In 2007, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez presented the world an idea, that was to bring back Grindhouse double bills in all their glory. Tarantino directed Death Proof, a high octane chase movie mixed with his usual banter, and Rodriguez directed Planet Terror, a zombie movie homage to the horror greats, such as George A. Romero and John Carpenter. The films themselves have now fallen into a cult movie consciousness and the whole Grindhouse experiment failed to set the box office on fire, but it’s still alive in some form, in the form of Machete.
Machete began its life as a movie trailer that preceeded Planet Terror, directed by Rodriguez himself. It presented a messy, mexican revenge flick where the title character Machete (Danny Trejo) is betrayed and left for dead, only to call on his priest brother (Cheech Marin) to get bloody revenge Mexican style and with alot of sharp objects. It was loud, gory, cheesy but wildly entertaining to watch over and over again on Youtube. One of the best things was the wonder of what the whole film would be like. So this year, after 3 years finally we can see what Machete is like, and it fullfills some expectations and contains other surprises.
The film directed by Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis (editor and visual effects dude on previous Rodriguez films) maintains the plot structure of the trailer and beefs it out, developing Machete (Danny Trejo) to an federale, who is betrayed, forced to watch his wife die at the hands of the evil Torrez (Steven Seagal) before being beaten to a pulp. Three years pass and Machete has not sworn vengence as we thought, but is now a run of the mill Mexican looking for work, before getting a generous offer from Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate a Mexican hating Senator in running for Presidency (Robert De Niro). When the time comes, he is double-crossed and framed, forcing him to go on the run and violently kill all who get in his way and find the men responsible.
The film is mostly what you would expect from the fake trailer, but the added plot, such as the first betrayal and the thick undertones of Mexican revolution do make the film more complicated than it should be, but for fans of this kind of cinema and Rodriguez’s work, its very much a success.
The film has possibly the oddest cast you will see in years headlined by a former criminal turned tough guy actor Danny Trejo. Trejo is amazing to look at with his tattoos, his scared hagged face, piecing eyes and Mexicaness, and has been an excellent figure in film but never one to get the title role. Continuing with Rodriguez’s tradition of casting him as tough Mexicans named after knives, it makes his ultimate love letter to Trejo, and for a man in his 60s, hands out badassed revenge like no other person. Though he doesn’t have much to say, his face does the talking, but sometimes he says gold: “Machete don’t text”. It’s great to see such a hard working actor who loves what he does so appreciated.
Michelle Rodriguez fits right into Robert Rodriguez’s world as the tough as nails Luz, particularly showing her worth in the films climax. Jessica Alba provides the yang to Rodriguez’s yin as the more uptight immigrations officer Santana Rivera who grows into a helpful ally. Together they stand comfortably in the sexy department as Salma Hayek in Desperado and From Dusk Til Dawn.
Cheech Marin is also given his time to shine, reprising his priest role, aka Padre Cortez, aka Machete’s brother and is given his own wonderful badass gunfight, truly celebrating the man, with another great cult figure, Tom Savini as the assassin sent to kill Machete. His screentime is small, but hilarious.
As the villians, there is an eclectic bunch, from than who was The Lawnmower Man and Frank Lapidus from Lost, Jeff Fahey who deliciously reprises Booth, he seems to make him one cool/creepy dude who also has some unsavory daughter issues (Lindsay Lohan, essentially playing herself), it’s great to see him in stuff again, to Don Johnson (in apparently his first film, hilarious) as the Mexican hating border patrol, also cool, Steven Seagal’s stoic wooden Torrez who actually works well as well as Robert De Niro, who is seemingly the odd one out makes a one dimentional, slimey politician, it works, but its uncharacteristic of him, at least he’s having fun it seems.
It’s great to see all these actors do their parts, and on top of this, the action is wild, brutal and very creative, characteristic of Rodriguez, filling the film with a host of ridiculous moments, such as Machete using a mans intestines as an escape rope. It is also very funny, in the ridiculous sense, through moments like the talkative security guards who discuss why people let Mexicans into their homes as long as they have gardening equiptment just moments after letting Machete inside with gardening tools, as well as the random Machete sex scenes with almost every girl in the film.
In the end, it could have been better, maybe through making the film simpler, but as it is, its pretty damn entertaining, especially for this niche audience. Machete is an excellent companion piece to his El Mariachi Trilogy and continues to give audiences his own kind of cinema that they love (minus his kids movies of course).
4/5
