Of all the GRINDHOUSE spin offs so far Robert Rodriguez’s and Ethan Manquis’ MACHETE was perhaps the most disappointing. Although stuffed with cameos and over the top violence the film felt too heavy handed with its politics and felt about twenty minutes too long. The ending of MACHETE promised two sequels MACHETE KILLS and MACHETE KILLS AGAIN. Clearly the first film must have done something right as Robert Rodriguez and Danny Trejo are reuniting for the first sequel in the planned trilogy.

MACHETE KILLS is written by Kyle Ward and sees Machete recruited by the US government for a suicide mission to take down the insane leader of a Mexican cartel leader and a billionaire arms dealer who has access to a weapon in space. So the sequel is going more into James Bond meets crazy country which is good news.

No word yet on whether Rodriguez will produce or direct this, but production is due to start in April. Hopefully despite being more ambitious, this film will jettison some of the fat that made MACHETE a bit of a chore to sit through. My vote for director? Has to be HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN helmer Jason Eisener, he knows how to do this sort of thing…

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