Movie Review: Machete Kills (2013)

WildCinema Presents

Movie Review: Machete Kills (2013)

THE LOWDOWN

Starting life as a mock trailer the original Machete provided Danny Trejo with a badass action hero to call his own. And it seems that Danny and director Robert Rodriguez were just warming up beacuse Machete is back to kick more ass and once again save the day in this fun action packed sequel.

Yet again featuring an all star cast Machete Kills ups the ante considerably in true sequel style by recruiting the likes of Sofia Vegara, Lady Gaga, Charlie Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr and Mel Gibson to name a few and lets just put it this way, the cast does not disappoint, each celeb gets to ham it up. Sofia Vegara in paticular seems to enjoy parading around with machine guns for breasts and generally playing an over the top female badass, Mel Gibson is an unstopable supervillain and Charlie Sheen is the womanizing President of the United States. Also male viewers take note, theres lots of eye candy on offer here, attractive women fill nearly every frame of this movie, if you're in the mood for hot babes kicking ass, give this movie a try.

The plot is simple and the action is frequent, whats makes Machete Kills so watchable is its senseless and often times comical violence featuring Machete dispatching hordes of bad guys in inventive ways, some that wouldnt seem out of place in a Friday The 13th movie, Machete wipes out waves of enemies with a whole host of weapons, my personal fav being the inside out gun which turns people - you guessed it - inside out and leaves them as a huge pile of guts on the floor. Pretty cool if you ask me. Machete kills is action packed, its got supervillains, prostitute assasins and shapeshifting hitmen, but if you're looking for substance your watching the wrong movie.

Machete Kills ends showing us glimpses of whats to come next, Machete Kills in space, and if you ask us that looks like its going to be a hell of a good time, but given the film bomed at the box office who knows if we will see Machete in another outing, which is a shame as this is a great tongue in cheek action series and i would be sad to see it end here when the film makers are only just getting warmed up.

FINAL VERDICT

Babes, guns and buckets of blood. What more does a grown man need on a friday night?

 

Rating

3.5/5

Movie Review: Knights Of Badassdom (2014)

WildCinema Presents

Movie Review: Knights Of Badassdom (2014)

The Lowdown

Lets be honest here, in recent years the horror genre has grown stale. Year after year we are subjected to the same old generic PG-13 supernatural shlock. Gone are the days when horror was marketed at adults and kept away from children at all costs, only to be seen by a select few who dared raid their parents video collection. Horror nowadays its targeted towards young teens and is geared towards making the studio a nice big profit rather than actually providing any scares. Such is the movie business. So its nice when a film comes along thats R rated, funny and actually tries to do something fairly unique.

Joe Lynchs Knights Of Badassdom tells the tale of three best friends who take part in a live action role playing game only to find themselves fighting for their lives against an evil succubus from hell.

The film is fairly lighthearted but consistantly violent and gory and clearly takes inspiration from the likes of Army Of Darkness and Hatchet, which is no bad thing as the Horror Comedy genre has a huge fan base which will likely lap this up. Ryan Kwanten does a good job in the lead, playing Joe, a heavy metal loving loveable loser who suprisingly bags a hell of a lot of hot chicks, including Summer Glau, who is perhaps best known for her roles in the ill fated FireFly and Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Its Nice to see Glau in a movie again, especially one thats as quirky and fun as this.

The thing that impressed me the most and made me realize films like this are a rare treat, is the fact that the production team decided to go the traditional route and rely on a lot of practical effects. Theres just something about practical effects that i love, maybe its growing up with all those wonderful horror movies in the 80s or maybe its that they look a hell of a lot more convincing than Cgi when done right, whatever it is Knights Of Badassdom hits all the right notes when we get to see the succubus in its final form, its all constumes and practical effects and it looks glorious. Fans of 80s horror in particular will get a kick out of it, more modern day horror films could learn a thing or two from this, as the effects and costume design really are great.

Final Verdict

A fantastic cast, banging heavy metal soundtrack, unique plot and awesome throwback practical creature designs make this one a must see for horror fans who grew up on 80s comedy horror.

Rating

I wish all modern horror films were this much fun. 4/5