Movie Review: ‘MACHETE’

Three years ago, general audiences were treated to a Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature known as Grindhouse.  While fans generally loved the hell out of it, it didn’t go over well with the general public and was quickly ushered out in the majority of theatres within the initial 2 weeks.  What everyone seemed to the love the most were the faux trailers.  One of those trailers was Machete which placed Rodriguez’s minor role baddie Danny Trejo in a starring role.  Now, they made a movie about it and beyond the break, you will find the review…

When I saw Grindhouse on my birthday weekend in 2007, it was the best birthday present I could see.  A true double feature.  Something that, unfortunately, I have never experienced during its initial run back in the 80’s.  I always wanted to go to the drive-in, but my parents never got around to taking me.  To this day, I have never been to a drive-in (I want this to be corrected immediately).

The faux trailer of Machete cracked me up a good deal.  It also sold me on something that I would love to see the feature film of.  However, like the majority of exploitation trailers, sometimes, the trailer was better than the movie.  I had doubts.  Then, I heard about the cast that was being wrangled into the film – DeNiro(!?), Don Johnson (with an introducing credit?!), Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey – and figured that this could actually be pretty fun.  For the most part, Machete is fun.

Just like the trailer, we Machete tells the story of Machete (Danny Trejo) as he is trying to find work as a day laborer when he is picked up and offered to kill senator McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro) “for the good of both of our people” by a man named Booth (Jeff Fahey).  Machete accepts the job but is double-crossed by Booth and left for dead.  This is where the movie veers off a little from the trailer.

In between the attempted assassination and Machete’s revenge, is Sartana (Jessica Alba) who is a US Immigration and Customs officer trying to gather intel for the government on an illegal immigrant organization known as “The Network”.  Sartana is usually stationed staking out a Mexican fast food truck operated by Luz (Michelle Rodriguez).  Sartana believes that Luz might be a ringleader of this network, however Machete catches Sartana’s eye as a person of interest and finds out that Machete used to be an ex-federale.

The reason audiences loved the trailer was because it was so outrageous, funny and cut all ties with reality.  While the over-the-top scenes are here, with Machete’s Hospital Massacre being a highlight, the film starts to run on fumes towards the end.  Mostly due to the heavy handed political illegal immigrant stance that the film takes.  It almost spoils a good time, but there is still a lot of fun to be had.  While the film really doesn’t feel as bombastic as it should – in fact, it really feels like a higher budget direct-to-video film – fans of the faux trailer will like it even if I think that Machete could have used some sharpening.