Like many other the action-based movies, Machete mixes the commonly used plot lines and twists. The movie starts with Machete (Danny Trejo) falling into a trap, and his family being killed in front of his eyes. Then, of course, the villains try to kill him and leave him for dead. After these three years go by, and Machete has crossed the border to Texas and is working as a day laborer. One day, a man sees him fight, and then hires him to kill a senator who is against illegal immigrants. Surprise, this is a setup and Machete is on the run. Now he is out to prove his innocence, while bringing those who wronged him to justice. On his quest, he enlists the help of a taco cart owner, who secretly leads the underground network into America (Luz), and an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agent named Sartana. Lo and behold, his nemesis Torrez, the drug dealer who killed his family years before, is behind the scenes of the whole plot. He wants to close the borders so his drugs will skyrocket. After cutting his way through the first men, Machete believes that Luz, the taco cart owner, is dead and proceeds to take up her cause. He decides to take the fight to those who are working with his enemy, and get revenge for Luz in the process. As these movies go, the nemesis shows up and there is an altercation where Machete snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. Then Machete nends when the major character drives off into the night with his “woman”. Frankly, the basic premise of this movie is evident in the trailer. This included at least one of the major twists. However, there are still a few shocking and astonishing moments to lift your spirits.
The rest of Machete, continued to surprise me with its style of action. Robert Rodriguez goes back to the 1990s, pre-Matrix style of action films. Of course, he used pan, zoom tilt and all of the other terms that young filmmakers today typically don’t use well; but Rodriguez leaves out a lot of the techniques that have become typical of the action genre. The first major aspect I noticed in this movie was the lack of the “running cam”. This is where the camera shakes to make you feel like you are “running with the actor”. All of the camera shots were steady, even the explosions, giving a clear picture of the action. Also, Macheteused a lot of blood. Ok so that was a given, but this movie actually uses blood, and the computer generated images well. While I was never thinking that is believable, or that could happen, throughout the entire movie I didn’t notice one poorly made blood based action scene. Finally, another classic action style that Rodriguez uses is when he sticks with the classic fighting approaches. There were none of the x-ray hits or slow-time shots that have become commonplace in movies today, just an excess of graphic violence.
Machete wasn’t just action scene after action scene, though. There were also a lot of times that the entire theatre burst out laughing, and a few perverse times that I chuckled in spite of myself. This is done through a number of methods. The first of which is through characters. There are a few characters in this movie that are just meant to give you gut busting laughter.Added to this, were a number of scenes that were just darn funny in a slapstick way (cite examples). There was a healthy dose of dry humor added to Machete, which presented anamusing aspect to this movie(sort of repetitive – you covered humor already). By adding these elements of sporadic humor, the audience was given a break from the constant intensity of the action scenes. I wish that I could tell you some anecdote that will have you rolling, but many of the comic relief came in the form of visual comedy. One example is Lindsay Lohan in a nun’s habit.This is definitely not the habit I expected to see her embracing in this movie, hey maybe she is using Danny Trejo as a role model. Nah, it’s too much to hope.
As I mentioned before, the characters really made this movie. Danny Trejo leads the cast of stars, once again gaining the role of a scarred, tough badass. I could go into a lot of detail about how good Trejo plays this character, but the evidence is in a number of his other movies. This is due to the fact that this is a role he plays quite often. However, I did notice a new depth to Trejo’s facial expressions and mannerisms in this movie. They turned him from a hard-hitting tough guy, into a thoughtful hard- hitting tough guy; the next star has to be Jessica Alba. Like many of her movies she plays the sultry vixen, who still knows how to kick ass in high heels. Though this was the case in Machete, Alba will get the most notoriety from her shower scene. That’s right guys; Jessica Alba is in a shower without a curtain obscuring her. Enjoy. The next major actor was Michelle Rodriguez. Once again, she played the sultry woman who could probably beat the pulp out of most guys. To get a feel for her character just mix Jessica Alba with Rambo. Another twounexpected actors in Machete were Robert De Niro and Steven Seagal. These two men also shared a common characteristic, their accents. Both of these notable actors adopted, or tried to adopt a completely foreign accent than they are associated with when playing their characters this film. Seagal tries to speak with a Mexican accent, while Robert De Niro talks like a Texan. I don’t know if you can even imagine the New Yorker with a southern twang, and I must admit that I was speechless the first time that I heard it. This being a Robert Rodriguez movie, Cheech Merin made an appearance. He brought a majority of the comedic scenes to Machete while still being a man, well holy man, of action. There were a lot more recognizable actors in this movie, but one other actress that needs to be discussed is Lindsay Lohan. She plays the typical model, also known as a porn star who is a drug addict, and ends the movie being a gun toting, habit wearing killer.
If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed Machete. However, it is not for everyone. The major draw of this movie to me was the gruesome violence and the devil may care attitude that was presented. Frankly, there were a number of cheap shots taken and tasteless jokes or scenes used. Some of which having naked women running around for no reason. I would not recommend going to this movie with anybody, who you are not positive won’t mind the excessive crude, rude and offensive aspects of this film. This is one of those movies that I can’t wait to add to my collection. This movie should have probably been rated NC-17; not sure how it got an R rating. I am not even sure the priest from this movie could absolve you from watching it, and he is a cursing, murdering S.O.B. If you are willing to take a chance and are not easily offended I would say give Machete a chance.