Monday Movie Madness: Banditas!

Hello, Posse!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. P.R. and I had a lovely, quiet weekend together (basically like all the other weekends here since CoVid19 hit) but next weekend will be a bit busier. We are so excited, the Fish Market is opening up again here. It is an open air market on the riverbank downtown. Vendors come from all over the area to sell everything from fruits and vegetables to wine. We have really missed this the last few years. Though will be a dangerous outing for us and probably not why you might think. We always plan a budget before going to the market and ALWAYS spend way more money than agreed upon when we go to these. The products are just so good and the prices are amazing. We have saved a lot of money staying home the last few years.

We are also continuing to get our home ready for a visitor coming on the 17th. For those who do not know, I have twin (fraternal, thank goodness) bonus daughters I got when P.R. and I married. I have had the pleasure of spending time with one of the women when she was a teenager, but her twin was not ready to come stay with us and we were not about to pressure her. We wanted her to come visit whenever she was ready.

Now she is ready and is coming to stay with us for about seven weeks. I can't wait! P.R. and I are taking her to her first Sci-Fi conventions, one that is all Star Wars and one that is a general convention. We're going to nerd the woman up! I plan to try to turn her on to westerns too and today's movie might be the one we start with.

Before we get to the movie, I want to let you know this last weekend I also had some help and was able to set up the Whatever Wednesday Podcast equipment to do a long distance interview. The sound quality is not as good as when I just record myself here, but it is pretty close with just a few glitches when the internet connection lagged. We are going to try to clean that up a bit more today and this Wednesday, you will get to hear from the woman Sharon Springs and it's matriarch character are named after, Sharon Stephens. Sharon also happens to be one of my beta readers and has been working on her own collection of short stories. We will hear all about what it is like to be so prominent in someone's books series and she will share some of her own work. You will not want to miss out.

I also want to add in a Happy National Proofreaders Day to the people who help clean up my books for all of you: Greg Wood, Sharon Stephens, (and a fairly recent addition to the crew) Stephanie Crow. Thanks for all the mistakes you all help clean up for the readers.

Now, on with the movie . . .

In celebration of International Women's Day, we have a western comedy released in 2006 starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz, Bandidas. This film is very international. It was directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg and filmed in Mexico. It was also co-produced by backers from France, Mexico, and the United States.

Bandidas follows women from two very different class status levels who are thrown together due to circumstance. A ruthless enforcer had taken over their town and is terrorizing the citizens. Both women want to take action for very different reasons. They form an uneasy alliance to achieve their goals, but when they get help from a stranger, they finally come together to really make a difference for the community and themselves.

This is not your standard male character driven western, it is a fun, western comedy with a lot of expected "cat" fights as the two women work out their uneasy partnership. Think North to Alaska but with women in the leads. Bandidas also features Steve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam, Denis Arndt, Jose Maria Negri, Audra Blaser, Sam Shepard, Ismael 'East' Carlo, and Edgar Vivar. If you want a light hearted romp kind of movie adventure, this is a good choice.

Movie Snack Recipe

Since Mexico plays such a prominent role in today's movie, I thought we would go with a movie snack recipe that is popular in theaters in Mexico (at least according to Google), Tostilocos.

Muy Delish has The Best Tostilocos recipe which you can find by clicking HERE. Tostilocos uses tortilla chips, cucumber, jicama, tamarindo candy, chamoy sauce, hot sauce, lime juice and even Japanese-style peanuts. But there really are no hard and fast rules you have to follow with this recipe. It is very fluid and forgiving so you are free to use this a basis to go crazy and make it your own! I am going to have to try this one soon. It looks so interesting and very different from what we normally make at home for a "nachos" style snack. Let us know if you give this a try.

Remember . . .

Many great western movies started out as great western books. If you are looking for more wholesome entertainment, the Into the West Saga Serial book collection is a must read. Just go to Stephen's Books (<--- click here) to check out all the titles currently on sale.

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But now you know what time it is, posse. It's time to grab your snacks and settle in for another great western movie!

Enjoy,