Immigration politics, the Trejo way

"You just f*cked with the wrong Mexican."

The titular character faces off with B-movie thesp Seagal

Robert Rodriguez's "Machete" started life as a fake trailer that played with the "Grindhouse" double bill a few years ago, "Planet Terror" (also by Rodriguez) and "Death Proof" (Tarantino). It showed an insane series of images of Rodriquez regular Danny Trejo dispatching of many villains in various bloody ways. So popular was the trailer (some critics preferred it to both "Planet" and "Proof") that Rodriguez developed a feature film based on the concept, and here is the result: "Machete", a semi-grindhouse quasi-exploitation-cum-political-commentary flick. It's moderately successful as exploitation (if you're into that kind of thing), and superficially successful as socio-political commentary ("Immigrants are People Too!")

In addition to cult figure Trejo, a former convict turned actor, the film features a rather bland Jessica Alba, a brief Lindsey Lohan, and Michelle Rodriguez in a gendered spin on a certain Latin American revolutionary. In addition to these, there's also Steven Seagal as the big baddie, Torrez; a mostly silhouetted Don Johnson as a corrupt cop; Robert de Niro as a twisted congressman; and Jeff Fahey, the original "Lawnmower Man" and almost-star of one-time TV hit "The Marshall", as a political schemer, Booth, who compels Machete to action.

Years ago, Mexican federale Machete suffered a great personal tragedy during a bust gone wrong. Now, the near legendary former lawman is a part-time manual labourer. Things change when Fahey spots Machete in a fight, and pays him a lot of money to assassinate a local congressman. Things do not go as planned, and Machete finds himself betrayed, on the run and with a need for vengeance that seems driven more by functionality (vengeance is inevitable) than passion. Vengeance is cold, brutal and caked in blood, and "Machete" commits to a hyperviolence so far beyond the real that it crosses into that area where moral disgust dissipates into a technicality. I cannot go into too much details, but there's a scene where Machete improvises a hospital escape that gives new meaning to notions of inner strength.

The film capitalises optimally on Trejo's unique screen presence, and when he says "Machete don't text", you believe him. The film is called "Machete". I don't have anything more to add.