HEY BASTARDS.

Robert Rodriguez is a pretty polarizing figure in filmmaking. He is one of those love him or love to hate him guys that has every move scrutinized and picked apart. I am a Rodriguez lover, I dig just about everything the guy does and yes that includes the SPY KIDS films. Hey, I have kids in the house who love those characters. I am the first to admit though that sometimes he bloats his films and they end up so top heavy they don’t make sense. Look at ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, that film has moments where it is a ridiculous amount of fun but it’s a mess. MACHETE KILLS sounds like it may be going in that direction as well I am afraid. The casting became kind of gimmicky when Charlie Sheen was given the role of the President and this casting move is just as bad; from his Twitter account, Mr. Rodriguez announced Lady Gaga is going to be appearing in the sequel as La Chameleon. Not sure what she brings to a role other than a name, I could be wrong but pulling performance art onstage doesn’t mean you can make it work in front of the camera (see SHANGHAI SURPRISE for proof of that… actually don’t… it is really fucking terrible). Here is a new one-sheet Rodriguez dropped with an image of the singer in her new role:

Now, the difference between the two films above is that one is much more serious in tone than the other. The Machete character is more of a comic-book character than El which is why you may be able to get away with some of these crazy casting moves. I mean shit, Machete is going into space in the third film for fucks sake. I guess I just hope that Machete remains the focus of this film and we aren’t distracted by casting. And speaking of SPY KIDS, the female half of the duo is all grown up and found herself in MACHETE KILLS as well. Here is a pic of Alexa Vega in character as Killjoy.

Now that’s a move we approve of.

MACHETE KILLS stars Danny Trejo with William Sadler, Charlie Sheen, Sofia Vergara, Electra and Elise Avellan, Edward James Olmos, Mel Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Amber Heard, Demian Bichir, Zoe Saldana, Lady GaGa, Alexa Vega.

SEE YOU ON FORTY DEUCE,

G

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Jon Abrams

Editor-In-Chief at Daily Grindhouse

Jon Abrams is a New York-based writer, cartoonist, and committed cinemaniac whose complete work and credits can be found at his site, Demon’s Resume. You can contact him on Twitter as @JonZilla___.