Cast: Danny Trejo, Alexa Vega, Mel Gibson
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Country: USA | Russia
Genre: Action | Crime | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here
Editor’s Notes: Machete Kills opens wide this Friday, October 11th. For an additional perspective, read Adrian’s review.
Exploitation films are good for the hyperbole. They’re simple fare and you know what you’re getting into when you buy your movie ticket. You’re made comfortable watching something that might be disturbing otherwise because it’s meant to be satirical and explicitly made to shock. Writer-director Robert Rodriguez plays with this genre and mixes it up with the silliness of Airplane! and Austin Powers using the character of Machete, played by Danny Trejo. Made of the same graphic violence fodder as the original, the film is replete with cheap laughs, sex, blood, guns, and babes.
With nods to Star Wars, Mad Max, and Star Trek, the film goes from hilarious gag to just plain silly with Trejo’s bad-assery around to pull it all together.
In Machete Kills, Machete is hired by the President of the United States, played by Charlie Sheen (did I just type that out?), to take down a Mexican drug lord (Demian Bichir), who’s gone crazy and has made trouble for the U.S.’s war on drugs. Along the way, Machete must battle various comical characters that are out to get him. These include, but are not limited to: Mel Gibson as a genius super villain arms inventor; Sofia Vegara (who relishes her role to the max), as a vengeful madam; and La Chameleon (played by big wigs such as Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas, to name a few). There’s an outlandish opening sequence that is reminiscent of the fake trailers that can be seen on comedy variety shows. With nods to Star Wars, Mad Max, and Star Trek, the film goes from hilarious gag to just plain silly with Trejo’s bad-assery around to pull it all together.
I’m not entirely sure what Rodriguez is doing using humor to highlight the plight of the Mexican immigrants and the U.S. border (especially the border wall). It’s a legitimate problem, with people being killed or dying along the border. Is Rodriguez poking fun at how ridiculous it all is? If so, is Machete a symbol of the undefeated Mexican spirit against adversity and strife? Probably. Am I supposed to care, or are some situations too tragic that you have to laugh at them? As an Hispanic, it’s something that kept gnawing at my brain while watching Machete Kills. It’s good blood and gore fun, but for audiences laughing here, especially those outside of the U.S., very few of them are aware that over 5000 people have been killed or died trying to cross the fence into the U.S. since border security was increased in 1994. That’s not taking into account the undocumented people who have been killed by illegal vigilantism, pointedly exampled in a very bloody over the top scene in the film. Ok, every scene is over the top, but at two hours of this I was ready to jet after the first.
I shouldn’t have to think about whether it is ok to laugh at real problems in a sartorial exploitation film; those questions shouldn’t come to mind while I watch a sexy Sophia Vergara shooting rockets from her bustier and blasting bullets through her strap-on.
I shouldn’t have to think about whether it is ok to laugh at real problems in a sartorial exploitation film; those questions shouldn’t come to mind while I watch a sexy Sophia Vergara shooting rockets from her bustier and blasting bullets through her strap-on. I’m not saying that the spectacle didn’t make me laugh; it did! I’m just not entirely sure it was right.
Machete, the character is larger than life, much like Danny Trejo seems on screen. In many ways, I’d like to think that Danny Trejo’s life of reform (he served some pretty hard time in San Quentin, rehabbed, and changed his life), is enough for me to stop thinking about the necessity for social commentary here. However, if you go into the theatre wanting some stupidly silly fun, you’ll get it. Just don’t think about it.
[notification type=”star”]60/100 ~ OKAY. Made of the same graphic violence fodder as the original, the film is replete with cheap laughs, sex, blood, guns, and babes.[/notification]
