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Machete
Gory, ridiculous, and good
Danny Trejo. Michelle Rodriguez. Jessica Alba. Steven Seagal. Jeff Fahey. Cheech Marin. Lindsay Lohan. And Robert De Niro. If that seems like an unlikely list of people to star in the same movie, well, here's Machete, and it has all of them in it. It is directed by Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez. This is Maniquis's first film; Rodriquez has made some good movies (Sin City, Spy Kids) and ones that I would rather not see again (The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, Shorts) The screenplay was written by Rodriguez and his cousin, Alvaro (he did the music for his cousin's film El mariachi).
Machete aims for one thing and one thing only: to make people laugh. And what can I say? I did. I didn't like fall out in the floor laughing at anything, but a lot of scenes made me roll my eyes and then snicker. But underneath all that fun lies a very serious study of American politics. It might even strike some nerves, but there's no denying its intent. It overplays border policy in such a way as to make someone go, "You know, maybe we should lighten up a little."
I'm not going to comment on the plot because honestly there's no reason. It's quite silly to be honest. It's supposed to be. I will, however, get into the performances, because believe it or not, there's good stuff here. If Danny Trejo does not get more attention after playing Machete, then somebody somewhere is an idiot. He hits all the right notes in this role. The best performance in the film belongs to Michelle Rodriguez, who is acutally trying very hard to go beyond the script and do good work. A complete opposite of these two would be Steven Seagal who is not trying and should not in any way try because I loved him in this movie and he was purposefully terrible. Robert De Niro and Jeff Fahey also caught my attention. Lindsay Lohan is instantly forgettable. Jessica Alba is not good at all and it had nothing to do with the script or the movie.
Is Machete good? I'm not quite sure that that's the question to be asking. It's going to come down to whether or not people get it. If they don't, they're probably taking it too seriously. If they do and still don't like it, they're probably not taking it seriously enough. It's just one of those kinds of movies. I enjoyed it myself. I thought it was very fun.
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