Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Machete Review
Grit, gore, sex, and...immigration. What more could you want from a Robert Rodriquez film? Rodriquez ( Sin City; Once Upon A Time In Mexico) brings to life a feature length film from a simple trailer made for a Grindhouse double feature between him and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction; Kill Bill) Machete. Machete brings us a cheesy campy film with the underlying issue of immigration and something that while comical really sparks thoughts in the heads of viewers. Machete (Danny Trejo: Heat) is a day laborer hired to kill a backwards senator set to build a wall on the Mexico/USA border. Sound familiar? When the shot is about to go down our title character realizes he's been set up and has to begin the run/fight of his life. Through twists, turns, porn, and many decapitations Machete must fight for what is right along with his immigrant partners. This ensemble cast including Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver; Deer Hunter), Jessica Alba (Sin City; Fantastic Four), Steven Seagal (Under Siege), and many others bring everything you could possibly want out of this Mexploitation film and while maybe not for the queasy, makes for a quite enjoyable B movie. Mexploitation films bring about the exploitation of Mexican culture such as crime, drug trafficking, money, and sex. This film covers all of those within the first ten minutes and continues to intensify throughout the film. Cheesy, campy, B movies hardly ever grab my attention, but after seeing Grindhouse in theaters the trailer for Machete definitely intrigued me. Watching Machete for the first time in theaters I was there with an open mind and left entertained, but with a serious thought about immigration in my mind. Sometimes we need that simple underlying tone on a serious topic to bring out the truth, and I believe Rodriquez did his job perfectly in bringing this issue to light. I encourage viewers to go in with an open mind and look for the underlying issues Rodriquez put into this incredible film.
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I agree fully that this film for sure isn't for the queasy, totally over the top action, which might limit some of the audience, but if people are seeking an action film, hopefully they can suck it up and enjoy the visual feast that Machete is. Rodriguez I feel uses a lot of the same gore effects he used in Planet Terror, which is excessive and sometimes quite disgusting, but it has that cut-throat visualization that makes it hard to look away from the screen as one blink and you might miss something spectacular. I also saw Grindhoouse in theaters, which I was always hoping after Machete would come out as an actual movie, and it did, but Machete not once until this course would I have really thought about the immigration issue or mexpolotation. However if this movie was released recently, I would have, it seems more relevant now than at the time of its release. Not sure if Machete being what it is though should really be trying to open up viewers minds to the messed up immigration issue and the cruelty of it all.
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