September 02, 2010 03:45PM EDT
Machete
TFF Founder Robert De Niro plays dress-up with scrappy auteur Robert Rodriguez.
Robert Rodriguez’s films are always filled with jokey celebrity cameos. Whether they’re current A-list stars (George Clooney in Spy Kids) paying a favor to the scrappy filmmaker, or B-list, aging action heroes looking for a little bit of career rejuvenation (Sylvester Stallone in Spy Kids 3D), their narrative purpose seems tied to a singular, concept or image. 
Likewise, Machete, a feature-length adaptation of Rodriguez’s fake Grindhouse trailer, is a variety show of stars playing sketch-comedy-dress up: Lindsay Lohan as a naughty girl-turned-avenging nun, Steven Seagal as a Mexican drug lord (in a Mandarin-collar shirt, mocking his goofy martial-arts roles), Michelle Rodriguez as Michelle Rodriguez… and TFF Founder Robert De Niro as a xenophobic Texas state senator, disguised in flannel and jeans as a gun-toting, illegal Mexican immigrant.
It’s a late-film relief to hear De Niro’s villain (who plans to create an electrified barrier over the Mexican border) break out of his Texan twang and into his trademark New York accent. Rodriguez may have hit upon a topical gold mine by releasing a film about the Texas/Mexico border while Arizona’s immigration wars ignite debate, but he’s more movie-savvy than anything else: he knows what an audience expects from its celebrities.
Despite of all the star power, it’s Danny Trejo as the eponymous lead who stands out among the ensemble. As an ex-Mexican federal agent, Trejo has one badass deadpan. Heads are lopped off, and fake blood-packets explode everywhere, but Machete’s comic ultra-violence is never really queasy, because Rodriguez utilizes tough-looking actors for the action—they look like they can handle it. It’d be a completely different movie if baby-faced co-star Jessica Alba (TFF 2010 juror), instead of Trejo, was the one who used a henchman’s intestines as a bungee chord.
Machete opens Friday, September 3. Find a theater near you.
Watch the trailer:
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