Not Giving A Damn Anymore

Conditions: ...

The Deep Dark

As I write it is completely black. A power cut has left the screen as the only illumination around. So dark. So quiet. So strange. And yet a block away people are still letting off fireworks, and the pop and fizz into the night sky is both odd and reassuring at the same time. Do people even know who Guy Fawkes was anymore? How did the tradition of lighting a bonfire in the middle of the night as a reaction to an assassination attempt of the King and government turn into the firing off of brightly-coloured explosives? Are we still honoring the shock and fear of an attempted act of terrorism, or just amusing ourselves with bright lights?  Remember Remember the 5th of November.



Film Review: Machete Kills

I can barely remember the first Machete film, and now Danny Trejo is back! Director Robert Rodriguez sure has a soft spot for the shlocky, violent, crazy films characterised as “grindhouse”, and in Machete Kills he spends the first half constructing a great parody of them. Full of crazy kills and gritted teeth, our hero Machete is recruited by the U.S president (Charlie Sheen) to go back to Mexico to find some crazy whackjob revolutionary who’s aiming a warhead at Washington. Things get rapidly complicated from there but it’s all filtered through a diet of scantily-clad killers, famous cameos, and violent death.

The second half of the film turns into something of a Mexican Bond ripoff, with none other than Mel Gibson popping up as the Big Bad with a plan to kill everyone and escape to his orbital death fortress. Surprisingly, I guess, Mel plays it totally straight and serious, delivering mad exposition and threats with true sincerity. Good to see him again. And through it all, Trejo plods along, killing when he can, and grimacing through scenes where he can’t. The film ultimately strands itself on the shores of sheer implausibility, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

You’d be hard pressed to find a movie more resistant to actual criticism. It’s crazy, but it knows it’s crazy, and regularly takes time to demonstrate just how mad it is. So if the film can’t take itself seriously, then who am I to judge? I have no idea where this franchise is going (other than, you know, outer space), but I do know it’ll be a laugh to watch it going there. Especially with some booze. Two tacos out of five.



- Peace out