The first Machete film was 70s grindhouse style action/revenge film. This time Robert Rodriguez and Danny Trejo kick it up a notch and make a late 70s style spy flick, albeit with their own twist. Machete is given citizenship by the President and sent after a villain named Mendez (played superbly by Demian Bichir) who has a nuke pointed at Washington DC. The main titles are the classic silhouetted nude women. There's a Q scene where Machete is given a grappling gun and "the Swiss Army knives of Machetes", then he parachutes into Mexico. It seems the US had walled the border off from Mexico in a nod to Escape From New York, (there's also homages to Universal Soldier and Road Warrior to name a few) Machete infiltrates Mexico and finds Mendez in a mountain-top Mayan Temple converted to standard spy-villain lair. Mendez appears walking down a flight of stairs wearing a Mexican version of Blofeld's nehru jacket suit and his hulking unstoppable henchman wears a black version of it. Mendez has gone off the deep end and wired the firing mechanism of the nuke to his heart, if it stops, the missile launches, a true deadman's switch. Machete kidnaps Mendez after decimating his troops and apparently killing his hulking henchman (don't worry, like Jaws, he comes back, no matter how thoroughly Machete seems to dispatch him). Machete takes Mendez to the border, trying to reach the only man who can disarm the nuke/deadman's switch, billionaire military and space industrialist Luther Voz. I won't go into any spoilers but Machete meets Voz (played in smooth, nearly perfect Bond villain style by post-psychosis Mel Gibson), who can foresee the future and is a obsessed Star Wars fan. Voz takes Machete on a tour of his stainless steel lair in wheeled version of Luke Skywalker's landspeeder. Voz unfolds his master plan, he was the one who gave Mendez the nuke, and has given others to dictators around the world who will launch them at America and start a nuclear war. Voz, of course, has space shuttle and an orbiting luxury space station. He's taking the worlds most brilliant minds, richest, and hottest babes with him, after the obligatory war he will return to Earth to create a new world order (paging Hugo Drax). Again I won't divulge spoilers, but there's a trailer for the next installment "Machete Kills Again....In Space" which looks like late 70s early 80s Star Wars spoof.
Overall, the action is cool, the violence is plentiful but the effects are purposefully cheesy in grindhouse style, severed heads that strike the ground are obviously those of store manikins with some garish red-orange paint. The chicks are hot, the characters all have the Rodriguez quirks, and the soundtrack has a kind of James Bond vibe. Machete Kills gives various 70s and 80s movie-styles a wink, nudge and sometimes a slug to jaw, but it's an outrageously fun time. I suggest you see it.
