The Machete Kills

Exploitation action cinema's sleekest hero is back. Machete (Danny Trejo) once again wields his namesake machete in the name of revenge and justice. After the love of his life, Sartana (Jessica Alba), is murdered while fighting a drug cartel, Machete really wants to retire completely. But then he gets a job from the President of the United States (Charlie Sheen), which the ex-Federal Agent accepts in exchange for American citizenship. With the help of an undercover agent posing as Miss San Antonio (Amber Heard), Machete manages to get to cartel boss Mendez (Demián Bichir), who he is tasked with taking out. Too bad he has a nuclear missile pointed at Washington and has connected the detonator to his heart. So Machete must keep the gangster alive and bring him to the U.S. to the only man who can disarm the firing mechanism: the heavily wealthy and eccentric arms dealer Luther Voz (Mel Gibson). He has only 24 hours to do so. No easy task, especially since quite a few pursuers are hot on his heels, doing everything they can to take Machete out for good.

The career of Machete is just wonderfully absurd. It all started as a fake trailer that was shown between the two films of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's grindhouse double feature. This trailer was so entertaining that it got more attention than the actual main films. And so it was quickly decided to turn the short trailer into a full feature film. This was a deliciously over-the-top brutal fun, which just cried out for a sequel. Now Robert Rodriguez delivers with Machete Kills. While he was able to assemble a very illustrious cast for the first part, he was able to step it up a notch for part 2. Charlie Sheen as the US president, Mel Gibson as a crazy villain with dangerous fantasies of omnipotence, Sofia Vergara as a vengeful madam with a killer bra, as well as brief appearances by Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr, Lady Gaga or the now sexy Alexa Vega from the Spy Kids movies raise the fun factor of this sequel significantly.

Also in terms of action and dirty grindhouse brutality, the film tries to top the first part with particularly bizarre and unrestrained over-the-top ideas. But unfortunately, it just doesn't want to work. Was Machete in terms of sex and brutality still extremely uninhibited politically incorrect and in some ways quite original, the whole thing here almost takes on cartoon-like features. As a result, what seemed amusing and wonderfully bizarre in the first film, seems rather silly or even ridiculous here. But the worst thing is that Danny Trejo's Machete has lost a lot of its coolness. The weak script puts sayings in his mouth that threaten to turn Machete into a figure of fun. And the cool Mexican really doesn't deserve that.

Machete Kills has some very amusing moments and good show values. Watching Mel Gibson as the eccentric villain alone is a ton of fun. And there are also numerous scenes that provide the best grindhouse entertainment to such viewers who liked the first part. But unfortunately, the positive aspects are embedded in moments of boredom, pale gags and surprisingly powerless action scenes. So in the end, the overall picture is rather disappointing, offering only a few real highlights, but all the more trivial. And even if the (fake?) trailer for Machete Kills again.in Space looks extremely fun, the anticipation for another Machete adventure after this rather weak second part keeps you very much in limits. Therefore: only for die-hard fans of the first film with cutbacks worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp