Movie Review: MACHETE!

Robert Rodriguez new film, MACHETE, opened this week, and in talking about I don't want to give too much away or set the stage for too many expectation. Blood, guts, steel, subterfuge, redemption and heat. Women with smooth skin and men who hide behind their pores and scars. There, I've said enough -- probably too much.

With both kids ensconced at friend's homes for sleep overs, my wife and I headed out for some grownup fun. Thankfully, Rodriguez homage to 70's era socially critical exploitation films satisfies completely with daunting and delicious self-aware glee.

I'm usually not one to celebrate violence as a trope for social justice, but Rodriguez' use of satire as a political weapon is so carefully honed and cinematically honeyed that I was sucked in to even the film's most explicitly depicted death scenes. The good guys are really good, and the bad guys are really really bad in this bloody critique on American xenophobia. I even laughed out loud during several moments, and I never laugh out loud.

While the film won't garner any academy award nods for acting, the actors (big names and small) all make perfect sense in and of their roles. Further, it's always nice to see Austin, TX put to good use as the interesting and complicated small big-city that it is.

Fortunately for me, my wife also found the movie to be an awesome visual and visceral escape from our routine kid-centric forays in cinema. I highly recommend to those of you with a refined taste for satire, slaughter and revenge hewn justice.