Danny Trejo has had a more interesting life than you might think. He's certainly not your typical actor he didn't attend song-and-dance class or theatre school at a young age, nor was he ferried everywhere by pushy parents in an attempt to make him a star. No, Trejo's star rose in a far more unorthodox way through violence. In his youth, Trejo had something of a habit for turning over convenience stores, and became prolific enough to land himself a 15-year-strech in San Quentin and a crippling drug addiction. Yet in prison he turned his life around, breaking his addictions through recovery programmes and taking up boxing, of which he became the prison's lightweight and welterweight champion. Yet during this journey through the flashpoints of badassery, he discovered acting and promptly threw himself into it. It's from such small beginnings that big things grow, and so it was with Trejo. Originally used as a terrifying-looking bloke who would stand around being terrifying, he graduated into speaking parts, then supporting roles and now has a long-standing creative partnership with iconic Mexican-American film-maker and second-cousin Robert Rodriguez (more on that later). Yet as a B-movie actor extraordinaire, his films tend to be locked into a permanent balancing act, attempting to mix the right elements of overblown, campy fun with self-knowing naffness without tipping over into being actually rubbish. As you might imagine, it's a difficult thing to do, and as befitting his status as one of shlock's most memorable faces, Trejo does have a few failures to rank up there with his successes. So in honour of Machete Kills' release, it's time look at both sides of this fence and in no particular order pick out the highlights and lowlights. I'll warn you now, a
SPOILER WARNING is in effect.