Thursday, July 2, 2020

Just Another Saturday.

The last time I wrote about a Pedro Fernandez movie, he was younger, singing sappy mariachi songs and in love with a little blind girl. Now, here he is much more grown & in love with the finest, sexiest, hottest, cutest, bestest Mexican pop star of the 1980’s. He also just happens to be fighting with the chubby younger brother of Valentin Trujillo. It doesn’t get any better than that, huh? Ahh!

In Un Sabado Mas (aka "Just Another Saturday"), we meet Martin (Pedro Fernandez); your typical teenage guy that owns an old motocross bike and has a neglectful alcoholic father who can’t get over his wife leaving him. Martin uses motocross as his escape from his troubling home, but even when he’s out riding his bike, he’s getting bullied by the town mayor’s son Diego (Gilberto Trujillo); a portly snobby fool with a brand-new looking motocross bike & a cute girlfriend named Tania (Tatiana). When Diego and his friends gang up on Martin all by himself; Tania dislikes what has happened to Martin and ultimately leaves Diego to be alongside Martin instead. Diego then challenges Martin to a motocross race to prove who’s the best in town! With the help of a retired pro motocross rider “El Grande” (Jose Elias Moreno) and his friends, Martin trains very hard so that he can beat his rival Diego and prove that he is truly the best! 


Un Sabado Mas came about during the mid-80’s when teen movies everywhere were thriving and naturally Mexican filmmakers wanted to get into this as well. Most of the movies they’ve had starring teenagers were usually sappy musical melodramas and nothing ever raunchy and definitely lacked having some exciting sport-themed movies just like they were doing over in Canada and the USA. Writer Kiki Galindo and director Sergio Vejar teamed up for a 3rd time writing yet another teen movie starring Pedro Fernandez, but this time around it would be an exciting sport-themed movie and the leading lady would not be Lucero again, but Tatiana; another very popular teen singer of that time.

With 2 very popular young musicians of that time in the movie, Pedro Fernandez and Tatiana sing several songs in the movie and they’re corny songs about young love & the theme song of the movie “Un Sabado Mas” is catchy & upbeat and very, very corny.

 The movie opens with Pedro Fernandez’s “Pidiendo Ride” (Asking For A Ride) and it’s all about Pedro wanting to dance rock 'n' roll with someone special, but instead only gets girls wanting a free ride from him in his Cadillac. It is so cheesy, but I still dig it a lot. Tatiana sings a couple of solo songs and one of them is called “Me Vuelves Loca” (You're Driving Me Crazy) and it’s completely cheesy as hell and the scene accompanying the song is like a music video with Tatiana singing around and walking with Pedro alongside. Ahhh, young cheesy love.. 

The most corniest song of the movie is “Manequi” (Mannequin) and the song plays as Martin longs for Tania’s attention while she poses around as a mannequin & ignoring him. “Manequi, Manequiiiiii, no te burles de miiii!!” (Mannequin, Mannequin, don't laugh at meee!!) Martin sings as Tania shows zero signs of movement & emotion. How metaphorical! 


Un Sabado Mas is a very enjoyable corny Mexican teen flick. Pedro Fernandez as always is great to see in action and this time around he’s riding around a motocross bike and simping over Tatiana’s character Tania since she’s the girl he really wants, despite her being with his rival. That’s one of the things I enjoyed about the movie actually because Pedro’s character Martin has a really cute girl all over him, but he tells her straight up he only sees her as a friend and then he rushes right away to Tania who right away runs to him after seeing what a complete dick Diego is. Such an unusual romance going on here, but it felt realistic at the same time since you know how most relationships are built up on peculiar moments like these. At least from my experiences that is (haha!)

What makes the movie truly enjoyable though is how positive it stays. It never goes unusually dark or unrealistic, it just tells a simple, cheesy story of a young guy achieving in his enthusiasm of motocross racing, getting the girl he wants and beating someone who thinks they’re better than everyone when they’re really not. It is a movie for aspiring winners & for the whole family to enjoy on just another Saturday. 

Un Sabado Mas was released on VHS and DVD and like with most Mexican movies these days, the physical media for it is getting harder to find now. Someone a while back tried to sell a Un Sabado Mas VHS copy for $200 on eBay, but of course nobody would ever pay that much for it. Not even weirdo me. The movie is worth a fair price I’ll say, but nothing to make a quick huge buck off of. It airs on cable tv often, so catch it on there sometime!