philosoraptor42

Machete Kills (2013)

I feel very misled by the negative reviews of Robert Rodriguez' sequel to Machete. As with the original, it is a tongue-in-cheek spoof. This time, however, things are that little bit more overblown.

Still the overblown aspect is set up right from the start with a trailer for the third movie in the series "Machete Kills Again... In Space". What is quite clever about the placing of this trailer at the start of the film is that it somewhat messes with our expectations. We know that somehow all the action needs to be heading into space by the end. As such it's no surprise to see the craziness escalate.

The jump to having Machete "in space" isn't a completely ridiculous move seeing as "Machete Kills" already takes place in a futuristic scenario. Right from the start we see that a group is attempting to sell some kind of rocket and a mysterious baddie appears to be holding a ray gun. Also, that wall between the US and Mexico which the crazier Republicans keep threatening to build is fully constructed here. What's more there's a villain with shape-changing abilities (though that feels more like magic than science).

There are some parts in "Machete Kills" that are absolutely hilarious, but unfortunately the humour isn't always as consistent as I'd like it. And there are a few points where I thought it was unnecessarily vulgar.

But what Machete Kills has in spades is fun. One particularly great character is a villain with multiple personality disorder who helps or hinders Danny Trejo's central character of Machete, depending on which personality happens to be present at the time.

Strangely the least impressive part of the film for me was Mel Gibson's performance. Perhaps he was playing it a little too straight-faced?

Though there is plenty of the same James-Bond-esque misogynistic tones we saw in the first film, it's worth noting that this actually passes the Bechdel test. Michelle Rodriguez apparently helped with the story, so she may possibly be the one to thank for this.

Overall this was a lot of fun, though not always consistently so. Rodriguez clearly intends this as the middle film of a trilogy and it rather feels like it. Still, even taken as a one-off (since after this film flopped so hard the next sequel is unlikely to be released) I still enjoyed Machete Kills a lot, if not as much as Rodriguez' many other films. (And yet this still far better than Rodriguez' Spy Kids films.)

B-