2. Rondo - The Devil's Rejects
I know he's got his fans, but I'm just not really a fan of Rob Zombie's films. The strange Americana aesthetic is pretty cool and the overblown violence is okay, but still, there's just something I don't particularly enjoy about them. Unfortunately, the same applies for Zombie's best film, The Devil's Rejects. There are good elements, sure, but much like House Of 1000 Corpses before it and the Halloween double bill that followed it, they're all ultimately forgettable, and not as good as they could be. Case in point, Trejo's character Rondo. Part of crack bounty hunting team The Unholy Two, Trejo's character and Diamond Dallas Page's (seriously, that's him!) Billy Ray Snapper help capture the murderous Firefly family the titular Devil's Rejects but instead of being fully-fledged characters in their own right, they just appear to be some sort of woodenly acted macguffin used to get Sheriff Wydell into a position where he can confront the deranged killers. Knowing what we know of how good Trejo can be both in a serious and cheesy way when you give him space to work, I really feel he didn't acquit himself as well as he could've here. Sure he was a bit of a badass and he got a cool line about the Unholy Two being the exterminator to the Fireflys' cockroaches, but it was all a bit stilted, with both men affecting a wrestler-esque dialogue delivery throughout. It might've worked for DDP, but I expected better from Trejo.