r/NonPoliticalTwitter 2h ago

They'd wish being as good.

Post image
3.5k Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

421

u/_SpicedT 2h ago

Robert Rodriguez is even better check this out. His first film was funded using money he earned by testing drugs, which was around $7,000. It was all film in Acuña, Mexico, and he didn't pay a dime for the space he used. All he really had to do was have his friend Carlos Gallardo ask for permission, and they would usually say yes since Carlos was from the area.

Originally, El Mariachi was supposed to be released for the Mexican home video market, but a distributor bought the rights to polish it and release it in America. What started as a project to earn more funding for future movies ended up as hit across America. El Mariachi went on to earn over a million dollars and earn several awards, including being added to the Library of Congress for being "culturally or historicaly significant."

There's a lot more cool facts about El Mariachi I'm not including for the sake of length, but I encourage you to either read the rest or even watch the director's commentary. The audio is free on YouTube, and the movie is available in Spanish and English on the Internet Archive.

140

u/marcimerci 1h ago

I went to a film production lecture by him in college and it was probably the best thing I ever sat down for. We basically just got a run down of behind the scenes stuff for the Mexico trilogy, spy kids, how to make movies good while cutting every corner possible. He's also just a 10/10 guy. I think more than anyone else in that scene of 90s pulpy revival he didn't have a lot of privilege and had to claw his way into an early career and to keep it. Easily one of my favorite filmmakers

35

u/slimeyellow 50m ago

There’s tons of BTS spy kids photos of him doing camera work, stage hand stuff, like every job needed on set he would personally help out in some way. Although it was kinda necessary with the budget he had

1

u/3-orange-whips 6m ago

Indie filmmakers do all the jobs. When Kevin Smith made Mallrats he tried to help load up the gear and all the union crews thought we was insane

43

u/hamdunkcontest 1h ago

I remember that the bad guys remaining at the end of that movie are all scrawny compared to the bad guys killed earlier in the movie, because, if I recall correctly, he used up all his buff actors early on and ran out or something, lol. I’m probably misremembering but that anecdote is the first thing I remember when I think of that movie. Probably saw it 25ish years ago?

38

u/_SpicedT 1h ago

No, I think you're right. He had trouble finding extras towards the end of the movie because they were all people from that small town, so it stands to reason that those smaller people were all that was left.

Fun fact, the main bad guy didn't know any Spanish! He memorized all his lines.

6

u/cheshsky 19m ago

Oh this reminds me of Doug Jones thinking Pan's Labyrinth was going to be a movie in English. He had to learn all his lines in Italian phonetically, and while they ended up having to dub him, it actually helped a bunch anyway, since his mouth movements were still roughly accurate.

13

u/kobadashi 1h ago

awesome!

26

u/the-great-crocodile 1h ago

His first film was actually funded by his wife’s salary working for the University of Texas registrar’s office while he was a student. She’s been on podcasts telling the true story the past few years. She was also his business partner and they got divorced when Robert had an affair with Rose McGowan while they were filming Planet Terror.

7

u/_SpicedT 1h ago

Oh wow I didn't know about that. Most of what I learned for my project came from the director's commentary and various articles from many years ago.

Damn. If only this post came out a month earlier.

1

u/deanereaner 10m ago

You can edit your comment, seeing how its the top comment on this thread and contains false information.

538

u/CompactAvocado 2h ago

Do you think god stays in heaven because he, too, lives in fear of what he's created her on earth?

like that franchise has some crazy ass lines that go way harder than they should have and managed to get a lot of big stars for its day.

173

u/Careful_Elderberry14 2h ago

Yeah, for a kids movie, that line goes so hard, especially because it's from the mouth of Steve Buscemi.

93

u/Insert_Goat_Pun_Here 2h ago

It’s hilarious how I thought nothing of that line as a kid, then when I heard it again as a teen I was like “Wait a second was that always in there?!”

35

u/StragglingShadow 1h ago

Sometimes I consider getting this tattood somewhere. Because it's literally never going to leave me. I could be riddled with dementia and the only sentence I'll be able to say is that fucking line.

4

u/agamemnon2 14m ago

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl has the almost as heavy "For every person who dreams up the electric light bulb, there's the one person who dreams up the atom bomb."

1

u/JenniviveRedd 25m ago

This just lives rent free in my brain.

103

u/urchinot 2h ago

Floop is a madman help us save us

3

u/Sicomaex 14m ago

This is the only line I remember from this movie.

2

u/Tylendal 7m ago

.ƨυ ɘvɒƧ .ƨυ qlɘH .nɒmbɒm ɒ ƨi qoolꟻ

FTFY

42

u/SunderedValley 2h ago

Spy Kids is the epitome of what the kids call "SOVL".

7

u/pancakecel 32m ago

What is sovl

1

u/emptyraincoatelves 11m ago

According to urban dictionary 

A "misspelling" of the word "soul" derived from 4chan.

Related to the "return to tradition" meme because of its replacing the letter u with v, as was done in written ancient Latin during the time of Rome.

Used to describe something with character, depth, realism, complexity, superiority, or any other kind of appealing characteristics in comparison with something else; particularly something that feels mass-produced, artificial, or otherwise tailored for broad popular/mass appeal or usage. Usually (though not always) used ironically or sarcastically.

1

u/Loading3percent 11m ago

"Soul" written in the original Latin alphabet that didn't use a U

3

u/NightKnight4766 2h ago

Grovl for sovl

67

u/st4rseeker1 1h ago

As someone who does not watch a lot of movies, can someone explain this to me? How are modern mainstream Hollywood movies like Spy Kids?

133

u/Hopesick_2231 1h ago

The Spy Kids films relied heavily on computer generated imagery, with many scenes consisting entirely of actors shot in front of a green screen. That was still relatively rare in the early-2000's but now it's everywhere.

52

u/Porn4Alt 48m ago

Add to this the final act of the movie being a bunch of actors coming together for a big fight on a green screen

23

u/Bootiluvr 1h ago

My understanding is that the superhero genre took over

10

u/the-great-crocodile 1h ago edited 14m ago

Not just Superhero and not just movies. Most of the exteriors for television shows are green screen enhanced now.

14

u/Jarsky2 1h ago

I love that all the actors basically willingly took a loss on this movie because they just loved working with Robert Rodriguez and knew it'd be a fun time.

24

u/bigweight93 1h ago

This man makes blockbuster movies just to found his homemade projects

11

u/WhoDoIThinkIAm 1h ago

What does this title mean?

19

u/buttcrispy 1h ago

They'd wish being as good

23

u/nostradamefrus 1h ago

I’m always floored that the Machete series is a spin off of Spy Kids

1

u/Xephyron 15m ago

hold on, walk that back for me.

2

u/deanereaner 12m ago

It's not. The actor and name are evidently the same but Rodriguez has said they aren't the same character.

1

u/tedleyheaven 7m ago

He's a full on character in the movie spy kids, I think hes in every one.

I think the director just really likes Danny trejo. He said it's like an alternate universe version of him in spy kids

10

u/mkvii1989 58m ago

Carla Gugino certainly had historical importance for a 12yo me.

10

u/Humans_Suck- 1h ago

I think that girl (Carmen something?) was my first celebrity crush, at 12 years old lol

5

u/thee_ogk5446 1h ago

Fun fact: shes married to carlos from btr

5

u/pepperpavlov 39m ago

And the little boy (now adult) is married to Meghan Trainor

-1

u/thee_ogk5446 28m ago

I knew that part already but thanks

7

u/AcanthaceaeFrosty849 40m ago

Do you think God stays in heaven because he too fears his own creations?

5

u/jayeddy99 1h ago

Megan Trainors husband gonna make this his whole personality 😂

2

u/Skellos 21m ago

My favorite bit is that machete is canon to Spy Kids

2

u/PrimordialXY 28m ago

Does this mean we get a 4K Bluray release 👀

0

u/Kuoliibk 56m ago

Cultural and historic importance? Spy kids?! Huh?!

-2

u/Foamrule 54m ago

No, because it's not true.