous criminal robo-folk. The film as a whole is very well cast, with Christoph Waltz proving to be its beating heart as much as Salazar while genre film stars Jeff Fahey (Machete), Derek Mears (Friday the 13th), and Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) all put in smaller appearances. It ends on a cliffhanger, so here’s hoping its moderate box office success and budding cult fanbase ends up being enough to really get a follow-up off the ground.
Stream Alita: Battle Angel on Hulu.
7) From Dusk till Dawn
An early showcase of George Clooney’s leading man charisma, From Dusk till Dawn is an odd duck. The first half of it is a straightforward Quentin Tarantino movie, with Tarantino himself even playing co-lead alongside Clooney. Then it switches over to a less talking, more punching vampire flick.
The gargantuan shift at the midway mark could be viewed as a good or bad thing. On one hand, it’s jarring. On the other, it’s nothing short of ambitious to leap genres in what amounts to a single Salma Hayek scene. The first half is technically better than the second, but the second half is more fun than the first. From Dusk till Dawn is an odd duck and an impressive third film from a young filmmaker.
6) Desperado
Desperado is without a doubt one of the definitive Rodriguez movies. But it’s inferior to El Mariachi. The first two thirds are excellent, but it ends up losing its way towards the tail end (though the twist regarding the connection between “El Mariachi” and “Bucho” works quite well).
This was Rodriguez’s second movie, but the first where he was really given a budget. And, with that budget, he showed every ounce of his bombastic, guns-make-people-fly-across-rooms, this one guy is really great with blades style. And, while Desperado feels like it could have benefitted from being a bit leaner while watching, the cluttered Once Upon a Time in Mexico makes it look rail-thin by comparison.
5) Planet Terror
One of the best body horror movies of the past 20 years, Planet Terror is undoubtedly the better half of Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse. As excessively violent and ridiculous as Desperado was, this movie doubled the bombast yet never feels overwhelming.
Given the grindhouse style, all the gooey zombies and machine gun leg shootouts feel like elements that are not just appropriate, but necessary. But the key to Planet Terror‘s success is that the human characters are genuinely interesting and feel worthy of our time as an audience. Unfortunately, the same cannot quite be said of Tarantino’s Death Proof. The cast also gives it all, especially Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton as two halves of a marriage that really needs to end and Rose McGowan as the lead: exotic dancer Cherry Darling.
4) Spy Kids
Spy Kids was a pretty big swing for both the director and Dimension Films. Prior to this point, he had only directed El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, and co-directed the regrettable Four Rooms with Tarantino, Alexandre Rockwell, and Allison Anders. All of those movies were R-rated, while Spy Kids was firmly geared towards children.
But what’s impressive about Spy Kids is that it feels directly in line with the Rodriguez canon. And, alongside a phenomenal performance by Alan Cumming, it features game work from frequent Rodriguez collaborators Alexa PenaVega, Daryl Sabara, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Cheech Marin, and Danny Trejo (who is, in fact, playing Isador “Machete” Cortez. Speaking of Machete….
Stream Spy Kids on HBO Max.
3) Machete
Danny Trejo and Robert Rodriguez are good buddies, so there was no one better to finally give the talented, lovable character actor his (believe it or not) first lead role. For Trejo fans, Machete is a well-deserved vehicle, and neither he nor Rodriguez give it anything but their all. It’s infinitely better than any movie based off a trailer for a fake movie has any right to be.
From Robert De Niro to even the usually charmless Steven Seagal, everyone here seems to be playing ball and, it seems, doing so for Trejo. But of course, the performances aren’t the only thing that make Machete such a treat. It is overflowing in style and comedic bloodletting. Yet, unlike Machete Kills, it never goes overboard. It’s a grindhouse flick, but not an overwhelming one. Machete is the most Robert Rodriguez film Robert Rodriguez has ever made. It’s the very definition of an artist gaining enough clout to make the exact film they want to make and having it displayed on thousands of screens across the country.
2) El Mariachi
Like Reservoir Dogs, El Mariachi is a distinctly ’90s action-crime movie that holds up very well. Given its tiny budget, it looks fairly phenomenal. This also results in it being a bit more restrained than Desperado.
It’s a relatively small-scale story of mistaken identity and revenge. “El Mariachi,” as played by Carlos Gallardo, is every bit as charming as he was when played by Banderas, a much bigger star, and we enjoy following him. El Mariachi works so well because it doesn’t feel Hollywood in the slightest. We feel like we’re right there with the protagonist, and we feel his pain when the third act really takes a toll on him.
1) Sin City
Arguably the best comic book movie to feature zero superheroes, Sin City is a visually stunning and thematically rich masterwork. It’s Rodriguez’s best film and, while he does deserve a lot of credit, it’s more Frank Miller’s source material that is to thank.
“That Yellow Bastard,” “The Hard Goodbye,” and “The Big Fat Kill” are three of the best stories within the Sin City comics saga. The only one that ranks close is “A Dame to Kill For.” Speaking of which, Rodriguez came back to adapt that story in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was the sequel’s highlight. But there is a huge middle ground between the first and second films’ respective quality. From an infinitely weaker script to an overly glossy look, A Dame to Kill For makes Sin City look even better than it already did.
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