An exploitation film is a film that exploits some talked about fear or trend in culture in order to sell tickets to a movie that is probably not very good. Exploitation films are usually low budget, badly made B-movies, with a certain charm to them, if you like [Tommy Wiseau]()'s work. 2010's [Robert Rodriguez]() film *Machete* is, somewhat of an intentional attempt at recreating the exploitation film phenomenon. Which exploits US politics of 2025, somehow. ( Rodriguez must have a time machine somewhere in his studio ).

The film is about ICE and immigration of Mexicans into the USA. Or because it is an exploitation film ( or a parody of one ) it is a satire of ICE and immigration of Mexicans into the USA. And the movie is fucking hilarious, while simultaneously being fucking serious. This is a movie where you both get a guy named Machete use guts of a bad guy as a rope to swing out of a window like Tarzan, and a scene where border patrol of the USA kills a pregnant woman in fear of her giving birth on the US soil, because if somebody is born in the US, they are automatically a US citizen. I mean... if you don't like such intense emotional whiplashes, maybe stay away from this movie.

[Quentin Tarantino]() famously envies the ability of Robert Rodriguez to just endlessly produce B-movie parodies all the time. They did the *Grindhouse* project together where both of them made one B-movie parody to be shown as a double-feature. Rodriguez made *Planet Terror* and Tarantino made [Death Proof](/reviews/death_proof_2007_is_a_genious_art_house_action_film_that_people_didn_t_get), which was the lowest rated movie in his career because nobody fucking got the joke. Tarantino needed to recover, making very intentionally great cinema pictures. While Rodriguez didn't give a flying fuck, and kept making B-movie parodies.

As a part of the *Grindhouse* project, to give the audiences the full experience, they produced fake trailers for fake movies ( with a help of a few director friends ). [Rob Zombie]() ( that is a name of a film director ) made a fictional trailer of a film called *Werewolf Women of the SS*. [Edgar Wright]() ( who directed *Hot Fuzz*, [Scott Pilgrim](/reviews/Scott_Pilgrim_vs_The_World) and [Baby Driver](/reviews/Baby_Driver) ) made a trailer called *Don't* about horror movie tropes. [Eli Roth]() made a trailer of *Thanksgiving* which he ended up actually making into a real movie in 2023. [Jason Eisener]() and co. made a trailer of a film *Hobo with a Shotgun* which they made into a real movie too in 2011. And Robert Rodriguez made a trailer for *Machete* which he made into *Machete* in 2010. Being the first of the bunch to actually finish the project.

*Machete* in *Machete* is played by the Mexican [Charles Bronson]() himself [Danny Trejo]() who you may know from Rodriguez's *Spy Kids* movies as *Machete*. Isador Cortez or *Machete* is supposed to be the exact same character from both franchises. But here is a thing, *Spy Kids* is a kids friendly PG rated franchise. While the film *Machete* has blood ( with decapitation ) and full frontal female nudity in the first 10 minutes of the film. I can only imagine how much Robert Rodriguez was laughing coming up with all this shit. 

From *Spy Kids* the first *Machete* film ( there are sequels ) also borrows [Daryl Sabara]() who in the *Spy Kids* films played Juni Cortez ( one of the Spy Kids themselves ). In this film he plays a random Mexican teenager that hangs around *Machete*. Rodriguez thrown the concept of a "canon" out of the window. And you can say that another borrowed actor is [Jessica Alba]() who later appeared in *Spy Kids 4* ( filmed in 2011, one year after this film, and where *Machete* also appears. What the fuck Bob?! ). 

Two of the most genius casting decisions of this film were [Steven Seagal]() as the bad guy. Yes... the same Steven Seagal that stopped making anything remotely good back in the 90s. And that was putting out terrible direct to DVD movies for a very long time now. That Steven Seagal. Which was such a hilarious choice I cannot stop laughing. The second choice that is absolutely brilliant, to balance Steven Seagal out, is [Robert De Niro](), who won 2 Oscars, as another bad guy. Robert Rodriguez even dresses De Niro as a Mexican at one point of the movie, giving some of the most hilarious imagery in film history.

[Lindsay Lohan]() is in the film. Her character ark will make you giggle. [Michelle Rodriguez]() is here too, one year after [Avatar](/reviews/does_avatar___2009___stands_the_test_of_time_), trying to get Robert Rodriguez ( no family relations there ) finally get a job with [James Cameron]() on *Alita: Battle Angel*. Or something like that.

[Cheech Marin]() plays this character that forces Rodriguez to become very inventive with the use of light. He is a Padre assassin type of character, who has everything in the shape of a cross around him. Even the shadows. [Shea Whigham]() is here too, auditioning for the *Mission Impossible* movies. He plays basically the same type of character here. Just a bit of a more illegal type.

Twin Sisters [Electra Avellan]() and [Elise Avellan]() who appeared in *Grindhouse* ( both films ) as the hot babysitters watching over little Tony Block, played by Robert's own son, [Rebel Rodriguez](). His dad sure loves him, opening his character as this super-cool motherfucker that hangs around those two hot chicks. In *Machete* they play sexy nurses, because they are sexy, that help Machete with his, whatever the hell plot needs from him right now, stuff.

There is a lot and a lot of cool actors and characters in the film, but this review would have been too long if I tried to list all of them, so you have to look for yourself.

The film is intentionally stupid. Like in one scene you hear a Nokia ringtone followed by a shot of somebody picking up a Blackberry. The film at times looks cheap, both because it was cheap ( on $10.5 million ) and because it is trying to look as cheap as it can get away with. That is kind of the joke. Robert Rodriguez is very good with cheap film-making. His first film *El Mariachi* he shot with just $7225. And it was an action film. So I suppose [Nicolas Winding Refn]() making [Bronson](/reviews/bronson_2008_is_how_you_make_a_low_budget_film) on a quarter of a million is not so special actually.

Actually scratch both of them. My [3 short films](/films) cost together less than *El Mariachi*. Because I made all 3 of them on the cost of $0. So I beat both of them! And you may say I did cartoons, and that is not fair. Well my second short [The Package, The Car & Time Is Running Out](/films/The_Package,_The_Car_And_The_Time_Is_Running_Out) is a live-action action short. Yes it is only 2 minutes long. But I could have made this movie over and over again to fill a feature-length movie worth of material, which would still have costed me $0. Do the math.

Okay, technically speaking I couldn't make a proper movie without at least proper actors. And unless I want to beg for them to return every time I shoot another scene, I better pay them. Which is not something that I could do with my projects. On the other hand Robert Rodriguez here has an ensemble cast full of A-list and B-list actors, in an action film, on just $10.5 million. This is a fucking achievement. 

**Happy Hacking!!!**