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Mr. Knife Guy

It's a widely-held (and entirely accurate) belief that 2007's "Grindhouse" - the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez ode to the 'sploitation movies of their youth - was memorable not for the feature-length entries of its two directors, but for the faux-previews that were interspersed throughout. Each short vignette, shot in the style of a preview for a real "Grindhouse" film, touted a movie that didn't really exist. I say "didn't" because now one of them does. The preview for "Machete" was helmed by Mr. Rodriguez himself and featured brief glimpses of a story about a Mexican vigilante played by Danny Trejo as the titular knife-wielding anti-hero. You can imagine the tequila-soaked idea-session that spawned the idea. It's really a no-brainer. And Mr. Rodriguez is just the man to make it happen.

Mr. Trejo, a burly character actor with a face like a relief-map, is forever playing the "heavy". He's the guy you see in a movie and say, "oh, it's that guy". But now Mr. Trejo is "second banana" no longer. In "Machete" he's put front-and-center, in an ass-kicking, tough-guy leading role that was tailored specifically for him. Mr. Trejo owes Mr. Rodriguez big time.

Machete, the character, is nothing new. He's a killing machine out for justice after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered. It's been done before. But Mr. Rodriguez does it with the type of campy glee that the hacks behind "Piranha 3D" could only dream of achieving. Plus, he wraps it all in a fairly clever plot involving drug lords, political intrigue, and a border-fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yes, Mr. Rodriguez aims to give illegal immigrants their hero. And whatever you think of his sense of humor or politics, you can't deny his Hollywood clout. Among his cast are: Cheech Marin as a gun-toting priest, Jessica Alba as a immigration officer, Steven Seagal (!) as a drug lord named Torrez, and Robert De Niro (double !) as a Senator. And that's to say nothing of Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsey Lohan (who acquits herself nicely - in the movie, at least).

The whole cast is in on the joke (yes, even Mr. Seagal) and they all manage to hit the right balance of sneer and wink. And Mr. Rodriguez - working from a script that he co-wrote with his cousin Álvaro Rodriguez and co-directed with Ethan Maniquis - gives his cast and his audience exactly what they want. Witness the shoot-out in a church to the tune of "Ave Maria", or the parade of hydraulically tricked-out cars riding to the final showdown, or any number of mini-skirted, gun-toting nurses/nuns/female cops. Yes, Mr. Rodriguez knows his audience; he's one of them.

In the end, it all starts to fizzle under the weight of its many characters, subplots, and shoot-outs. But along the way, "Machete" is good for a laugh, and it finally delivers on the promise of 2007's "Grindhouse". But more than anything else, it's one of the few movies (Grindhouse or otherwise) that actually delivers on its preview.