Movie Review: ‘MACHETE KILLS’

This review was previously published during our Fantastic Fest 2013 coverage. Machete Kills is now out in theaters so we are republishing this review.

Machete returns again for another installment of Robert Rodriguez’s gonzo take on secret agents for Machete Kills. Machete finds himself alone and being called upon the president to find a Mexican lunatic named Mendez to put a stop to his plan of nuclear holocaust.

The film begins with a trailer for the third entry of the Machete series, Machete Kills Again…In Space, which is a little off putting considering that it gives away some minor elements of the film that is about to unfold on the screen. However, it gets everyone on the same pages that they left off with from Machete as well as pummeling you over the head to make you remember how good of a time you had with Grindhouse. The film is definitely pandering on both sides for the cast, the crew and the audience. The question is, is it a bad thing?

Rodriguez crams as much talent as he can to get them on the screen, even if it is only for a few minutes. While you should be used to this by now, given his past few films, it still feels a little cheap on the characters and as a theater goer. While the film is pandering, it should be. After all, it is a Machete film. The film was born out of love, camp and nostalgia. Machete is Rodriguez’s badass mexican. Machete exists because he never existed  before in genre cinema. The blood and gore is on full sensual attack. Inventive, macabre and sadistic kills are executed and Machete, for the most part, plays a silent assassin who is there to get a job done.

The film is shot quickly and it doesn’t give a lot of time to establish the characters to the audience. The film, like the previous Machete entry, feels a lot like a bunch of cameos to flesh out what could have been a fun exploitation trailer. Mel Gibson, thankfully, fleshes out his character by using the filmgoer’s past knowledge of this type of film. He really puts his heart into it and he seems to be having a fun fuckin’ time doing it. Most of the other bigger named cast members are there to just deliver their lines and get out. I think that might be one of the issues that I’m having with Rodriguez. He is packing as many big names as he can to sell the film but, for genre fans, he doesn’t need to sell the film. It hits the mark on some scenes but a majority of them feel like filler and, worst of all for this kind of film, the lesser scenes feel boring. If you are a genre fan and you know what you are getting into, Machete Kills delivers like spotty cell phone reception but there is some fun to be had.