Review: Machete

After leaving the theater where we saw Robert Rodriguez's newest movie "Machete", my friend Alex commented on how it's definitely targeted at a specific group. It definitely is. It's easy to see how many people would be shocked, offended, and possibly disgusted by the absurd amount of violence. And it's easy to find fault with such a ludicrous storyline that pays little to no attention to what many people deem "necessary" or "important" to any story. However, it's hard to take such a serious stand against a movie that is in no way serious at all.

It's next to impossible that "Machete" is a 'bad' movie when it's not trying to be greatl. In fact, everything about it is purposely on the verge of terrible. Anyone who's seen "Desperado", "Once Upon in Mexico" or any of Rodriguez's other films knows exactly what I'm talking about. "Desperado" is silly and totally unbelievable but it's one of the most entertaining movies I've seen for a long time. Both "Desperado" and "Machete" tend to be that type of movie where you're just waiting for the next action sequence after a bit of dialogue to move the actual plot forward. So in reality all that matters here is the over-the-top action and violence you're hoping for, and believe me, you'll get it. And often times it's easy to point at movies like these and call them terrible for being 1-dimensional flicks that rely only on one aspect to get people in the theater.

But then you look at Michael Bay movies and other action flicks that rely on the explosions and gunfire to draw an audience and they are just terrible. Why? The tone. Michael Bay (I pick on him all the time) tries to make his movies so epic and serious that you end up laughing at what he's trying to do. Rodriguez knows what he's trying to do and that is to make you laugh at the absurdity, because "Machete" really is an action comedy. Rodriguez is great at keeping his movies from getting anywhere near being serious and trying to be awesome or whatever it was Bay was trying to do with "The Rock". Even when Jessica Alba's character gets up on a car and shouts "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!", it's still ridiculous and funny. Naturally "Machete" has a pro-illegal immigrant message attached to it, but the way in which it is delivered is in no way distracting or to be taken that seriously.  

Instead, we just sit back and root for Danny Trejo's Machete as he beheads and mangles a bunch of bad guys. I have to admit the story gets a bit lazy and random at the end. I wish Steven Seagal's character could've gone out in a more epic manner along with most of the main bad guys in general, but I was still pretty satisfied. Although I think Antonio Banderas' El Mariachi character in "Desperado" is Rodriguez's best hero, Machete is definitely a close second and, in his own words, a Mexican you don't want to f*** with.