As promised, the indestructible, unstoppable, unflappable anti-hero is back and badder than ever in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills, sequel to the B-movie hit Machete.
Given the seemingly impossible task of saving America from Mendez (Bichir), a mad man with a missile targeted at Washington and a detonator wired to his heart, Machete (Trejo) must battle his way across the Mexican border, keeping both himself and Mendez alive long enough to disarm the bomb before the city is destroyed. To make matters worse, the pair have a ten million dollar bounty on their heads, a handful of personal enemies and a twenty-four hour time limit. Are the odds too much for Machete to overcome? Not likely.
However, this problem goes far deeper than it seems. Back on U.S. soil, Voz (Gibson) the corrupt inventor of futuristic technology turns out to be the mastermind behind this devious plan. I won’t give away too much, but let’s just say things take an intergalactic turn for the worst, leaning towards a third instalment which is set to be a complete disaster.
Starring a whole host of familiar faces, Machete Kills feels like nothing short of an actor’s playground, developed purely in the name of their own amusement. There’s so much packed in that, between the endless array of additional characters and the numerous twists and turns of the plot, you sort of get lost in bewilderment. It’s like somebody is sitting behind the screen adding bits as you go along. Regardless, I’d be a bold-faced liar if I said I didn’t enjoy it. Yeah, it’s cheesy, overcomplicated and, quite frankly, bizarre, but just as children (and I) laugh every time Bugs Bunny outsmarts Daffy Duck; Machete’s endeavours have that same effect.
Many reviews write it off as a pile of rubbish, but I think they take it far too seriously. After all, it’s a film franchise birthed from a spoof trailer in Grindhouse (Rodriguez and Tarrantino’s 2007 double-feature collaboration) based on a character who debuted in Spy Kids (a little trivia there for you). No, I cannot deny that it’s far less refined than anything he has ever created, including Machete, but it kept me chuckling pretty much the whole way through and, for that alone, Machete Kills gets my partial blessing.
Machete doesn't quite kill it with a 3/5,
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