Review of Machete Kills (2013) by Jesse O — 23 Feb 2014

I really wanted to like this film, as the first Machete was probably my favorite film of the summer of that particular year. It was silly, goofy, cartoonish and it was massively entertaining. The sequel is all of those things except one.

Given the rating, I'm pretty sure you can guess which of those descriptions is the one that's missing from this movie. And, it's really strange, because other than the fact that it's a little more over-the-top, it's practically the same exact movie as it was the first time around.

So why did I enjoy the first movie so much more than the sequel. Perhaps the novelty of a B-movie that originated as a fake trailer in Grindhouse wore off for the sequel. If there's one thing that's noticeable, other than the substantial drop in quality, is that the film simply isn't as energetic as it was the first time around.

Almost as if Rodriguez was contractually obligated to do a sequel. If that was the case, then that really took a lot of the heart out of the film, as it wasn't done for the love of the franchise, it was done because it was in the contract.

This is all speculation, I have no way to know one way or the other, but this film lacks everything that made the first film so fun to begin with. Of course, the movie has its moments and it has a lot of fun cameos from Walter Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr.

, Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas all playing the same character, called The Chameleon. That stuff was actually pretty funny, and Demian Bichir was great as he transitions from noble revolutionary fighter to cartel madman to secret agent.

Demian Bichir is pretty great and he was, surprisingly, entertaining here. And I say surprisingly because Demian seems like such a serious actor and that sometimes doesn't lend itself to what is a parody of exploitation films, but he made the transition really well and he might've actually been my favorite part of the film.

One of the film's problems, and some people who liked this film might consider this a positive, is how messily the film is put together. And I don't mean purposely messy, to parody/tribute old exploitation films.

I just mean messy in that it's very hard to get into the film because the film's script doesn't really give you much of a chance to get to enjoy it. That's, by fair, its main problem I think.

It's just really hard to get into the film, even with all the smoke and mirrors. And the film's villain, Mel Gibson, is surprisingly ineffective. I don't blame Mel for this, as his character just wasn't really given that much to do nor were you really inclined to dislike him.

With Mel's racist past, you could've created a very memorable villain with that, but they just made him a weird cult leader, a la Heaven's Gate. You wasted Mel Gibson in a film that's littered with many racist characters.

I realize that's a really strange thing to say, but it's the truth. In order to make the racism feel more authentic and ugly, if that's what you were going for, then cast someone who's known as a racist.

Seems fairly simple to me, but the film missed the mark on that as well. I can't express my disappointment with this film enough, considering how excited I was for a sequel after the first film. If this was really planned from the beginning as a trilogy, which I doubt, then there's still hope for Machete Kills Again, but I'm not really looking forward to it considering how much this film disappointed.

It has its moments, and even those are few and far in between, but you'd be better served watching the first film instead.