MacHete (Blu-ray) (2010)

"...entertainingly over-the-top, ultraviolent exploitationer...  Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"...makes grade-Z stoic invincibility cool again...  Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"...a digital gorefest...  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...The pace is swift,the tone playful, the screenplay peppered with one-liners...  Stephen Holden, New York Times
"...wit, moviemaking skill, and a cast to die for...  Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Editor's Note Robert Rodriguez brings a new breed of antihero to the big screen in this hyper-violent adaptation of the "fake" trailer originally featured in the 2007 double-feature exploitation throwback GRINDHOUSE. Machete (Danny Trejo) is a former Mexican Federale who plays by his own rules, and doesn't answer to anybody. In the wake of a harrowing encounter with feared drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal), Machete finds himself in Texas, where the shadowy Booth (Jeff Fahey) offers him the opportunity to make some quick cash by assassinating the unscrupulous Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro). When the job goes awry and Machete realizes he's been set up, he turns to fierce taco queen Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), heavily armed holy man Padre (Cheech Marin), and trigger-happy socialite April (Lindsay Lohan) to show Booth that he just messed with the wrong Mexican. But before they can get to Booth, Machete's gang will have to contend with blade-wielding ICE agent Sartana (Jessica Alba), who never met an adversary she couldn't flay.

	Robert De Niro
	Michelle Rodriguez
	Danny Trejo
	Steven Seagal
	Jessica Alba
	Ara Celi - Co-Star
	Shea Whigham - Co-Star
	Russell Towery - Stunt Coordinator
	Tito Larriva - Co-Star
	Lindsay Lohan - Co-Star
	Gilbert Trejo - Co-Star
	Nimrod Antal - Co-Star
	Vic Trevino - Co-Star
	Cheech Marin - Co-Star
	Tom Savini - Co-Star
	Daryl Sabara - Co-Star
	Chris Warner - Co-Star
	Al "Train" Dias - Co-Star
	Hugo Perez - Co-Star
	Tina Rodriguez - Co-Star
	Juan Pareja - Co-Star
	Brent Smiga - Co-Star
	Electra Avellan - Co-Star
	Jason Douglas - Co-Star
	Elise Avellan - Co-Star
	Feliz Sabates - Co-Star
	Jim Henry - Co-Star
	Edgar Arreola - Co-Star
	Billy Blair - Co-Star
	Marci Madison - Co-Star
	Mayra Leal - Co-Star
	Alejandro Antonio - Co-Star
	Alicia Marek - Co-Star
	Mitchell Lance Adams - Co-Star
	Roland Ruiz - Co-Star
	Greg Ingram - Co-Star
	Cheryl "Chin" Cunningham - Co-Star
	Nina Leon - Co-Star
	J. Hudson Brownlee - Co-Star
	Dimitrius Pulido - Co-Star
	Scott Jefferies - Co-Star
	Tommy Nix - Co-Star
	Jeff Fahey - Co-Star
	Doran Ingram - Co-Star
	Don Johnson - Co-Star
	Robert Rodriguez - Screenwriter
	Robert Rodriguez - Sound Re-Recording
	David Vincent Rimer - Assistant Director
	Bart Brown - Set Decorator
	James W. McCormick - Special Effects
	Troublemaker Digital Studios - Visual Effects Designer
	Jimmy Lindsey - Director of Photography
	Dominic Cancilla - Production Manager/UPM
	Robert Brown - Special Effects
	Everett Byrom III - Special Effects Supervisor
	Craig Byrom - Special Effects
	Brad Engleking - Sound Re-Recording
	Alvaro Rodriguez - Screenwriter
	Chingon - Composer
	Meredith Johns - Special Makeup Effects
	Robert Trevino - Special Effects
	Ethan Maniquis - Director
	Robert Rodriguez - Director

Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The action constitutes a virtual cornucopia of impalings, severed appendages and decapitations, along with the requisite spurting of blood." 08/31/2010

New York Times
"[A] pulpy, lighthearted gorefest....Mr. Trejo offers an amusing inside-out caricature of the Hollywood stereotype of a Latin American drug cartel's sinister enforcer..." 09/02/2010

Rolling Stone
"It's a digital gorefest that expands on the faux trailer Robert Rodriguez included in GRINDHOUSE..." 09/02/2010

Hollywood Reporter
"MACHETE delivers the '70s-style B-movie goods....Trejo has an imposing physicality and formidable presence..." 09/01/2010

Premiere
"Never too grim or too jokey, MACHETE manages to maintain an enjoyable nutso temperament throughout." 09/02/2010

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "Rodriguez combines sharp satire and timely political commentary with a decidedly B-movie ethos. 09/04/2010

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] gory, pulpy wink of an action thriller....The violence is splatterifically witty, but the minor marvel of MACHETE is how mean everyone in the movie is." -- Grade: B 09/10/2010

Movieline
"[A] cheeky, freewheeling return to exploitation homage....This is a movie that hits hard from first to last..." 09/01/2010

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Born to play the part, Trejo excels, delivering his lines like he wields his weapon -- with a cutting and deadly efficiency." 10/22/2010

Uncut
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a predictably trashy B-movie, very much in keeping with the GRINDHOUSE sensibility....Rodriguez throws in all the sleazy cult-flick treats he can muster." 12/01/2010

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "Trejo, naturally, is awesome....The action sequences, when they arrive, are as audacious and brilliantly staged as we've come to expect from Rodriguez." 11/24/2010

Movieline 8 of 10
... Though the film can't reasonably maintain this 10-gags-a-minute trajectory, it sure does try. Forget modulation, nuance or storytelling, this is a movie that hits hard from first to last, no questions asked or logic followed. - Eric Hynes

Time 8 of 10
...Rodriguez has assembled a crazy-quilt cast, from multiple-Oscar winner De Niro to Seagal and Fahey: widely acclaimed as two of the very worst actors of the past few decades but who both fill their villain roles like the tasty junk food inside a taco...Designed and destined to win no awards, Machete is expert, cartoon-violent, lighthearted fun. Just the thing to send Junior back to school in a good mood. - Richard Corliss