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Perdita Durango (1997)
Director: Alex de la Iglesia
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia tackles the further adventures of the Tex-Mex femme fatale, Perdita Durango, who was first incarnated by Isabella Rossellini in Wild at Heart. The David Lynch film effectively played on hallucinatory weirdness, but de la Iglesia's English-language debut (shot in the US) is so hesitant that, despite lashings of sexual abandon, violence and sleazeball local colour, it barely quickens the pulse. Perez flashes her don't-mess-with-me look as Perdita, but meets her match in Bardem's butch Romeo Dolorosa, dangerous exponent of the voodoo-like cult santero. The plot kicks in when Bardem has to transport a lorryload of live foetuses across the border. He and Perez nevertheless find time along the way to take a couple of teens for a forced march on the wild side. The fantasy-fuelled intercutting of footage from Aldrich's wonderful Mexican Western Vera Cruz is little short of unforgivable.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Alex de la Iglesia
Producer: Andrés Vicente Goméz
Cast: Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, Don Stroud, Harley Cross, Aimee Graham, James Gandolfini, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Alex Cox full cast
Duration: 124 mins
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