Film Review: La Cucaracha (1998)

10 months ago

(source: tmdb.org

Literary career that involves travelling exotic foreign lands might look romantic, but those who succeed in it are outnumbered by those who don’t. Protagonist of La Cucaracha, 1998 crime drama directed by Jack Perez, belongs to the latter category. Walter Poole (played by Eric Roberts) is an American who has quit his regular office job in order to move to Mexico and start new life as a writer. At least, that was his plan before he became victim of robbery and begin to spend all the remaining money in local taverns. One such establishment is visited by Louis Graves (played by James McManus) and Poole tries to impress his compatriot by claiming that he is a successful professional assassin. Much to Poole’s surprise, Graves believes in his story and actually offers job that he would have to do for his boss, local aristocrat Jose Guerras (played by Joaquim de Almeida). Guerras’ young son was raped and murdered by certain Herberto Ortega (played by Victor Rivers), but Ortega evaded legal consequences for his act. Guerras now wants to have the justice done in a traditional way. Poole is actually sceptical of the story, but 100,000 US$ would be more than handy and he reluctantly agrees. The job, however, goes terribly wrong and Poole ends up crippled. However, he finds new purpose in life through vengeance against those responsible for his condition.

Made with relatively low budget, La Cucaracha brought positive attention among critics with references to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and other classic Hollywood films about Gringos getting in trouble south of Rio Grande. Scriptwriter James McManus and director Jack Perez are, however, not in the same league as John Huston and other grand film makers who were their inspiration. La Cucaracha does have few interesting plot twist in its first half, while the good cast, which includes underrated Eric Roberts in one of his rare roles as protagonist, also improves impression. Rhythm is, however, lost in second half and the plot becomes implausible. Viewers who have begun to lose patience are rescued by the ending that comes just at the right moment. Perez, director who would later work on television and exploitation cinema (with his best known work being cult sci-fi horror spectacle Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus) did a decent, although not particularly memorable, job with his film.

RATING: 5/10 (++)