(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So the Rodriguez-Tarrantino Grindhouse double feature included some fake movie trailers before and between the two movies. One of them was for a fake movie called Machete which looked like a Hispanic version of a 1970s Blaxploitation flick.
I know all of this because I was one of the 88 people who went to see Grindhouse in the theater. Okay, so I was the only person to see it twice. There- I admitted it- are you happy now?
Anyway, the Machete trailer was so over the top that Robert Rodriquez decided to make it into a full-fledged movie. Of course, I was morally obligated to go see it.
My reaction: meh.
Oh, there are some very funny scenes, especially for someone living in Arizona. The theater laughed out loud when Robert DeNiro’s Senator McLaughlin character was introduced. The film was set in Texas, but there was some obvious spoofing of Arizona pols included (e.g. John McLaughlin for John McCain).
The standard Blaxploitation/James Bond formula of a protagonist who only takes brief breaks from being a killing machine to serve as a babe magnet is in full swing, sprinkled with an occasional explosion and/or observation about the illegal immigration issue. This is not Shakespeare, it is not even Black Dynamite.
It is however entertaining if you are willing to check your brain at the ticket booth. Even then, it runs out of steam.
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