Machete Review

        Picking the last movie to talk about Robert Rodriguez was tough. I was leaning towards either doing this one or Alita: Battle Angel. Maybe someday I’ll take a look at Alita, for now I think it’s appropriate to discuss the film that perfectly personifies who Rodriguez is as a director. While we’ve seen his humble beginnings and his best hits, I think this one might be in the running. Anyways, let’s talk about Machete. 

1. Mex-Ploitation

        With anything, a little background info kinda helps where this film came from. If you remember from my Spy Kids review, there’s a character called Machete that provided the kids their gadgets. It would be years later where Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino released their double feature Grindhouse. A love letter to the type of underground films that were popular during the 70s. 

        When you watched the films back-to-back, they had fake trailers to really sell the level of over-the-top action and violence. Since it was the style for the grindhouse films of the past. One of them featured Danny Trejo as the unstoppable Machete. While it was made as a joke, only Rodriguez to turn it into a legitimate film. 

        While American exploitation films where a product of the times, Mexico produced a near similar slate of films. Dubbed Mex-ploitation, those films mostly featured masked luchadores and evolved into films dealing with the problems in Mexico that is still prevalent today. So, you get the gist of it. These films aren’t motion pictures as akin to something with legitimacy. Instead, they’re made with low budgets with a dose of amplified action, but have an endearing edge to them.

        Anyways, Machete is straightforward for what it is. We follow Danny Trejo’s character, a former federales gets assigned to assassinate a senator. Machete has been had, and the rest of the film is followed with bullets, sharpened weaponry, a ridiculous amount of blood and the obligatory but not exaggerated t and a. That’s not to say that the movie is complex or very spotty with its story. 

        The film is mostly a revenge story but has probably the best aspect of it. It doesn’t take itself seriously. The way the film mostly looks, it might be something you would see at a value rack in Dollar General or in Walmart. You know the ones, the very by the number action movies that don’t even come close to the supreme action films. With the subject matter that Machete talks about, it’s mostly shown as a fantasy that riles up a supposed underground network of hard-working Hispanics. 

        The whole movie is just silly and intentionally ridiculous considering the level of violence that is shown. And when I say that it’s not to say that the film has faults. It does, I think if there’s one thing to criticize is that the movie doesn’t look like a grindhouse movie at all. Now what do I mean by that? Well, you can go on YouTube and look at old trailers or snippets of any Grindhouse film and notice that the grain is very prominent.

        I’m complaining about grain of all things, in a movie that includes Steven Seagal in his last good movie before he defected and pretending he is a Russian. But I’ll give it a sort of pass and critique. The movie does have the standard Rodriguez touch to it, with its quick edits and his flair of making movies. In one way, he’s not making just a derivative piece of work that is by the numbers. The film is his and in his own way, a tribute to a style that he perfectly manages to make watchable again. 

2. Undisputed Violence

        So with all that being said, I could go on, but I feel that my voice would provide a somewhat concise commentary. Then again, who would want to hear sandpaper scraping vocals. The main highlight is the action that the movie showcases. It’s by no means John Wick level of action since that series wasn’t even existing. What I like is that the level of action is exaggerated to a degree of silly. 

        Like, there are moments where Machete will use any sort of blunt tool and use it as a weapon. Such as when he goes back to a mansion and busts out a weed wacker that is laced with knives. And it goes as you’d expect. The brilliant thing is that the film sort of tears down the stereotype of Hispanic life and makes it into a vigilante justice type. 

        Especially when we have moments whenever the news pops up, we see tiny glimpses of workers doing the jobs that is mostly associated with Mexicans. All culminating with the obligatory final battle between them and the main antagonist’s henchman. It’s ridiculous but when are you ever gonna see a lowrider just crush a poor white guy with a gun?

        One last thing to talk about is that the film really goes out of its way to pick the most unsuspecting actors/actresses to be in the movie. One would think, just pick the bottom of the barrel actors who may have a big film under their belt. The film has Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and freaking Robert De Niro to elevate the film to a degree of legitimacy that make people go “Hey, what’s he doing here?”.

3. Overall

        Machete is a great tribute to the Grindhouse films. A sequel was made, but it doesn’t come close to ever matching the level of violent and cheeky moments that the first film had.