Stars Danny Trejo, Demian Bichir, Amber Heard, Michelle Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara With Carlos Estevez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexa Vega and Mel Gibson Directed by Robert Rodriguez The first Machete (2010) was an end result of a mock trailer featured in Grindhouse (2007) a double feature project by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. It was an over-the-top trailer with outrageous action and scenes that invoked the nature of B-grade grindhouse cinema.Other directors were invited to create similar trailers that were screened in the theatrical edition of the double feature, but the Machete trailer drew a cult following, and director Robert Rodriguez decided that he could create a whole movie out of that trailer. Utterly a B-Grade Grindhouse movie, Machete was an outrageous - some would say "insane" - action movie (one 'gut wrenching' scene in particular would apply). It was entertaining, to a certain extent, but I wouldn't say it was all that great. With Machete Kills, I was expecting more of the same, and since I do enjoy a huge majority of Rodriguez's flicks, I did catch this in the cinema… and have a ball of a time. The structure almost follows a Bond film. Machete is given an assignment by no less than the President of the United States (Charlie Sheen, going by his birth name of Carlso Estevez) to investigate a potential maniac with a nuclear weapon in hand.Things don't go as planned (obviously) and Machete has to somehow drag Mendez (Demian Bichir) from Mexico to the US while being pursued by a couple of wild women (see the movie for the circumstances). At the midway point, the real villain pops up and the movie shifts gear into a whole other genre, something Rodriguez has done before with From Dusk Till Dawn (1996 - speaking of which, one of the original props from there turns up here). It's no surprise that Mel Gibson is playing the vilain who has a scheme worthy of the Bond Villains from the 80s, Moonraker in particular. And that is not the only movie reference from the 80s as Rodriguez cherry picks bits and pieces from quite a few movies, including one from his own Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Gibson's villain is a unique one, which does deserve some credit. It's also obvious that Gibson is having a ball playing this particular character, fitting in very nicely into the heightened nature of the film. There's even a quick visual reference to his Mad Max character. The stars do as well as you can expect and given Rodriguez's style with making these films, it also becomes very obvious that a lot of the movie was not done in sequence, but done in a way to accommodate each of the actors. Very obvious being scenes involving Charlie Sheen who doesn't really share any screen space with the other stars..Anyone who's ever seen any of Rodriquez's many 10-minute film schools on the DVDs of his movie will be aware of his techniques in use here. After all, the entire movie was filmed in less than a month. Like one of the greatest sequels of the 80s, Machete Kills is a roller-coaster of a flick that ends with a set up - and a trailer - for the next part of the series, Machete Kills Again… In Space! Outrageous, improper, illogical and utterly bonkers, Machete Kills roots itself in that B-Movie grindhouse genre, but it appears to be making things up as it goes along while ripping apart a few rules. There are things to complain about, obviously as with any B-grade movie, but it's part and parcel of the type of film it's trying to be. My suggestion is to just let yourself go, sit back and go with the flow of the film and don't question its utter illogicalness (the invincibility of Machete himself being one of them… but then, most action heroes of the 80s were like that too). Don't think about it either. This is not going to appeal to those who take cinema seriously. It's just meant to be fun. Oh yeah - there's a bit more after the credits too. Nothing really related to the movie, but still… fun.
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