MACHETE KILLS (Rated R)

As film director and writer, Robert Rodriguez has a definite style, one that for the most part fits nicely into the exploitation genre that once dominated “grindhouse” theaters.

The Rodriguez approach to filmmaking has had so much similarity to Quentin Tarantino’s that the two of them collaborated on the 2007 double feature “Grindhouse,” consisting of Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror” and Tarantino’s “Death Proof.”

For the uninitiated, “Machete Kills” is the sequel to “Machete,” both of which starred the tough, menacing Danny Trejo in the titular role as a former Mexican Federale still teamed up with Jessica Alba’s agent Sartana Rivera.

Like parachuting into the second half of a serial franchise, there’s little point to joining the exploits of the machete-wielding hero (yes, Trejo is the good guy) without having seen the first film, though the real reason is to appreciate the quirky experience to the fullest.

“Machete Kills” is the contemporary version of the exploitation experience that was brought vividly to the screen with African-American actors like Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”), James Brown, Pam Grier, Fred Williamson and a host of others during the 1970s.

Back then, it was called “blaxploitation,” focusing on the urban landscape with a wide variety of criminal enterprises involved, from drug trafficking to prostitution. The genre stirred controversy and even opprobrium from civil rights organizations.

Today, the “Machete” franchise generates little heat, other than critical derision from some film critics who may be operating under the misguided impression that this kind of B-movie should offer more than gratuitous absurdity.

Rodriguez has performed impressively in films like “El Mariachi” and “Desperado,” but one must understand that having Sofia Vergara as a brothel madam equipped with a machine-gun bra is a sign that “Machete Kills” is not to be taken seriously.

“Machete” fans will be thrilled with the film’s opening, as a garish trailer heralds the next splatter-fest with “Machete Kills Again … in Space,” which might even be inspired by the late Ed Wood’s “Plan Nine from Outer Space” or the detritus of other sci-fi junk.

Trejo’s Machete is a man of few words, sort of like the Man with No Name in spaghetti Westerns, which is fitting since he spends much of his time on the dusty, untamed desert of the Arizona-Mexico border, dealing with vicious thugs from Mexican drug cartels.

With a fixed facial expression, Machete, never smiling or winking at the illogical proceedings, growls his trademark one-liners before slicing various body parts from assorted bad guys.

A renegade enforcer, Machete is enlisted by off-kilter U.S. President Rathcock (Charlie Sheen who’s credited under his birth name, Carlos Estevez) to assassinate Mexican madman Mendez (Demian Bichir).

Adding to the mystery, Mendez has a split personality. He’s either a zealous revolutionary or a drug cartel leader surrounded by vicious henchmen. In any case, he’s got the trigger for a nuke aimed at Washington, D.C. surgically implanted on his chest.

Machete’s handler in the field is Miss San Antonio, a blond bombshell (Amber Heard), who is also a deadly assassin in her own right and a schizophrenic that is very much at home in the lunacy of this exploitative B-movie world.

To everyone’s delight, tough gal Michelle Rodriguez returns, though late in the story, as Luz, leader of an underground network that joins forces with Machete just at the right time.

As loco as he is, Mendez turns out to be fronting for a more sinister villain, arms dealer and space visionary Luther Voz (Mel Gibson), who is putting together a space mission to escape an inevitable nuclear destruction of Earth that he is trying to engineer.

Meanwhile, as Machete makes his way across the treacherous terrain of Mexico back to the United States with Mendez in tow, he is pursued by a chameleon-like assassin who constantly changes his identity.

Reminiscent of Martin Landau and Leonard Nimoy in the “Mission Impossible” TV series, the chameleon pulls off masks to reveal a new disguise. The fun is seeing the part played by Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas and Cuba Gooding Jr.

The best thing about “Machete Kills” and the franchise so far is that it is campy good fun, a spoof as well as parody of the exploitation genre. Nonetheless, Robert Rodriguez delights in old tropes of the “grindhouse” era.

In less capable hands, “Machete Kills” wouldn’t be as much gory, ridiculous fun, and would lack the stellar cast. In other words, without Rodriguez at the helm, this would be the type of cheesy film relegated to 2 a.m. showings on a cable channel.

Machete often tells us what he won’t do. In the first film, it was “Machete don’t text.” Here it is “Machete don’t tweet.”

What he won’t do in outer space, we can only guess. For fans of this cult franchise, here’s hoping Robert Rodriguez delivers on his intergalactic promise.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Rotary Club is presenting a free musical show at the Soper-Reese Community Theater at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20.

The show features young adults from the favellas in Rio de Janeiro, currently traveling across the USA performing cross-continental music, dance and acting.

Sponsoring this show for the community is a facet of the Lakeport Rotary Club International outreach.

The “Getting the Show on the Road” concert will bring the audience entertainment they might not have an opportunity to enjoy in Lake County at any other time.

There will be unique interpretations of Brazilian and American songs. These performers are part of a Brazilian Arts & Transformation organization.

The show is free, however donations are welcome.

Rotary Clubs participate with International projects around the world and this project is an example of building international relationships in a variety of ways.

Many International projects are sponsored by Rotarians who travel to other countries and do projects which enhance the living environments of villages by building fresh water systems, bringing much needed medical supplies and in some cases helping to build hospitals where there were none.

The Lakeport Rotary Club has participated in all of these projects in different countries over the past several years.

For more information about the Lakeport Rotary Club please visit www.lakeportrotary.org .

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Local band Ailura Fate, recent winners of the Rock2 category at Rising Stars Music Competition, will be performing their rockin’ set of originals and favorite covers at the Ukiah PumpkinFest on Sunday, Oct. 20.

They will perform from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the Alex R. Thomas Plaza Stage in downtown Ukiah.

“The Pumpkinfest is a great family event and we’re grateful to DJ Ken Steeley, Mary Chadwick and the staff of K-Wine 94.5FM for inviting us,” the band said in a statement. “This is going to be a blast!”

"Yes! We're excited to have the live band ‘Ailura Fate’ perform at the Ukiah PumpkinFest on Sunday,” said DJ Ken Steely of K-Wine.

The Ukiah Country PumpkinFest is the largest street fair in Mendocino County. This annual two-day event is held each fall in the month of October.

Along with a variety of delicious foods, the streets of downtown Ukiah are filled with craft vendors, fine arts exhibits and “Scarecrow City.”

Enjoy live music, a haunted house, the Scout-o-Rama, pet costume classes, the Deep Valley Brew & Wine Festival, and the ever-popular children’s carnival including many games and amusements

For more information and directions for Pumkinfest, visit www.cityofukiah.com .

For more information on Ailura Fate, visit www.AiluraFate.com .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre will present its Third Friday Live concert series on Oct. 18 featuring Ukiah-based band Will Siegel & Friends.

Join them for an evening of danceable jazz and folk rock music.

The theater has an open dance floor and table or loge seating. Snacks and beverages are available for purchase.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the show starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets cost $10 each and are available at the box office, 275 S. Main St., on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., telephone 707-263-0577; at the Travel Center Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and online at www.soperreesetheatre.com .

Anyone who has followed this column since its introduction in 2005 knows how much I like poems that describe places.

Here’s one by Joseph Hutchison, who lives in Colorado. This is the kind of scene that Edward Hopper might have painted. I especially love the way Hutchison captures the buzz of the neon sign.

Winter Sunrise Outside a Café
Near Butte, Montana

A crazed sizzle of blazing bees
in the word EAT. Beyond it,

thousands of stars have faded
like deserted flowers in the thin

light washing up in the distance,
flooding the snowy mountains

bluff by bluff. Moments later,
the sign blinks, winks dark,

and a white-aproned cook—
surfacing in the murky sheen

of the window—leans awhile
like a cut lily . . . staring out

into the famished blankness
he knows he must go home to.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Joseph Hutchison, whose most recent book of poems is Marked Men, Turning Point Books, 2013. Reprinted from Thread of the Real, Conundrum Press, 2012, by permission of Joseph Hutchison and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

This column has focused exclusively on the new television season for the last many weeks, as the major networks and cable outlets launched a slew of new series.

Judging the new lineup of TV shows is as difficult as trying to pick winners and losers during the baseball playoffs. Some shows bite the dust quickly in spite of high expectations.

I called ABC’s new series “Lucky 7” to be “potentially very interesting, maybe even rewarding, new drama.” I have to eat those words now. “Lucky 7” had the misfortune of being cancelled after only two episodes. Ouch, that hurts.

We’ll get back to TV later, so let’s look at a rundown of several movies released since Labor Day, some of them quite good for a period not usually optimal for new films.

Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer play mob-affiliated spouses in the Witness Protection Program in “The Family,” having been relocated at taxpayer expense to a small village in France.

Neither one of them can resist their old ways of doing business, causing frustration for the agents assigned to protect them from a hit squad. For one, De Niro terrorizes local officials into doing the right thing to improve the quality of the local water supply.

Their two children, enrolled in the local school, must adjust to being outsiders who don’t fit in. The entire family has difficulty adjusting, which of course is the source of comedy for “The Family.”

The youthful Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears three hats in “Don Jon,” serving as star, writer and producer of a decently offbeat and decidedly risqué comedy-drama about addiction to Internet porn and finding true romance.

Gordon-Levitt’s Jon is a New Jersey womanizer who develops unrealistic expectations from watching porn on his laptop, but whose ability to charm beautiful women turns him into a serial one-night stand lothario.

He finds intimacy and potential true love with Scarlett Johansson, only to find that his porn obsession interferes with commitment. “Don Jon” is an adult-themed film that may have limited appeal.

One of the most disturbing films of the year, and yet quite good, is “Prisoners.” As a parent with daughters, I find this one hard to watch, considering the story of child abduction and a father’s frantic search.

When Hugh Jackman’s daughter and her friend disappear, this distraught father takes matters in his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads but turn up nothing, even turning loose a suspicious person of interest.

Meanwhile, Jake Gyllenhaal is the methodical local police detective, so abrasive that his own colleagues tend to shun him. He understands Jackman’s pain but is nonetheless on a collision course with the self-styled vigilante as pressure mounts.

“Prisoners” is tough to watch for a lot of reasons, but the tension is superb and surprises lurk everywhere. Be warned that there is some very strong graphic violence and just general ugliness to the kidnapping business.

You don’t need to be a fan of Formula One car racing to enjoy “Rush,” the story of the 1976 racetrack rivalry between the German perfectionist Niki Lauda and British playboy James Hunt, who proved reckless both on and off the track.

Chris Hemsworth’s James Hunt strikes the right note as the handsome British racer who attracts legions of female fans, even marrying Olivia Wilde’s Suzy Miller, a fashion model who later runs off with Richard Burton.

But James Hunt is focused on defeating reigning champion Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) as they battle for supremacy on courses around the world. The film vividly recreates Lauda’s fiery accident that horribly disfigures him.

Yet, after the horrific crash than nearly claims Lauda’s life, a grudging respect develops between the two racers as Hunt realizes just how devoted his greatest adversary is to the sport they both love.

“Rush” may be the best film that Ron Howard has directed, and the film score by Hans Zimmer has an excellent, propulsive beat fitting to the racing world.

I don’t believe there is gravity in outer space because it was not confirmed by Isaac Newton dropping an apple while floating outside a space capsule.

On the other hand, “Gravity” is the title of one of the best films of this fall season. Sandra Bullock stars as Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on her maiden space shuttle mission headed by the lively astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney).

The garrulous Kowalski is a charismatic leader full of colorful stories that he shares with mission control and the tight-lipped Dr. Stone, who carries some deep emotional burdens that are revealed as the story unfolds.

Meanwhile, on a rather routine mission, Stone and Kowalski are warned by Houston that a Russian spaceship disaster is sending debris their way at a speed that threatens their safety.

While still on their space walk, the pair soon discovers they are detached from their ship and stranded in space, with not a lot of options other than to try to get to another shuttle floating nearby.

Ultimately, “Gravity” is a story of survival, dealing with personal pain and past regrets, while valiantly struggling to stay alive. In some ways, it is reminiscent of Tom Hanks being stranded on a remote island in “Cast Away” where he finds a volleyball as his only companion.

Sandra Bullock is spectacular in her difficult position as the neophyte in space who grapples with emotional issues. “Gravity” is a stunning piece of entertainment deserving of its many accolades. Try to see it in IMAX for the full effect.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.