Machete

Mexican Federale Machete (Trejo), a stone-faced killing machine named after his weapon of choice, flees to the United States after he is betrayed by his bosses. Coerced into an assassination attempt on a corrupt US Senator (De Niro), he finds himself on the run again and falls in with an underground cabal of militant illegal immigrants led by the feisty Luz (Rodriguez).

After the release and mixed success of the Grindhouse movies, Rodriguez set about creating the full lenght movie to accompany his much loved trailer that accompanied the afore mentioned Grindhouse movies, Machete.
The trailer was one of the most enjoyable parts of the Grindhouse movies and the call for the movie to be made rang out loud and clear, the people wanted Machete!!
And Rodriguez gave them Machete!

The movie pivots on the performance and presence of Danny Trejo, who it seems was born to play this role, he looks and acts the part to perfection, and once you see him wield his machete, then you just know that no one else can play this part! While by no means a great actor Trejo does all that's required of him and clearly relishes the pat and the great one-liners that go with it.

Sartana: "Why didn't you send me a text?"

Machete: "Machete don't text."

What raises "Machete" above the level of forgettable cinema though, is the cast and crew's full-on embrace of the concept and vision. That Rodriguez was able to land legitimate talent like De Niro and Alba, combine them with the under-appreciated Jeff Fahey and Michelle Rodriguez and nearly forgotten players like Cheech Marin and Don Johnson, then get all them to come together and not only embrace but enjoy the often over the top but always enjoyable performances.

Like many classic exploitation romps, Machete has intentionally corny subtext as well as ridiculously excessive violence. The immigration issue is obviously something very close to Robert Rodriguez, and he conveys everything he has to say about it as he does best; through celluloid.
As you would expect, all this subtext isn't subtle in the slightest sense; it's overbearing and incredibly crude like the majority of exploitation films that trod this fickle path back in the day. But fuck it, you can't deny that Rodriquez has crafted one genuinely great homage through this deft accuracy, as he nails the tone of exploitation as well as carrying on with the visceral components that have become popular in recent mainstream cinema.

Of course, the blood comes in gallons as Machete offs his adversaries in creatively excessive and ridiculous fashion, packed to the brim with hilarious one-liners and slapstickery. The cast is nothing short of awesome as it meshes insanely beautiful women, acclaimed actors, B-Grade powerhouses and dirty Hollywood whores for strikingly wide pallet of personalities who light up the screen in their own special ways. The sword-fight between Danny Trejo and Steven Seagal was utter awesomeness incarnate.

Overall, this is a fun and genuine homage to B-Grade cinema. I recommend it to all genre fans, plus people who just want a good time while watching a movie.


8/10