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Friday, September 10, 2010
Film / Film Reviews / News Machete cuts to the chase
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 12:57 PM
By Matt Brunson
MACHETE
DIRECTED BY Robert Rodriguez & Ethan Maniquis
STARS Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro
It's an intriguing grudge match: The taciturn star of Machete vs. the motley crew of The Expendables. Even with the odds against him, I'd put my money on the dude who speaks softly and carries a big slice-and-dice stick.
More fun than a barrel of Sylvester Stallone DVDs, Machete is gleeful trash that delivers on the promise it held when it was just a twinkle in creator Robert Rodriguez's eye, as one of the mock trailers shown in the 2007 Rodriguez-Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. I'll leave it up to the culture critics to determine whether its outlandish brand of gore and violence is more detrimental to society than the more realistic sadism exhibited in movies like Kick-Ass, but everything about Machete is so over the top that it's impossible to feel as if one's morals are being compromised by this thing. When a movie quickly moves from a sequence in which the title bad-ass (played by Danny Trejo) decapitates several men with one swift 360-degree turn to a scene in which a naked woman retrieves a hidden cell phone from her vajayjay, it's clear that nothing's to be taken seriously.
That's not to say the movie won't incense a significant amount of folks, particularly our friends in the GOP. As expected, the Mexicans are the heroes, demanding to be treated like people and eager to have a crack at the American Dream. On the other side of the spectrum are the rich Texas fat cats determined to keep them down, including a right-wing Senator (Robert De Niro) who ruthlessly guns down illegal border crossers when he's not busy hitting the campaign trail. Machete is coerced into taking out this slimy politico, but he quickly realizes he's been double-crossed, and he has to rely on two women — Michelle Rodriguez's fiery revolutionary and Jessica Alba's immigration officer — to help him out.
Whether it's a beefy Steven Seagal or a topless Lindsay Lohan, viewers never quite know who or what Machete will throw at them next. Rodriguez's shooting style is as playful as ever, but the film's greatest pleasure rests with the casting of Danny Trejo. Usually spotted in fleeting roles as a menacing thug, Trejo fills the screen in his biggest part to date. Imposing and unconventional, he cuts through the image of the dashing action hero with exceptional ease.
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