Just before its initial airing, Todd Everett of Variety praised the casting of Jimmy Smits in the role of The Cisco Kid as "ideal", and wrote that Cheech Marin as Pancho had "never been more appealing".

[7] Nonetheless, Newman stated that it 'continues to depict the French (Bruce Payne, Ron Perlman) as effete sadists and the gringos (Tim Thomerson) as grungy swine'.

[7] Mick Martin and Marsha Porter of Video Movie Guide 1995 stated that it was an 'enjoyable, lighthearted Western...spiced with humor and enthusiastic performances by Jimmy Smits and Richard 'Cheech' Marin'.

[8] Similarly, Ray Loynd of the Los Angeles Times stated that Smits played the Cisco Kid with an 'easy swagger and light romantic panache'.

[9] Terry Rowan described the film as a 'tongue-in-cheek comedy western filled with fast gunplay, narrow escapes, wild rides, battling armies and yes, some romance'.