With Jim Sabatini

Machete

Rated: R
Reviewed by: Chris
Release date: September 3, 2010	Released by: Twentieth Century Fox

Right in the middle of the country's contentious immigration debate, comes director and co-writer Robert Rodriguez's gory take on the issue.

Machete (Danny Trejo) is an ex-Federale who works as an enforcer for a drug cartel. When they cross him, he goes on a one-man killing spree. He's in his 60's, has long, stringy hair that sticks to his railroad-tracked face, and he can use a big knife like nobody's business.

Whether you believe that the film opens up a dialogue on immigration, is a comic homage to "B" movies, or is just a blood drenched actioner, is all up to you.

From the naked women amid severed heads, to a scene where intestines are used to swing from, the violence is graphic, over-the-top and continual. Oh yeah, and thrown in for good measure, there's speeches about immigration.

The cast is diverse and unexpected. Robert DeNiro plays a corrupt anti-immigration Texas Senator, Steven Seagal is a Mexican drug lord , and even Don Johnson pops in for a visit. And Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodrigues co-star.

Machete has some dandy one liners, and I'm sure there is a message here (even though we're hit over the head with its one-sidedness), but the unending violence that permeates every frame, smothers it.