Review of Machete (2010) by Mohamed A — 08 Nov 2012

Machete is chock-full of jokes, some are more obvious than others, and it's perhaps Rodriguez's first time since Once Upon a Time in Mexico (not counting Grindhouse) to go all-out with the action AND comedy, sometimes at once, sometimes separate. This should go without saying not every line or bit of comedy works, but so much does, and so much is packed with a bad-ass punch, stab, decapitation, dismemberment, explosion, gun-fire, crucification and whatever the hell else that it makes up for it in spades. I was even able to overlook some use of CGI blood where it could have been lessened (or, as in other parts, just plain ol' blood and guts). Rodriguez and company just want to keep their audience glued to the screen, awaiting the next actor to be as over-the-top as the next one, or go over. Watching (ho-ho, "introducing") Don Johnson and a (fake) hillbilly-inflected Robert De Niro spare off in downright villainy reminded me of what REAL dirt-bag villains are like. The Expendables, take note, this is how you do B- movie action.

As mentioned, not everything works to the kind of near-perfect effect that Planet Terror had. I didn't buy Alba as a border patrol officer, though then again her lack of talent and surplus of good looks probably serve her best here. I also wanted a little more insanity in a couple of the action scenes (which one top be precise I'd need to watch again and give audio commentary). But as someone who is hungry for a kick-ass exploitation flick, for balls-to-the-wall action, unapologetically throwing logic into a blender and putting it back into a taco, and can't get enough of Danny Trejo slicing people up and going over the finer points of texting his threats to the villains, it hits the spot. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is, and people can take it as a goofy comic-book send-up of current events at the south of the border, or they can take it a little too seriously and not get the point (to read some comments, for example, on IMDb, one might think Rodriguez made a polemic on par with Spike Lee). In short, it's not too crazy, but it's never lazy and never settles for making the audience feel antsy. At it's best, Machete has the energy and pizazz of RR's first feature, El Mariachi. He hasn't lost his joy for filmmaking, and if nothing else it shows. And, as one last thing to boot, he may have just jump-started Lindsay Lohan's career! Take with that what you will.