Machete (2010): United States – directed Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez
Rated R by the MPAA – contains nudity, drug use, language, racism, sexual content, extreme violence, gore
Machete is precisely what Grindhouse should have been back in 2007: an homage to a simpler time, when movies had fewer production values, more blood, insane action, outrageous plots, and more nudity. The movie starts with a bang and a slash and continues strongly to an even more ridiculous climactic battle, and all of it is tied together with a strong, silent performance from Danny Trejo.
Trejo plays Machete, a Federale who got caught up in the wrong drug war. Three years ago the evil drug lord Torrez (Steven Segal) brutally murdered his wife. Machete survived and eventually found his way north of the border. Here he works as a day laborer until the day a sharply dressed man named Booth (Jeff Fahey) watches him dispatch another immigrant in a fight without even raising a fist.