Saturday 8 March 2014

Machete (2010)



There's a spoiler on the cover of this DVD. It's not a big one, really, and I'd seen the movie before so it didn't impact me personally, but it's pretty poor form nonetheless. I feel a little guilty about including a picture of the DVD above, but you're going to see it if you buy the thing, so ...

Of course, Machete is best known for originating as a fake trailer in the Grindhouse double feature. Ironically, the trailer was more entertaining than the movies it supported. The question is, once turned into a movie itself, how did it work out?

Pretty well, actually. I mean, it's a very very silly movie, but it makes no pretense to be anything else. Danny Trejo monosyllabically stalks through the film, slaughtering bad guys with a host of wildly improbable weapons and bedding women young enough to be his daughter. Or in Lindsay Lohan's case, his granddaughter.

The plot? Well, there is one, I guess. Machete is a Mexican Federale, and a perpetual thorn in the side of drug dealer Torrez. Through a series of convoluted events, he ends up in the US, and is dragged into a political struggle over illegal immigrants. With Machete involved, the political soon turns physical, and the streets run with gringo blood. Also explosions, bosoms and absurdly macho dialogue. It's a fun film. Not a film that will surprise you overly much, but a fun one.

See it if you're in the mood for a manic action movie that's deliberately trying to look as cheap and nasty as possible. It does a much better job of that than Grindhouse did, that's for sure.

1 comment:

  1. Loved it so much we saw it twice in one day on first release.

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