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‘Machete’ will split your sites

By Angela Espinoza

pril 6, 2007 was an Easter
weekend I’d never forget.
Back in a time when I hadn’t

seen many movies, Grindhouse was a
huge turning point in my life. A new
person came out of that theatre, and
one of her goals was to see Machete

finally made into a full-length feature.

For the last three years I’ve been
counting down almost to the second
to see Machete (2010), and the wait
more than paid off.

Machete is the story of an ex-
‘Federale’ known only as Machete
(Danny Trejo). During a failed bust
of drug lord Torrez (Steven Segal),
Machete’s wife and daughter are
murdered. Now, three years later,

Robert Rodriguez’s latest epic is as hilarious as it is violent

Texas is gradually becoming a
warzone between the men of the law
and illegal Mexican immigrants.
Machete is hired by businessman
Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey) to
assassinate Senator John McLaughlin
(Robert De Niro), whose entire
campaign is based on kicking illegal
immigrants out. But when Machete
finds himself in a set-up, he receives
aide from Luz (Michelle Rodriguez),
a badass taco-truck owner, his priest
brother Padre (Cheech Marin), and
immigrations officer Sartana (Jessica
Alba).

The first thing you need to know
is that if Inception (2010) is the
greatest live-action film this year (so
far), then Machete is the most fun.
From the dialogue to the casting to

the violence, this has to be one of
Dir. Robert Rodriguez’s best movies.
The film was made to look similar to
the other Grindhouse movies, Planet
Terror (Rodriguez) and Death Proof
(Quentin Tarantino). However, it
holds back much of the ‘scratches’
and ‘missing reels’ the previous
featured. Rodriguez noticeably chose
to splice in scenes from the original
trailer; personally, I would’ ve liked
to see the shots redone, but I suppose
leaving the original scenes untouched
provides fan-service.

The wide range of actors featured
in Machete is mindboggling — in
hindsight. Seeing Robert De Niro in
a film with Steven Segal and Lindsay
Lohan isn’t as strange when you see
the final product. While I did love the

Bie

casting, it’s off-putting to see Lohan
in a movie where she’s attempting to
make a tough-girl parody of herself.
It’s not that she’s terrible in her role,
but knowing the train wreck she
really is makes it awkward. As for
Alba, who I generally despise seeing
on screen, she makes her character
surprisingly likeable and entertaining.

Machete isn’t a ‘so-bad-it’s-
good’ film like Piranha 3D (2010),
as I have a feeling many of you are
thinking. It stands out as its own great
movie, and if we’re lucky, it’l] start
something of a franchise.

4/5

OOOOC)

9

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