Too late to review this exploitation movie? We don't think so!

Once again, Robert Rodriguez brings forth a masterpiece of carnage, sex, and Mexicans to the silver screen. This time it stars one of the key actors in his camp, Danny Trejo, who brings a level of intensity to the role similar to Clint Eastwood’s performances in the Spaghetti Westerns in the 60s, and features an incredibly varied cast that stretches from Jessica Alba to Robert de Niro to Steven Seagal. And for all its campy gruesomeness, Machete is a wonderful exploitation film from one of the modern kings of the genre.

The film’s lurid nature is unquestionable; within the first five minutes there is not only nudity and gore, but a girl calling from a cell phone that pulled out of her vagina. On to exploding heads, crucifixion, lopped off limbs, and sizeable vomit, it is easily on par with its sister films from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, the double feature Grindhouse (2007). And while many people would call this silly and excessive, it is just within the realm of the films that these filmmakers grew up loving and watching over and over again. There is something to be said about their ability to turn unprecedented violence into artfully handled entertainment that will leave you laughing and smiling throughout the movie.

The story is convoluted enough to allow for several strong and interesting characters to surface, including Cheech Marin’s priest, a man hardly without sin, Michelle Rodriguez’s revolutionary “Shé” (no doubt a reference to both Che Guevara and Rodriguez’s own Él, and Michelle’s sexiest character to date), Don Johnson as a border Lieutenant with an lethal loyalty to “his daddy’s land,” and even Seagal as the drug lord at the root of everyone’s problems. Another character just as obligatory to Rodriguez’s films as Trejo, special effects and makeup legend Tom Savini, shows up for a few scenes as a bounty hunter named Osiris (I’d be untrue to my roots if I didn’t acknowledge his brief performance). But as far as the central plot is concerned, this is about a man with no country fighting for justice and his right to simply live. Trejo’s face highlights the tired and tortured ex-Federale’s never ending struggle, adding a level of realism to Machete’s lurid and sensationalist tone.

The film’s tone is set in a similar vein as Rodriguez’s more recent films, Planet Terror (2007) and Sin City (2005), using explosive computer gore in addition to an obscene amount of fake blood that’s nearly black. Machete also maintains the worn-out and dusty feel, characteristic of Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy and From Dusk till Dawn (1996), and serves to compliment the protagonist’s own aging nature.

It’d be hard to address this film and not talk about how the subject matter is relevant to today’s world, but I don’t think this movie offers any true insights into the problem. From a film that grew out of an outlandish teaser in-between a double feature (Grindhouse), I’d say that its relation to the current situation on the US-Mexico border is more coincidental. More than anything I’d say this film tries to be pure popcorn fun with markedly badass characters and tons of gore, which it definitely achieves.