Machete Kills (Movie Review)

Rating:

The “1-4-0″: “MACHETE don’t make good sequels.” He’s a great character who ran into a stale script full of retread jokes & too much dialogue. It’s not as funny anymore.

The Gist: Machete is recruited by the President of the USA (Charlie Sheen) to head into Mexico and stop a madman Cartel boss from blowing the White House with a nuclear missile.

The Highlights: I really love the cast. Amongst assembling a who’s who of Hispanic Hollywood actors, Demián Bichir and Sofia Vergara steal the show. I also must confess that LADY GAGA was very good ion the brief moments she was on screen. She made her scenes look effortless. I think she has a future in the business, if she so desires it. The characters that director Robert Rodriguez concocted for this franchise are all for the most part memorable. Add the hilarious fake trailers with their grainy 70’s grindhouse look and Machete Kills has something to offer to fans of the exploitation genre. For a B movie, Machete Kills delivers a high degree of craft, ingenuity and some great laughs like the ‘hanging’ scene that you’ll appreciate it, but…

The Lowlights: … the script got away from Rodriguez. When crafting humor, it really is hit and miss and it looks like Rodriguez brain-drained every great joke on the first movie. In this mediocre sequel, we see jokes being recycled to poker face reactions, too much dialogue that should’ve been truncated, which ultimately contributed an uneven flow and the movie was a bit on the long side. The whole magic of Rodriguez’s first Machete was based on Danny Trejo’s deadpan brilliance, but he was also given extremely imaginative scenarios to work off of. Most of the humor here seemed to have worn out its welcome. If you’re asking, I don’t think MACHETE KILLS AGAIN… IN SPACE will happen.

Pay or Nay?: Nay. If this was a great movie I’d say pay for it, but there is so much better comedic fare out there that is worth your hard earned money such as THIS IS THE END. Machete Kills isn’t a bad movie, it’s just not as good as the first one. I’d wait for this bad boy on DVD.

[youtube id=”Eig0bJJXmu8″]