Review of Machete (2010) by Edgar C — 05 Aug 2013

No way. The feature film does not live up to the trailer, which was originally planned as, indeed, a trailer based on the material Rodriguez had in the 90s. It is good to see Rodriguez has improved his camp quality and sticks to Mexican territory; however, his Grindhouse attributes have proved themselves to be unworthy of the exploitative trash cinema of the 70s. What happened to the extraordinary opening sequence? It sold everything that we had been promised in less than 10 MINUTES, just to fall to mainstream standards afterwards and making the stylish "badassery" and the cheesy one-liners to feel forced and occasionally ludicrous, including the trailer scenes, which seemed random (example: Why would the Padre get the "God has mercy, I don't" badass line if he would receive no coherent screen time and not enough scenes with him in killing action?). There were possibilities of gore beyond belief, substantial amounts of dark humor and even some lesbianism/nunsploitation deviations, but no! As long as we stay within Hollywood standards, the Grindhouse Box of Pandora will not be fully opened again.

Machete (the film) is much less than the sum of its parts: the trailer scenes and vibe, the damaged film look (where did that go??), the full-star cast willing to offer an over-the-top film, and the "Rated X" warning, which surely isn't. "Over-the-top?" Please... This barely reaches the top.

Will there be a worthy revival of such misunderstood cinema branch? I have already lost hope in the sequels. If you're gonna make exploitation camp, you better make it good.

57/100.