The New York Times says it's "conveniently timed to sprinkle gasoline on the fires of the immigration debate." Get ready for some talk-show rumbling as "Machete" splashes its gore across movie screens starting this weekend. Here are excerpts from five reviews:
Los Angeles Times: "'Machete' pits undocumented workers and their protectors against reactionary, bloodthirsty vigilantes and their sleazy political allies. Robert De Niro plays the Texas state senator running his campaign on a 'roll back the illegals, electrify the border fence' platform."
Associated Press: "Danny Trejo stars as a former Mexican federal cop on a rampage of vengeance against drug dealers, brutal politicians and other bad guys. Viewers get precisely what they're paying for: beheadings, skewerings and kill shots to the head by the dozen. They also get a crazy range of supporting players Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan all having a ball committing atrocities."
Rolling Stone: "This unholy mess replaces the artful ambition of 'The American' with torture, blood spray, kinky sex, twisted fun and a bizarro critique of U.S.policy on illegal immigration. It's a digital gorefest that expands on the faux trailer Robert Rodriguez included in 'Grindhouse,' the 2007 exploitation epic he unleashed with pal Quentin Tarantino."
New York Times: "'Machete' has already riled up hardliners in advance of its release. Although laughter is the appropriate response to this pulpy, lighthearted gorefest, its pro-Mexican, anti-American stance is so gleefully inflammatory that some incensed nativists may refuse to get the joke."
Philadelphia Inquirer: "By all rights, even gore hounds should be perturbed by the sheer level of gut-churning mayhem, sexual depravity, tasteless slapstick humor - and gallons of blood - hurled at the screen in Robert Rodriguez's post-cheez-ee retro grindhouse spectacle. Any college sophomore would find its less-than-subtle political message about the plight of Mexican immigrants in today's America so naive that it borders on the inane.
"But Machete, which stars Danny Trejo as Machete, a machete-wielding former Mexican cop who wreaks havoc on the men who killed his family, is, simply put, lovely. It's hard to think of another film this summer that offers such sheer anarchic fun"
