Product Details

• Actors: Eric Roberts, Joaquim de Almeida, Victor Rivers, James McManus, Tara Crespo
• Directors: Jack Perez
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Paramount Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 27, 2000
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792167899
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,666 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "La Cucaracha" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Eric Roberts has been toiling away on the straight-to-video shelf for far too long, as he proves so well in La Cucaracha, a sunbaked Western noir set in Santiago, Mexico. He plays a perpetually soused would-be author escaping an imagined past of murder and mayhem, writing letters in his head that he'll never send and pondering the novel he'll never write. Roused from his inebriation by an epigram-spouting American, he's haplessly enlisted to assassinate a killer for a local drug lord (Joaquim de Almeida). Damned if he does and doomed if he doesn't, he miraculously survives and crawls from a shallow grave: "If I didn't have such a good survival instinct I would have killed myself long ago." Crippled but spurred by his newfound raison d'être--revenge!--he celebrates his self-discovery by munching defiantly on a cockroach. But not the cockroach of the title. That honor goes to Roberts, a scurrying little survivor who scuttles along desert roads in his beat-up wheelchair.

The picture tries too hard to strike a deadpan vein of dark humor and too often lets itself get lost in unnecessary details and side alleys, but the world of adobe buildings and dusty streets is like a film noir by Sergio Leone, full of blood-red sunsets and humid nights. Roberts always strikes the right balance of determination, desperation, and futility, never really winning but, like the cockroach, managing to survive underfoot. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent noir, unfortunately full-screen mode, August 3, 2000

By 

A. Mc Clymont (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: La Cucaracha (DVD)

More and more, and with some obvious exceptions, it seems that a film's budget is inversely proportional to its quality. La Cucaracha is definitely not a mega-Hollywood blockbuster, but production quality does not suffer at all in this fine noir.

Eric Roberts is truly excellent as a loser turned hitman, Joaquim de Almeida is vicious as the scumbag bad guy. This gem of a movie deserves your attention! There are so many little moments during the film that we can all identify with...

Watch out: the DVD comes only in standard format (why do they do that! )

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great contemporary film noir - Roberts can still act, December 27, 2002

By 

CT (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: La Cucaracha (DVD)

Those of you familiar with Eric Roberts' film work of the 1980s (Raggedy Man, Runaway Train) will not be surprised to learn that he does a superlative job in this indie film noir.

Roberts plays a down on his luck alcoholic American would-be writer, stuck in a dirt-poor Mexican town. When given the chance of making some quick money to "do a favor" for the local crime boss, his life begins a wild downwards spiral.

Despite the subject matter, this film is far from depressing - it's more like a black comedy film noir. Too bad no one ever saw it, otherwise Roberts would be back making Oscar-caliber films instead of toiling in B movies and in sitcoms. The entire cast is teriffic, and the director does a stellar job on a miniscule budget. Buy this film and enjoy it, and tell someone else about it. It's that good!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars South of the Border Noir, May 31, 2000

By 

David S. Rielly (Pasadena, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Cucaracha (DVD)

I saw this film twice on the Festival Circuit (NYC and Austin, where it won best screenplay) and made it my mission to spread the good word. This wonderfully written and directed film boasts the most accomplished performance to date by Eric Roberts as a gringo writer who abandons his life in the states to drink himself into oblivion in a small Mexican town. Interfering with his self destruction is an offer by a mysterious stranger to kill a notoriously evil man for a large (and desperately needed) sum of cash. I know it sounds like an unlikely jumping off point for a story about lust, obsession, revenge and redemption with a metaphysical twist, but what follows is sublime and thrilling filmmaking. No review is complete without mentioning the captivating debut of the mysterious beauty (Tara Crespo) who is wonderful as the light at the end of Roberts' tunnel. This is a great addition to any film lovers' library, and serves wonderfully as a movie to pop in for your jaded friend who thinks he's seen everything.