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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 6755
Released: January 9, 2007 |
| Our Price: $6.71 |
| Used Price: $2.22 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz have never been sexier as they team up for this hilarious, action-packed western! Determined to avenge the deaths of their fathers, Sara Sandoval (Hayek) and Maria Alvarez (Cruz) vow to seize the ill-gotten gains of robber baron Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). So, with help from a retired bank robber (Sam Shepard) and a jittery criminologist (Steve Zahn), these two beauties become unlikely outlaws, blazing a trail of larceny and laughter across Mexico!
Description of Bandidas:
First screened in Europe and scheduled for limited release in the U.S., Bandidas can now be viewed by all fans of the visually stunning duo, Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek. Set in Mexico 1888, Bandidas 
is a Western spoof about two women, Maria Alvarez (Penelope Cruz) and Sara Sandoval (Salma Hayek), who seek to avenge the tragedies befallen both their fathers under robber baron, Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Jackson, employed by the Bank of New York, is sent to Mexico to buy land and open banks to the detriment of local culture. Jackson kills Sara's corrupt father, Don Diego, while bandits burn down Maria's home. The two ladies band together for the community's cause. Under the tutelage of Bill Buck (Sam Sheperd), Sara and Maria develop bank robbery skills. When criminologist, Quentin Cooke (Steve Zahn), hunts them, they convert him with their strong moral sense and good looks. Like any Thelma and Louise-ish tale of women who take charge, Maria and Sara are foil characters who eventually become an invincible, sisterly team. This comedy is built around their bickering. For Sara, with European education and penchant of designer clothing, Maria is a hick who lacks refinement, yet Maria, horse whisperer, can fire a gun. The slapstick is overkill, for example when Sara wonders whether a bandana is Gucci or Prada. However, viewers will love Penelope Cruz on horseback and the two actresses practice-kissing their foe in a brothel. Bandidas is a light film with some laughs and mucho sex appeal. -- Trinie Dalton
Beyond Bandidas
More Films from Salma Hayek | 
More Films from Penelope Cruz | 
More Comic Westerns |
Stills from Bandidas Bandidas Reviews:
A Latina -exploitation film 
2008-05-31 - Two pretty girls join the revolution when the rich girl's father is poisoned and the poor girl's father is shot. A bad Texas fellow represents
the American villain who is killing and foreclosing on anybodies' place on the railroad right of way.
A criminologist from New York who is engaged to the bank owner's daughter
comes to their aid as does a priest and an ex-bank robber.
A team forms up in the Robin Hood tradition of taking from the rich and giving back to the poor.
For my money as good as the two female actresses are, this movie
was made for only gain and has nothing do do with the history
of the late 1800's in Mexico. By the start of the 1900's
Mexico which is actually as rich in resources as the United States
was being subject to foreign exploitation that ended in a long period
of revolutionary struggle. The "Animal Farm' effect is no where so
obvious as in Mexico, where to poor are kept uneducated
and their land always finding the way to richer hands.
So that two Latina actresses should be part of mocking
that history is a very sad case.
Thelma and Luisa 
2008-05-27 - It's cliché-filled, but who cares? Did you see the box cover?! Every western has a few of the same scenes dressed up in a different manner depending on the cast. Afterall, villians don't wear white, and there has never been a Hayak/Cruz in skimpy-clothing-and-Wonderbra movie of which I'm aware.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I was looking for some nudity going into this movie, and was disappointed in the fact that neither of the leading ladies lost any lingerie. I thought that the cat-fight scene alone would be good for at least some gratuitous frontal nudity. Considering the sexy box-cover, I feel that my disappointment is justified. Afterall, it's clearly what they were attempting to use to sell the movie.
Maria (Penelope Cruz) and Sara (Salma Hayek) become improbable bank robbers - with tutelage from an old crook named Buck (Sam Shepard) - when brought together by tragedy. One rich, Sara, and one poor, Maria, are polar opposites. Initially they are naturally outwardly opposite of one another, and therefore enemies. That all changes when each girl suffers through either a fatal or near-fatal family experience - a direct result of an evil railroad construction project planned to go straight through each girl's property; from there on out, they each have the same mission of revenge.
The rest of the movie is just a showcase for Hayak and Cruz, a reason to show them both off in attractive clothing and beautiful Mexican scenery, as they fight the apparently evil Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakum) and his bank/railroad enterprise. But, really, it's just a reason to watch Hayak and Cruz get in a cat fight while wearing revealing clothing. It's not a deep film, not an overly interesting plot, and it's not remotely close to winning any awards. It's just an entertaining, perfect date movie - there's women empowerment for the ladies, and copious cleavage for the guys.
Very Fun!! 
2008-05-21 - I loved this movie. I was fun, fast paced, and I can watch it over and over! Also, who knew Steve Zahn had such a nice body?! Yum.
Comic Western Starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz
2008-05-05 - Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz are in one movie and they fight bad guys in turn-of-the-century Mexico with a gun and a knife. There is one cat fight scene by the two ladies and one comic relief provided by ever-reliable Steve Zahn. You can say "Bandidas" is conventional and predictable and the film knows it. Still you just can't hate this film especially when two leading ladies are clearly having fun. So why shouldn't we?
"Bandida" are about two Mexican women with opposite personalities Maria (Penélope Cruz) and Sara (Salma Hayek). When one of their father is killed, and the other heavily injured, by villainous Jackson (Dwight Yoakam) hired by a New York bank, the two women join hands to form a bank-robbing team for revenge. But of course, their first rule is, "Don't kill anybody."
Co-produced (and co-written) by Luc Besson, "Bandidas" is an old-school fun movie which doesn't take itself seriously. With the beautiful cinematography by Thierry Arbogast and the music by Eric Serra, both Besson's regular duo, the film is fun to watch though it could have been wackier or more action-paced than it is. Like many other films written by Besson ("TAXI" series, for instance), the plot is very thin, allowing for the comical interplay between two main characters Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek, always sexy and delightful.
"Bandidas" is a light-hearted action/comedy. It is nothing groundbreaking, but still fun.
Surprisingly good 
2008-04-24 - A surprisingly funny and action-packed western that throws together two of the hottest exotic actresses out there as they join to avenge the attacks on their families and Mexican town from greedy American banks looking to take their land for a railroad. Cruz and Hayek play off each other very well as the fledgling bandidas from opposite sides of the tracks, Dwight Yoakam is effectively sleazy as the bank enforcer and Steve Zahn lends some additional comic relief as the Old West's version of a CSI agent. Bank robberies, gunfights,spurs, campfires, bountiful cleavage and corsets abound as in your standard westerns. Don't go in expecting The Good The Bad and The Ugly and and you'll have a good time.
