SummaryIn his latest mission, Machete is recruited by the U.S. President to stop a crazed global terrorist from starting a nuclear war. With a bounty on his head, Machete faces death at every turn from a series of deadly assassins.
SummaryIn his latest mission, Machete is recruited by the U.S. President to stop a crazed global terrorist from starting a nuclear war. With a bounty on his head, Machete faces death at every turn from a series of deadly assassins.
More focused and less preachy than its exploitation-riffing predecessor, the comparably shoddy Machete Kills nonetheless peters out in the homestretch (and, for some, surely sooner).
Let me start off by saying love love love the first Machete. I can watch it anytime... This one, not so much. Robert Rodriquez swung for the fences with this one and it missed. Some people will never ever say anything bad about the guy and some will genuinely like it, but to be honest.. it just didn't have that X factor the first Machete did. This time around Machete is more like a super hero. He is sent on a mission to Mexico by the President (excellent choice of casting Charlie Sheen, using his birth name of Carlos Esteves). But other than that, (and of course Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriquez), the rest of the cast just didn't fit. The schizo Mexican revolutionary didn't fit, Cuba was completely out of place, wasn't really feeling Lady Gaga or Amber Heard (even though she is gorgeous) and the gorgeous Sophia Vegara was just a little too manic. But it really wasn't that.. the film just was kind of flat, even the action scenes weren't clicking. Maybe because they gave away too much in the previews. Maybe its because they made Machete inhuman.. All I know is that when I was in the theatre, 3 people around me fell asleep and 4 people walked out a hour after the film started... AND it wasn't that many people in the theatre. Gosh I wanted it to be so much better.. This is a rental, at best.
How can this man stand in front of this great selection of superstars? I mean looking at his face makes me just think "where's my pimple pick? yack!" but in the next moment all these models come and the peak of stupidity I can only see watching Germany's Helge Schneider. It's a hard trial for my tolerance in irony, it's such a trash movie that I must look for the next hard drink to feel like a real MAN. Oh how ridiculous! Go away! Trejo! Does humour belong in sinkholes?
Rodriguez does a fair job of keeping the zaniness coming: Vergara’s machine gun bra, Gibson delivering exposition in a “Star Wars” prop, bad guys offed by helicopter blades in dementedly creative ways. It’s enough that you’ll hope Rodriguez makes good on that new faux trailer — for “Machete Kills Again . . . in Space.”
The odd vivid shot reminds you of Rodriguez's dynamic visual imagination, but also what it's wasted on here: a project as indifferent as some of the trash that inspired it.
Sadly, much as we want to relish the shameless parade of cartoon violence, while indulging the equally shameless cavalcade of adolescent sexism, the soggy plotting and slack comic timing are downers.
All too soon, Machete Kills collapses into a deranged, directionless splatter comedy that exhausts its bag of tricks, many of them recycled from this grindhouse auteur’s 2010 spoof.
The carnage (with its computer-generated splatter) is meant to be campy fun, but it’s so offhand that there’s less suspense than in an Austin Powers movie.
This movie is good solid fun. If it is given a bad review it is because the person reviewing it has no sense of humor. Slap stick much like Austin Powers, only much funnier. I laughed from the beginning to the end.
Isador Cortez, a.k.a. Machete, always had Danny Trejo’s face since his first cameo in Robert Rodriguez’s "Spy Kids" (2001), and has always been portrayed as an over-the-top caricature of the infallible action hero. His first sporadic appearances in different films were intended as Easter eggs and nod to the fans: the best known reference of all is the fake trailer included in "Grindhouse" (2007), by Tarantino and Rodriguez himself. It took Quentin’s genius (but most of all his reputation) to raise the funds for a project that had been their forbidden desire for a long time: a so called “b-movie”, a low-budget exploitation film as in fashion in the ‘70s. Rodriguez jumped at the chance to give depth and notoriety to Machete, laying the foundations for what would later become the 2010 feature “Machete”, a critical, public and box office success.
Former Mexican Federal Machete is a living legend, a die-hard incorruptible law man, whose face is scarred by violence and whose soul is scarred by death and suffering. Armed with his inseparable and lethal machete, he is the perfect war machine that every villain fears but invariably tries (and fails) to kill. This time, his nemesis is Luther Voz (Mel Gibson), orchestrating an intricate plan to threaten humanity. Machete, personally hired by the funkiest President of the United States ever (a brilliant Carlos Estevez, a.k.a. Charlie Sheen, typecasted straight from his previous roles in the “Scary Movie” saga), must travel across Central America to save the day. Alongside him, a number of disreputable characters follow one another while the plot unfolds. Enter hot secret agent Miss San Antonio, Vanessa Hudgens playing the prostitute, Mendez the Madman and his split personality, his bodyguard, corrupt Sheriff Doakes, Shè coming back with a bunch of guys from the previous film - and then this hitman, el Camaleòn, who is actually four different people! Seriously? That’s way too many characters for me to care about, especially given the standard of the film, in which everything is a farce built for Machete to destroy - while possibly maiming some limbs.
Away from the dusty and western-like setting of the first chapter, Rodriguez shapes "Machete Kills" in a way that reminds me a bit of James Bond, and too much of "Expendables". Rather unfortunate, for a film that tries hard to be cool, but ends up looking like any other average action feature. It is this strange ambivalence that makes "Machete Kills" hard to appreciate fully: a few scenes are memorable, and some are pure works of genius, but the uniqueness of a character like Machete is game-changing, and it soon becomes clear that he doesn’t fit the genre’s standards. His invincibile and illogic nature is the elephant in the room that makes everything else pointless. “Machete Kills” attracts its audience with promises of absurdities, silliness, and gratuitous gore; all this aside, it feels just like a 2-hour long cartoon, or an ice cream with a dozen scoops. After a while, you just get tired. That’s not to say that the film isn’t worth the ticket price: when written wisely, its episodic gags make the whole cinema laugh out loud, and the fake trailer for "Machete Kills Again... In Space" is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in the last ten years. This is why Machete remains one of the cult icons of modern cinema, and just as I am ready to point out all the film’s weaknesses, I’m also impatiently waiting for the next sequel.
Danny Trejo is back as the grizzled tough guy, out to save the US from several crazed maniacs. Director Robert Rodriguez has returned to grindhouse territory with over-the-top violence, hot women and cheesy special effects. His script is too often talky and the dialogue isn't that clever. Some of the action is inventive, while a lot of it is just noisy. The star-chocked cast doesn't go far enough into camp (again, blame the writing). When this movie is good, it's loads of fun, but it's not as outrageous or inspired as the genre demands. NOTE: Stay thru the credits for 2 outtakes.
I'm unimpressed with a crazed killer flying around the world aimlessly. Sure, Danny Trejo embodies an exciting Machete--but there's no point to it. It's campy where a film shouldn't be. Even Lady Gaga's cameo is useless.
Película desagradável muito abaixo da primeira, certamente um dos piores filmes de 2013, um descaso de genialidade da produção e do diretor, fraco, ruim e mal feito.