Machete Directed by Robert Rodriguez Opens Friday: 1st Review So-so

Robert Rodriguez’s immigrant-revenge fantasy, Machete, opens in theaters on Friday. What should you expect? Slant Magazine has the first review of the film, which originally appeared as a phony trailer during Grindhouse and stars Danny Trejo as an immigrant who is double-crossed when he tries to assassinate a senator played by Robert DeNiro. Slant Magazine complains, “Too often taking its foot off the blade-slaughter nastiness and sweaty titillation in favor of proselytizing about Southern conservatives' villainy and illegal immigrants' decency, the film mistakenly chooses to articulate its viewpoints not through gonzo scenarios, but through underlined speechifying and, as with the story's coda, labored irony.” Slant also says the film “spends so much time on supporting characters”—it includes turns by Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, and Michelle Rodriguez, among others—that “Machete himself drops out of sight for extended stretches.”