Like Billy Chambers' gangster character showing up with a Chihuahua in tow, Elle Woods-style. And Willem Dafoe as a piano-playing Mexican baddie. And Johnny Depp's outrageous CIA-emblazoned T-shirt. And those fiendish guitars, of course.

Antonio Banderas, as a gun-toting guitarist, is the ostensible hero in this follow-up to 'El Mariachi' and 'Desperado'. In the latest instalment of this Mexican fairy-tale, Banderas is known only as El Mariachi ? El for short ? with a seemingly limitless ability to survive jumping out of tall buildings, but then he does get plenty of time to practise this particular skill. He also spends the entire movie desperately in need of a decent bottle of shampoo.

Of course, there?s loads of gratuitous violence, and even, in one memorable scene, fake blood spattering the camera lens. There are some completely over-the-top stunts, (one in particular shows Banderas and deceased-love-interest Salma Hayek practising their trapeze artistry while being shot at) and none of the bad guys can shoot for toffee.

But that's all part of the fun ? and in any case, we're too busy watching Johnny Depp steal the show as trigger-happy Agent Sands, with an assortment of stylish sunglasses, lethal weaponry, and all the coolest lines, delivered with that familiar deadpan drawl.

"Sorry," he says to Cheech Marin?s barman Belini. "Couldn?t find a briefcase small enough for $10 000."

Put simply, Agent Sands is a puppet-master seeking to foil the plans of General Marques and drug kingpin Barillo (Willem Dafoe). Marquez and Barillo are plotting to assassinate the Mexican president, and Sands hires everybody?s favourite gunman, El Mariachi.

Things quickly wriggle out of Sands? control, but by this time El has retrieved his famous guitar-case, and with the help of his sidekicks Lorenzo (Enrique Iglesias) and Fideo (Marco Leonardi), we?re confident he can save the day.

A fun end to Rodriguez? tribute to spaghetti westerns, and just what is needed to counter some festive season over-indulgence.