Robert Rodriguez is the most diverse of any filmmaker in modern times; when he isn’t making Sin City, he’s off making Spy Kids adventures. Interestingly, both kind of films are widely different in terms of genre and ideas, but both utilize regular cast members of Rodriguez (namely Antonio Banderas and Danny Trejo) and the directors habit of doing much more than just directing his films; usually he also manages to compose the score, do the cinematography and edits his films. Joining his lengthy career in cinema is Machete Kills, his second film (third if we’re counting his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse) that’s an extended homage to movies in the 70’s that contained insane violence, hammy acting and some cool sounding titles.

In this interesting and thoughtful depiction of Latinos in modern society, Machete (Danny Trejo) is a man who cannot be killed, but boy howdy, can he commit acts of killing. With his handy weapon of choice (three guesses what it is) he brings down antagonists of all shapes and sizes with relative ease. But when a missile threatens to destroy Washington D.C., the President (Charlie Sheen) calls in Machete to take care of the crazed man (Demian Bichir) in charge of the weapon. Rampant violence ensues.

Similar to Guillermo Del Toro’s amazing Pacific Rim from three months back, Rodriguez is crafting a film that pays tribute to the one’s that shaped his directing style and love for cinema. His finished product winds up being nowhere near as successful as Toro’s brilliant film, but does manage to create a similar sense of fun that’s hard to resist.

The script is overstuffed with too many characters who don’t serve much purpose to the plot, but that’s sort of the point; this is the kind of movie that has to have Lady GaGa fire bullets in a car chase near the Mexican border or else the entire point of it’s existence falls apart. It doesn’t excuse the sloppiness that’s on display many times in the film, but at least they have a reason for their existence.

Danny Trejo does a great job of creating a recognizable personality in Machete, with the character taking a cue from Ryan Goslings protagonist in Drive by not speaking very often, but always making an impression no matter the scene. Meanwhile, Mel Gibson chews up the screen as a nuclear warhead, clone and Star Wars obsessed supervillain.

The various actors portraying El Chameleon (Walter Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas) suffer from the scripts occasional lack of coherency, but they give it their all.  Finally, Michelle Rodriguez gets some of the movies best moments, thanks to her talented ability to deliver effective one liners and come through in the film’s over the top action scenes.

Look, if nothing in this article even piques your interest, then Machete Kills isn’t for you.  This is the kind of film that isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a lot of fun, and the cast and crews sense of devotion and passion to the film is hard to resist.

Now, hopefully a third Machete film can come to fruition, as the trailer for it seems to promise the cinematic reunion of Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.