Machete 2010

David Germain, Associated Press: The good news for fans: there isn't all that much downtime between the relentless action, which, after all, is what that fake Machete trailer promised, and what the audience has come for. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's a Hispanic American version of a blaxploitation film of the Super Fly school, with bloody action, titillating nudity and a catch-phrase riddled script. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: "Machete" is gratuitously smutty, sadistically violent, politically aware and somehow also politically incorrect. Put more succinctly, it is awesome, and delivers every goofy gory guilty pleasure "The Expendables" was supposed to but did not. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Trejo brings both playfulness and gravitas to the archly juvenile proceedings, even as codirector-cowriter Rodriguez treats him like a cutaway sight gag... Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie is ham-handed, repetitive, and rhythm-less -- a mess that's uglier than its hero and nowhere near as likable. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It's often stylish and exciting, but the pile-up of cool kills, hot bodies, and other unprocessed bits of juvenilia doesn't add up to a good time. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: When Machete yields a weed-whacker as a weapon, there is a subtle beauty to it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie's an unexpected end-of-summer tonic: a trash guilty pleasure with a healthy (if really violent) sense of outrage. It's also Rodriguez's freest movie yet, and possibly his best. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: At 105 minutes, Machete is at least half an hour too long for its own good. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: The whole thing is monumentally gruesome and just as monumentally cynical, a riot of grisly cliches designed to titillate and amuse. Read more

Preston Jones, Dallas Morning News: A loud, giddy, carnal blast from one of cinema's most relentless schlock auteurs. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Rodriguez plans "Machete" sequels. Here's hoping the next is sharper and cuts closer to the bone. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's basically a one-joke exercise heading toward the inevitable big battle between vigilantes and Mexicans. There's lots of gore, flesh and fun along the way, but it gets repetitious. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: See Machete for Trejo, who barely cracks a smile, or even an emotion, but makes grade-Z stoic invincibility cool again. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Brimming with infectious energy -- a well-made movie in the style of poorly made movies. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Robert Rodriguez returns to the grindhouse with this entertainingly over-the-top, ultraviolent exploitationer. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Machete works because at no time does it ever ask the audience to take any of this too seriously, yet the nudges and winks are never so forceful that it feels like it's begging for your laughter. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Now we have a full-length Machete movie, and it turns out that, as usual, less is more. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: [It] may be a weird combo of speechy and pulpy but it's also what another all-star bloodbath, The Expendables, should have been -- self-aware, flashy and fun. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The pace is swift, the tone playful, the screenplay peppered with one-liners. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's hard to think of another film this summer that offers such sheer anarchic fun. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I have nothing against films that take political stances, but an exploitation flick? It's off-putting. I'd prefer to sit back and bask in the carnage and R-rated silliness. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Warped, violent, dark, funny, sexy. Great stuff." Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This unholy mess replaces the artful ambition of The American with torture, blood spray, kinky sex, twisted fun and a bizarro critique of U.S. policy on illegal immigration. Read more

Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's absurd, absolutely insane and a lot of fun. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Machete makes no apologies for its absurdities or silliness, making it an over-the-top thrill ride. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Sorry, mis amigos, wrong decades. The modern B-movie would seem to be devoted to self-conscious fun. More laughs, but fewer real chills. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There's a fine line between clever and stupid, as the Spinal Tap lads reminded us, and Machete grinds that line on a razor's edge. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: This gleefully excessive pastiche of an exploitation picture delivers everything promised by its own faux trailer. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rodriguez combines sharp satire and timely political commentary with a decidedly B-movie ethos. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Wildly uneven as it doggedly strives (sometimes with obvious strain) to sustain a free-wheeling, anything-goes air of exuberant junkiness. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Because there's no real character drama or consistent critique grounding the spoof, when Machete isn't laugh-out-loud funny, it's deadly boring. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a movie that just wants to have fun. To a large degree, it succeeds. Read more