What happened to Robert Rodriguez? Did he not use to be cool? After 3 kiddy-capers I suppose it was hard for him to return to being a badass. It's not for lack of effort though.
Machete sometimes feels like deleted scenes from better films by the same director. The script is the same as before (drug kingpin, murdered loved one(s), revenge) and the cinematography as dusty as ever.
The acting is so atrocious that Steven Segal comes across as a treat whenever given the chance. Trejo shows us just why most his parts are silent henchmen that live for 30 seconds, whereas Alba and Lohan is as useless as ever. I doubt anyone has ever seen De Niro worse, and Sam Neill ...urgh. Seriously... when the only 2 pulling their weight on set is Segal and Don Johnson...
I know that Rodriguez is trying to pass this as a cool low-budget film. The problem is that I can't really take that seriously either when he uses shoddy CGI instead of good old mayonaise and tomatoes etc. It just looks daft, and when he shoots the entire film to look like a bad porno with regards to filter and lighting, the lameness has a name: Machete.
As usual, Rodriguez is good for a chuckle and a half and some cool violence (and plenty of T&A), but it's just nowhere near enough.
The acting is so atrocious that Steven Segal comes across as a treat whenever given the chance. Trejo shows us just why most his parts are silent henchmen that live for 30 seconds, whereas Alba and Lohan is as useless as ever. I doubt anyone has ever seen De Niro worse, and Sam Neill ...urgh. Seriously... when the only 2 pulling their weight on set is Segal and Don Johnson...
I know that Rodriguez is trying to pass this as a cool low-budget film. The problem is that I can't really take that seriously either when he uses shoddy CGI instead of good old mayonaise and tomatoes etc. It just looks daft, and when he shoots the entire film to look like a bad porno with regards to filter and lighting, the lameness has a name: Machete.
As usual, Rodriguez is good for a chuckle and a half and some cool violence (and plenty of T&A), but it's just nowhere near enough.
2/10
