CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio review for the doc series “Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose,” about the rise and bitter fall of the major league legend, the MLB’s all-time hits leader, only to be banned from the sport because of gambling. Streaming on MAX and on HBO since July 24th.!—break—>
Film Review: ‘Machete Kills’ So Over the Top, it Has No Bottom
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CHICAGO – You gotta love director Robert Rodriguez. When other filmmakers are slogging through their important films, he’s out convincing big stars to blow off cinematic fireworks, giggling all the time. The excess is the thing, more so and more so, in his new film “Machete Kills.”
![]() Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
Another great notion about the character of Machete, portrayed with stoic abandon by Danny Trejo, is that he began as a character in a fake trailer (“Grindhouse” from 2007) and then became his own film series. After the feature debut “Machete” in 2010, director Robert Rodriguez revisits the Mexican marauder in “Machete Kills” and brings along some celebrity heroes and villains – including Charlie Sheen (listed as Carlos Estevez) as the President. This is a shoot-em-up, blow-em-up, sex-em-up carnival of a thrill kill cult movie. The pay offs overshadow the dead spots and the redundancy of the bullets flying, and provides enough grindhouse touches and bizarre laughs to entertain.
Machete (Danny Trejo), the Mexican lawman turned renegade, is recruited by the President (Charlie Sheen) to go into Mexico and stop cartel operator Mendez (Demián Bichir) from shooting a nuclear missile at Washington, D.C. The bipolar Mendez has strapped the timer to his beating heart, so Machete must take him out alive across the walled Mexican/American border.
There are several factors working against this – including a bounty placed on Machete’s head worth a million bucks. This gets Madame Desdemona (Sonia Vergara) and her brothel agents involved, and the notorious disguise artist El Chamaleón (portrayed by Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas). As time ticks away on the nuclear device, Machete discovers that the madman behind it all is the notorious Luther Voz (Mel Gibson).
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![]() Photo credit: Open Road Films (II) |
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