Review: Machete Kills

Image courtesy of Open Road Films.

Just because a film aims to be bad does not give it a pass. Robert Rodrigue's "Machete Kills" is a sequel to 2010's "Machete," a somewhat forced feature length film of the director's clever fake trailer of the same that accompanied 2007's vastly underrated double feature, "Grindhouse."

If the original trailer was witty and entertainingly ludicrous, then its full length result was a bit labored, if moderately amusing. But this sequel, which features a cast full of wasted talent, is leaden, gory for the sake of being so and not particularly fun.

Danny Trejo resumes the titular role as a Mexican badass who was once a federale but is now, as one character puts it, the living embodiment of revenge - in this case, for a woman he loves who is killed at the picture's beginning.

There's no point in going through the various plot elements of "Machete Kills," but suffice it to say he is sent to his home country by the president (Charlie Sheen) to retrieve a very dangerous man (Demian Bechir) who threatens to launch a nuclear weapon at the United States.

There are a myriad of villains played by Cuba Gooding Jr., Antonio Banderas, Lady Gaga, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard and Mel Gibson, all of whom barely register.

There are guts galore and blood splattering all over the screen throughout the course of the film's seemingly epic - or, rather, endless - hour and 45 minutes.

In fact, the only enjoyable moment in the whole enterprise is the opening trailer - "Machete Kills Again... In Space," which - God forbid - also threatens to become its own feature film.

Robert Rodriguez is responsible for his share of entertaining low budget mayhem, from his "Grindhouse" contribution "Planet Terror" and "Sin City" to the first two in his "El Mariachi" trilogy. But "Machete Kills" falls flat. It's an unnecessary sequel to a movie that didn't necessarily need to exist in the first place.