Bring Me The Head of the Machine Gun Woman Movie Review

Written by Simon Bland

DVD released by Clear Vision

Written and Directed by Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
2012, 73 minutes, Rated 18
DVD released on 14th October 2013

Starring:
Fernanda Urrejola as Machine Gun Woman
Matías Oviedo as Santiago
Jorge Alis as Che Sausage
Sophía García as Shadeline Soto
Alex Rivera as Flavio
Felipe Avello as Jonny Medina

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Review:

Bring Me The Head of the Machine Gun Woman is an LatinXploitation movie with one eye on the past and one firmly on the future. Director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza follows in the footsteps of modern day Grindhouse gore-splosion helmers Tarantino and Rodriguez albeit with considerably smaller wallet. The extra ingredient here is Espinoza’s nod to the popular video game franchise Grand Theft Auto, dicing up the trigger happy tasks of his wannabe gangster protagonist into a handful of GTA style missions. All the expected tropes are present - grainy film, sleazy Seventies-inspired music, excessive blood splats - however what starts as a tongue-in-cheek homage to exploitation soon runs the risk of taking itself just that little bit too seriously. Risky business, indeed.

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We follow Santiago, a part time DJ and full time gamer who, despite talking the talk, still lives at home with his dear old mum. One night, while working the sound booth at a club owned by the colourfully named mobster Che Sausage, he accidentally overhears something he shouldn’t. When Che Sausage discovers that his infamous ex - known only as Machine Gun Woman - is out for his blood, he plans to beat her to the punch by placing a mammoth sized-hit on her pretty little head. When Santiago is caught eavesdropping, he fast-talks his way out of the situation by convincing these nasty bastards that he can capture this gun-toting femme fatale himself. This tricky task is made monumentally more difficult now that every money-loving hitman in the area has caught wind of Machine Gun Woman’s big dollar bounty.

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Undeterred, Santiago sets out on the job at hand securing some clues, his first gun and the grizzly meaning of a ‘deep oil check’ via a set of GTA style missions. This theme bleeds into the fabric of the film, at times almost becoming even more present than the exploitation motif. Between tasks we watch Santiago cruise across his dusty Chilean terrain, usually in a different car - again like a GTA avatar - until he eventually crosses paths with the leather clad hit girl. Here the exploitation chaos kicks back into force, with much of Machine Gun Woman’s screentime taken up by smouldering sexiness and precision gun firing. Things switch gears and take a more serious turn when big bad Che Sausage brings Santiago’s mum into the equation, complicating an already messy love affair between our unlikely hero and his larger-than-life love interest.

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Director Espinoza may be familiar to some audiences from his interesting ‘C is for Cycle’ segment from horror anthology flick The ABC’s of Death. His story of an infinite loop of deadly clones showed a potential that’s somewhat explored in this fully fledged feature. Quick paced and with an action heavy third act, Bring Me The Head of The Machine Gun Woman unfortunately falls victim to a flat ending and not quite knowing what it wants to be. It’s worth hunting down, just don’t expect a huge reward.