Machete kills and kills again.
Merriam-Webster.com defines campy as “something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing.”
Campy is the blatant theme throughout the movie “Machete.” The directors (Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis), the several big name actors (Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, and Cheech Marin) and the rest of the crew were all on board to deliver this nostalgic, over-the-top film. It seemed that they wanted to make a fun film where the audience could shut their minds off for two hours to watch outrageous fight scenes, drug use, and the occasional nudity scene without feeling guilty about being politically incorrect.
Why “Machete” though? Where did it come from? To give you the background story – Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up a few years ago and made a grindhouse film, named, well, “Grindhouse.” A grindhouse, according to Merriam-Webster.com, is “an often shabby movie theater having continuous showings especially of pornographic or violent films.” The Rodriguez/ Tarantino collaboration weighed more on the violent side. Rodriguez had his film, “Planet Terror,” at the beginning and Tarantino had his film, “Death Proof,” at the end. Sandwiched between these two films were trailers for fictional movies. One of these fictional trailers was for “Machete.”
“Machete” played by Danny Trejo (“Heat,” “Spy Kids,” “Predators,” you will know his face when you see it) plays the title character who starts the film as a Federale in Mexico that is double-crossed by his agency and loses his family to a ruthless Mexican overlord, Torrez (played by Steven Segal, remember him?).
Three years later Machete is in Texas looking for day work while the immigration wars are heating up among Texans, mainly Robert De Niro and Don Johnson (remember him?) and the rest of the illegal Mexican population. Machete is hired by Booth (played by Jeff Fahey, does that name ring a bell?) to assassinate Sen. McLaughlin (De Niro). After another double cross, Machete is on the run. But, he is in luck; there is an underground Mexican network to help him out of almost any jam where he finds himself.
Have you ever heard that coincidence doesn’t work in fiction? It’s a shortcut through the thinking process. That rule doesn’t apply when it comes to campy, B-movies. Out of all the illegal immigrants and high power officials in Texas it just so happen that everyone is connected. No worries though, the story line isn’t as important as the bad acting which will stick in your head if you think about it too much. Heck, even Lindsay Lohan (I won’t bother to ask if you remember her) has a part in this melee. And, she doesn’t even have to act, she only has to play her own drug-addicted starlet self and it still comes off as bad acting.
Furthermore, the bad acting isn’t even comparable to the gore and violence. The folks at Looney Tunes couldn’t have come up with better cartoonish violent acts. The violence in “Machete” does add in the excessive blood and guts factor (and when I write guts I really mean GUTS, you will see actual guts).
The cartoonish violence doesn’t take away from the focus of the racial stereotyping. The writers (Robert Rodriguez helped pen the screenplay along with Alvaro Rodriguez) left no stone unturned when thinking of any Mexican cultural stereotypical reference. Illegal Mexican workers – check. Mexicans with lots of tattoos and wrap-around sunglasses – got ‘em. Mexicans with low riders and the hydraulics to boot – wouldn’t forget those. Mexicans in a Catholic Church – why, of course, aren’t all Mexicans Catholic? Mexicans working a taco stand – yep, all Mexicans eat tacos. The entire film was overrun with so many outrageously artificial scenarios that the audience was given no other choice but to accept this as an action/ satire film.
Should you see this movie? Only if you know what you are getting yourself into. If you are politically correct, don’t have a sense of humor, don’t like violence of any kind, haven’t seen or didn’t like “Planet Terror” then stay away, go see “Eat Pray Love” one more time. For the rest of us, take a little trip and see it.
