You may not know this, but the main character in Machete first appeared in the Spy Kids movies. It's true! Okay, so technically, it wasn't exactly the same character, but Danny Trejo played another guy named "Machete" who was the uncle to the titular child agents, and also a spy and inventor himself. He wasn't a bloodthirsty killer, but Trejo certainly made the franchise more awesome simply by being in it -- just as he did in the From Dusk Till Dawn movies, as well as the last two Mariachi flicks. Now he's got his own franchise, with two more Machete movies supposedly on the way, but why is Robert Rodriguez the only one taking advantage of his awesomeness? The man would make a valuable addition to any existing franchise -- here are seven we think should grab him while he's hot.

Going the Distance is a romantic comedy built on an uncomfortable foundation -- it stars two people who have dated in real life -- that tries way too hard, and fails in a lot of areas. For one thing, it's more of a list of one-liners than a romance, and its one-dimensional couple is really only in it to give their jokey friends a reason for existing, and that's only two of the many things that are bad about this movie. But there is one thing that is not bad about this movie: it's honestly pretty funny. I know, I couldn't believe it either.

Robert Rodriguez's original trailer for Machete, kicking off 2007's double-feature Grindhouse, is perfection. It paints a picture of a world where Danny Trejo's Machete is a Shaft-level icon, a lover of women and killer of men who stars in an action movie with enough sex and violence to melt your face off. But in trying to create a real movie that incorporated all of the footage from that fake trailer, Rodriguez seems to have hit a snag. He had so many scenes to include and so many actors he wanted to add to the mix that the movie turned into an unwieldy, overcomplicated mess that's more parody than homage. The original trailer seems to portray a more serious film with a more stripped-down purpose, and while that fictional movie doesn't appear to have the involvement of Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba or Don Johnson, it may be a superior work to its current, real-life counterpart.

The resurgence of 3-D as a way to make movies a more immersive experience is all well and good, but we've been tinkering with the same formula since the 1950s, and the only other thing we've come up with since then is Smell-O-Vision. Isn't it time for something new? Something that can make horror movies scarier and other movies far more personal? Well, there is now. Director Chris Milk has made an interactive music video for Arcade Fire called The Wilderness Downtown, which lets you choose the location where it takes place. By entering in your childhood street address, you get to watch the hooded teenager in the film run down the streets where you grew up, thanks to what I can only assume is the magic of Google Earth. If this technology can be perfected, imagine the possibilities -- films could be shot on bluescreens, then the backgrounds could be dropped in based on the renter's mailing address! Special glasses could personalize the locale for everyone in the theater audience! Just think how much better these films would be if they took place in your neighborhood!

With a title like The American (the book it's based on is called A Very Private Gentleman), I expected this movie to be one big metaphor for how the U.S. is perceived abroad, especially since the title character is an assassin by trade, hiding out among simple Italian townspeople. And maybe it is: Clooney's butterfly-admiring killer Jack barely speaks the language (though he knows enough to get by), he takes things without paying for them (though he offers), his presence leads to innocent deaths (though not by his hand) and he takes advantage of the town's young women (though, to be fair, that's their job). But the only time Americans are really spoken of in generalities is when a priest tells Jack that Americans are always trying to escape their history. Jack may be, although his deeper past is never brought up, but we do know one thing: he's definitely still dealing with his last trip to Sweden.