While the final battle at the end was awesome, I don’t see myself ever watching this film again. Oh, maybe I will since they apparently plan on making two sequels to the film. I smell a Direct to DVD/Blu-ray success here just like From Dusk Till Dawn. Can’t wait to own that triple pack for $5.99 from my local Wal-Mart…
Machete (2010)
Genre(s): Action
Fox | R – 105 min. – $39.99 | January 4, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez & Ethan Maniquis
Writer(s): Robert Rodriguez & Alvaro Rodriguez (written by)
Cast: Danny Trejo, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Don Johnson, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Cheech Marin
Theatrical Release Date: September 3, 2010
DISC INFO:
Features: Deleted Scenes, Audience Reaction Track, BD-Live, Digital Copy
Number of Discs: 2
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.85
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Codec: AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 2.5/5
When I first heard of Machete, it was when people were freaking out that it might not be included on the Blu-ray versions of Planet Terror / Death Proof. I was thinking to myself ‘It’s a trailer… for a fake film’. Apparently, people love it (and the others) so much that Robert Rodriguez decided to make an entire film out of the character. Personally, I was hoping for a film where a guy with a machete ran around killer people ala Kill Bill, but instead we got a piss-poor revenge film with little use of said machete and some Political message that I’m supposed to love illegal immigrants.
Machete (Trejo) is an ex-Federale who is living day to day on the streets trying to find work. Years before, while on a mission, his wife was killed and now he has apparently given up on life. That is, until Booth (Fahey) spots him and offers him a chance to make some money by killing a Texas Senator (De Niro) running for reelection You see, he hates illegals with a passion and wants to build a gigantic fence to keep them out of the United States but most of Texas does not agree with him. While seconds away from sniping him, Machete is double-crossed (!) and is now the prime target. This was all a giant plan to get sympathy for the senator who now lies in a hospital bed.
I’m baffled why so many people loved this film. While I felt it had some definite cool moments (Machete killing several people with a 360 spin move), I found the plot overall to be lacking any real punch and saw the ‘twist’ a mile away. The good part is we have Jessica Alba playing a kick-ass Immigration Officer wearing tight pants, Lindsey Lohan playing Booth’s daughter showing her boobs like crazy and Michelle Rodriguez leads an underground network of people trying to help illegal’s (looking pretty hot doing so).
At least the women look good and help pass the time because I was pretty bored with Machete about 30 minutes in. It quickly became a political ad to love illegal immigrants. While the final battle at the end was awesome (and how the film had like 5 people from “Lost” in it), I don’t see myself ever watching this film again. Oh, maybe I will since they apparently plan on making two sequels to the film. I smell a Direct to DVD/Blu-ray success here just like From Dusk Till Dawn. Can’t wait to own that triple pack for $5.99 from my local Wal-Mart…
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1/5
This release also includes a slip cover.
Audience Reaction Track – So, this is a bunch of people going ‘Woah!’, ‘OMG!!!’, ‘Daaaaamn!’.
Deleted Scenes (11 Minutes, HD) – Ten scenes that were removed from the film. I watched these hoping for something awesome, but instead found myself hoping they had cut more from the film.
Also included is a Digital Copy.
VIDEO – 3.5/5
Machete is presented in 1.85:1 (MPEG4) on a 50GB Disc. First off, remember, this is sort of Grindhouse-esque. The film starts off with lots of dirt, hair scratches, but eventually goes away to a (mostly) clean state. Colors are way too bright appearing almost as-if they thought the color of the setting sun would be an appropriate shade for the film. And at one point, the camera has a dead pixel (!), which made me pause, freak-out a bit (brand new TV), and insert the disc in another Blu-ray player/TV and confirm its part of the encoding and not my TV. Not funny.
AUDIO – 4.5/5
Fox has included an English 5.1 DTS MA Track for this release. Unlike the sad attempt at Picture Quality, the audio is pretty damn good. The swipes of the blade, the blood splattering, it all sounds very good and very real. Dialogue did fluctuate a bit in levels, but it wasn’t as bad as other Fox releases.
OVERALL – 3/5
Possibly a good popcorn flick, but overall I found Machete lacking in the story department. Having next to nothing in terms of features does not help either. This probably would make a great $7.99 purchase, otherwise you can skip it.
Brad Lowenberg
Published: 01/31/2011