Self-aware, self-referential, and self-abusing, Machete Kills splatters a full load of gooey grindhouse goodness onto the screen even before the main titles roll.

Having turned the volume up to 11, however, that leaves more than 100 minutes to be filled with something, and so Robert Rodriguez and company have elected to do more of the same, stringing together bite-sized exploitation stand-bys — beheadings, gushing blood, machine-gun brassieres, beheadings, martial arts performed by clones, a ticking bomb sewn to a human heart, beheadings, angry prostitutes, an undercover beauty queen, beheadings, Mexican jokes, Charlie Sheen as the U.S. President, Mel Gibson as a brilliant tech villain who claims he can see the future, and more beheadings — and pretending that the plot matters one iota. (Note: It doesn’t.)

Admittedly, Sheen and Gibson appear courtesy of another strategy, one considered alien to the grindhouse films that serve as inspiration / excuse for Rodriguez to wallow in the same pigpen he has already exploited to the full. That strategy is often employed by modern sequels, namely, the all-star cast of day players who appear in movies like this to show that they’re good sports and/or really like the director. In that category we find Jessica Biel, Walton Goggins (here billed as “Walt” Goggins), Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga, and Antonio Banderas, among others. The “badass chica” quota overflows, with Michelle Rodriguez, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, and Alexa Vega on hand to fire guns, throw knives, bare various body parts, and dispense the f-word with great gusto.

To read the rest of the review, please visit Twitch. The film opens wide across the Metroplex on Friday, October 11.