Cisco Kid (1994)

Jimmy Smits is The Cisco Kid; Cheech Marin is Pancho and they’ve got a date with a French firing squad during the Mexican Revolution.

Then rebels attack the French stronghold, giving them a chance to escape. From that point on, the two men are linked, literally at first by a ball and chains.

Cisco is a handsome swashbuckler, more interested in seducing women and pursuing personal wealth than in any soft of revolution.

But robbing a tax collector and romancing a lovely woman named Dominique (Sadie Frost), who just happens to be the niece of one French officer and engaged to another … well, he just naturally finds himself on the side of Juarez.

Complicating matters are a load of weapons, including a Gatling gun; Cisco’s former comrades, who winds up working for the French Army; and El Nino.

The latter is a religious symbol, a baby molded from Aztec gold, brought out only at Christmas and considered sacred to the folks in San Miguel.

Stealing that symbol might just be the key to breaking the rebels willpower, Gen. Martin Dupre decides.

Jimmy Smits as the Cisco Kid, saluting a lovely lady in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Cheech Marin as Pancho, trying to recruit Pancho for the revoluntionary cause in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Review:

A fun, lightweight film that will work better if you’re a fan of Smits, who struts like a lady-killing peacock; or Marin, the sidekick with a knack for showing up in the nick of time.

As Dominique, Sadi Frost makes for a lovely damsel in desperate need of a better man. The rest of the cast is little more than foils for Cisco’s antics and heroics.

Marin also provides a guest vocal on the War song “Cisco Kid,” which serves as the theme here.

The fictional character Cisco Kid was created in a 1907 O. Henry short story called “The Caballero’s Way.” Cisco became the basis for a series of films in the 1940s and a popular 1950s TV series, the first ever filmed in color.

Sadie Frost as Dominique, niece of a French general who falls for the Cisco Kid in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Luis Valdez as Benito Juarez, leader of the Mexican revolution in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Directed by:
Luis Valdez

Cast:
Jimmy Smits … Cisco Kid
Cheech Marin … Pancho
Sadie Frost … Dominique
Bruce Payne … Gen. Martin Dupre
Ron Perlman … Lt. Col. Delacroix
Tony Amendola … Washam
Tim Thomerson … Lundquist
Pedro Armendariz Jr. … Gen. Montano
Phil Esparza … Keller
Clayton Landey … Van Boose
Charles McCaughan … Haynie
Tony Pandolfo … Alain Vitton
Roger Cudney … Alcott
Joaquin Garrido … Lopez
Guillermo Riose … Hernandez

Runtime: 91 min.

Bruce Payne as Gen. Martin Dupre, leader of the French forces in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Ron Perlman as Lt. Col. Delacroix, the French officer engaged to Dominique in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Memorable lines:

Pancho: “The problems are momumental and the solutions non-existent.”
Cisco Kid: “Ah, cheer up. We’re alive.”
Pancho: “But Mexico must be free and independent.”
Cisco: “Yeh, me too.”

Pancho: “You have to stop thinking about money and women.”
Cisco Kid: “What else is there, Pancho?”
Pancho: “El nino.”

Dominique: “Who are you?”
Cisco Kid: “A man in search of truth.”
Dominique: “And have you found it?”
Cisco: “Only when dancing with beautiful ladies.”

Tony Amendola as Washam, one of the gunrunners aligned with the French in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Tim Thomerson as Lundquist, one of the gunrunners working with the French Army in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Cheech Marin as Pancho and Jimmy Smits as the Cisco Kid in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Pedro Armendariz Jr. as Gen. Montano, one of the leaders of the revolutionary forces in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Sadie Frost as Dominique, about to get a new dance partner in The Cisco Kid (1994)

Jimmy Smits as the Cisco Kid, making a lovely ladies acquaintance in The Cisco Kid (1994)