Machete Kills 
Starring: Danny Trejo, Demian Bichir, Michelle Rodriguez, Amber Heard, Jessica Alba, Lady Gaga, Carlos Estevez, Mel Gibson, Sofia Vergara, Alexa Vega, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr., Walton Goggins, Vanessa Hudgens
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Rated: R
Run Time:
Genre: Action/ Crime
Opens October 11th
By Lisa Minzey of The Reel Critic.com
Hey Phoenix Film Fans! Opening this week is the sequel to the 2010 hit “Machete”, “Machete Kills”, starring Danny Trejo as the revenge driven vigilante. How does it stack up to the first film? Read on to find out.
When the film opens, we find Machete (Danny Trejo) and Agent Sartana (Jessica Alba) intercept a shady weapons deal that was about to go down between a rogue group of U.S. Military soldiers and a Mexican Cartel gang. When the deal gets botched a third group, a more sinister rogue group of contract killers working for a large corporation end up getting away with the weapons, a nuclear missile, leaving Agent Sartana dead. Machete is arrested for the crime and is kept in a shady border town jail, awaiting execution.
Machete’s luck changes when the US President, (Carlos Estevez, a.k.a. Charlie Sheen) pardons the misfortunate vigilante, makes him a US citizen and then asks him to save the world. The targeted villain is cartel leader turned revolutionary, Marcos Mendez (Demian Bichic); a man so dangerous he makes Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde look like amateurs. His handler is an agent stationed in San Antonio and will help him in his mission to apprehend Mendez.
Upon his arrival in San Antonio, his handler, Miss San Antonio (Amber Heard) informs him that he will have find a girl in a brothel to be able to get to Mendez. Soon Machete will have to duke it out with a contract killer known as the Chameleon (Walt Goggins/Cuba Gooding Jr/ Lady Gaga/Antonio Banderas), a bordello madam with a vendetta against men, Desdemona (Sofia Vergara) and a corporate giant named Voz (Mel Gibson) to avenge Agent Sartana’s death and save the world. Can he do it or will this be too big of a challenge for the legendary Machete?
The first five minutes of the film set the tone for the amount of absurdity featured in this latest installment of the Machete saga. Using a cinematic blender to include as much gore, violence, ridiculousness, gratuitous sex with cheeky humor, Rodriguez kicks his grindhouse filmmaking style to up the ante in this film, which the attached trailer sets up the next film quite nicely. This film caters to those who seek their cinematic thrills to the B-movie, the grindhouse flicks and cult films. If you’re a fan of this type of films, you’re in for an entertaining 107 minutes of entertaining nonsense. “Machete Kills” opens in theaters nationwide starting Friday October 11, 2013.
