Back in 2007 director/writers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up to make a “loving” tribute to the grindhouse cinema of their youth and released the appropriately titled double-feature Grindhouse. While not without its charms, the film tanked at the box office. And yet a curious thing happened on the way to failure: The “fake” commercials inserted before and in between the two movies become popular in a cultish way, and by far the most popular of the trailers was for a fictitious film called “Machete”.
As many know by now, the fake trailer proved so popular that a very real 2010 Machete film (you can read my review of it here) was made. That film wound up doing enough business to justify a sequel, 2013’s Machete Kills. While I felt the first film had its moments, as crazy a work as it was, I didn’t think it was nearly funny enough. Would the sequel prove better?
Unfortunately, not really.
Machete Kills aims to be a broader, bigger, indeed crazier work than its predecessor. Taking the plot of the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker (a little more on that after the review and trailer) as a launching point, we find Machete (the very game Danny Trejo) involved in the machinations of powerful industralist/genius Voz (Mel Gibson, looking like he’s having fun playing a crazed villain), who has a missile aimed at Washington and plans, not unlike Moonraker’s Hugo Drax, to rid the world of all its peoples while he and his group watch the apocalypse from outer space. Once humanity is wiped out, they plan to head back down to Earth to repopulate it.
But wait, there’s more!
Into this broth we get the President of the United States (Charlie Sheen), Machete’s beauty queen contact on the border between Mexico and the U.S. (Amber Heard), the return of Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), a cameo by Vanessa Hudgens, a longer, crazier cameo by Sofia Vergara, and appearances by Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr., and, why the hell not, Lady Gaga.
Given the circus-like atmosphere director/co-writer Robert Rodriguez was going for, its no small wonder that the first twenty or so minutes of the film are pretty fun, especially the “phony” trailer for Machete Kills Again…In Space, the movie that Mr. Rodriguez clearly intends to follow this one with. Unfortunately, and like the first Machete film, craziness doesn’t always equal humor and while the film has the former in spades, like the first it lacks the later.
Still, Machete Kills is a fun enough experience even if it is never as funny as it intends to be. While there was certainly enough craziness around to sustain a viewing, this is the type of film I doubt I’ll bother to see again, despite all the shenanigans. If you enjoyed the first Machete film, you’ll probably like the second. If you didn’t, then steer very clear. And, if you were like me and found the first film enjoyable enough though not terribly great, you may wind up feeling just about the same after watching Machete Kills.
Now, getting back to Moonraker…
Sometimes it seems like creative thoughts are up in the air not unlike radio-waves, just waiting for people to pick up the tunes and make something of them. How else to explain creative coincidences?
Back in 2010 and soon after seeing the Moonraker BluRay (the first time I saw that film from start to end since 1979), I realized there was an interesting enough plot in the film despite its terrible, IMHO, execution. While Moonraker remains one of my absolutely least favorite James Bond films, in my mind I started to think about ways its story could be reworked into something better.
In the end, these musings proved an inspiration in the writing of the fourth novel in my Corrosive Knights series, Nox, released in August of 2012.
Having said that, and for those who read the book and are scratching their heads wondering just where the Moonraker stuff is in it, don’t feel all that bad. It’s there, but, unlike Machete Kills which took the entire concept and proudly used/ripped it off, in my book the inspiration winds up being a very tiny part. Think about the goal of the villain and you’ll see the light.
Again, creative thoughts are fascinating things. The wild coincidence of Mr. Rodriguez and me using Moonraker to some degree as inspiration in creating our own works is one of those head-scratchers that seem to happen to me very frequently.
To be clear, however, I do NOT believe Mr. Rodriguez read my book -which was released a full year before Machete Kills– and somehow gleamed the tiny Moonraker reference and had an “ah, ha!” moment before making his film.
More likely is that he, like me, happened to pop Moonraker into his BluRay player at about the same time I did and…well, you know the rest.
Creative coincidences? Perhaps. Nonetheless, fascinating stuff.