Machete
Machete originated as the first and arguably best of the fake trailers in the Grindhouse double feature from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. I thought the trailer was amazing and when it was announced that Rodriguez would be making a feature length version of Machete I was intrigued. In the end, however, Machete as a movie is too inconsistent to be the insane, camp-fest I was hoping for.
There's a lot of entertainment value in Machete to be sure. Danny Trejo is fantastic as the title character while Cheech Marin and Jeff Fahey round out a decent cast. Most of the action is decent and there are several very funny moments throughout the film. My biggest problem with Machete is how bloated it is. For an all-out action story about a bad-ass Mexican ex-federale there is a lot of downtime that drags the movie down. Several characters and plot lines could have been eliminated, resulting in a leaner more watchable movie. To make matters worse the climax of the movie is a terrible action scene. After several solid sequences and creative kills earlier in the film, this final battle lands with a thud. Machete isn't a bad movie, but it doesn't live up to the promise of the trailer or come close to Rodriguez's better work. 3/5
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