Machete Kills! Review

7th Oct 2013

Danny Trejo is back again as Machete for more exploitation, more degraded sleaze, over the top action, retro-fitted commentary on tweeting (he’s moved on from texting) and of course plenty of gory kills!

Yes it’s another slice of adult exploitation fun. Is this one any different? Yes and no. No – it is still the same sense of humour. The joke on the genre is still the same, but Yes- they have literally ramped everything up to 11! Right from the trailer at the beginning of the film (no spoilers!) to the A to B to C travel-log and episodic turn the film takes as Machete bounds around from character to character, all the while with the various bad guys on his tail.

What is ingenious is how much Robert Rodriguez has pay attention to the spy films of the 60’s. Early James Bond is clearly an influence, but as much as this is aping it all, this doesn’t come off as the post modern Mexican Austin powers, so much as it is the Mexican Matt Helm (Right down to the bra-gun). The look of the film is very much looking like it was shot of the time, as opposed to just making deliberate and obvious fun of it with the likes of Mike Myers standing next to each gag pointing at it. Instead Trejo simply saunters from scene to scene and lets everything on screen simply happen to him.

It’s all crazy fun, and at the same time just as naff as it needs to be to survive. There is so many ingredients that the film literally finds itself slowing down in places in order to sort out where it needs to go in order to head to anything even remotely resembling a finale.

As for the cast – well all the returning cast do their thing where new members including great turns from Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr, Lady GaGa, Antonio Banderas among many more.

New members come in already dialled up – including a very game Mel Gibson as the big bad. It takes Gibson a short while to register with what he wants to do with the role, but once he lets the crazy go it’s a hoot.

Machete Kills isn’t likely to blow the minds of critics, but it is overall a real gas and a great choice for a Friday night out at the movies with your mates. It might not make sense, or even know where it is going, but it isn’t boring and is consistently inventive.