If you love exploitation flicks, there’s a very good chance you’ll revel in Machete.

It’s got an iconic hero, gunfights, fist fights, sword fights, missiles, Gatling guns, some very impressive lo-riders, evil villains, hot women and more blood guts and veins in one’s teeth than any movie in recent memory – at least one that wasn’t a pointless horror/slasher flick with no plot.

Los Angeles “Machete,” which opened in movie theaters Friday, has garnered plenty of attention for its racy scenes and over-the-top gore. But this spoof of a film also has a subtheme – immigration. Photo: 20th Century Fox Whether we’re conscious of it or not, part of the suspense when we a watch a violent movie comes from fear that the leading man or woman will have his or her nice face battered and go from beautiful to ugly. The promoters of the movie capitalized on its immigration undertones in a trailer for the film, released around the time that Arizona’s controversial immigration law was making headlines. It’s got an iconic hero, gunfights, fist fights, sword fights, missiles, Gatling guns, some very impressive lo-riders, evil villains, hot women and more blood guts and veins in one’s teeth than any movie in recent memory – at least one that wasn’t a pointless horror/slasher flick with no plot. One of these, Machete, has now spawned a full-length feature that screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week. From the Machete’s opening moments, in which the incorruptible title character’s refusal to take a less thorough approach to his job resulting in the death of his partner, his wife and daughter the latter not actually seen onscreen, it’s apparent that Rodriguez has nailed the violence and surprising wit of the best of those old exploitation flicks. Well before the opening of “Machete,” this year has been a red-hot one for immigration issues. Yet his scarred, battle-hardened features have seen him cast in countless action movies, among them this summer’s sci-fi fantasy Predators. True fact.” Not true, actually ? more like four times longer ? but hey, Machete is a movie . But pretty soon it’s clear that Trejo, for all his gravity, doesn’t have a lot of range, and that Rodriguez has less. After the various disappointments and underperformances of Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, MacGruber, Prince of Persia, Killers, The A-Team, Knight & Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Salt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables , audiences can be grateful for this lithe and knowing pastiche.

“So when he finally had a script for me to read, I already knew the part. I think what I enjoyed most is that this is just a good hard R movie. But he says, “I don’t think “Machete’ is important.” He adds, “It’s not going to cause any riots. And when a man on the receiving end of Marin’s gun pleads for mercy, the padre replies, “God has mercy. It can certainly make you think if you want to.” That is exactly what Hezekiah Lewis, Villanova University assistant professor of film studies, hopes will happen. But that’s a red herring. I don’t,” and blasts away? He has lots of advice for those who want to see the film. “We all need to be better at educating our kids on what we’re doing – what exactly satire is and how does it really relate to what’s happening in the real world,” he says.

Of course, where you have an over-the-top exploitation flick, there has to be sex to go with the violence. “I think Danny in a role like this makes a lot of sense. Rodriguez does political complexity about as well as he does moral complexity—which maybe wouldn’t matter if he could do violence. Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” – about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup – did this well, he says. Those so close to the immigration issue that they have lost their sense of humor about it or are too caught in the emotion could also have negative reactions. “Yes, this movie is goofily violent, but it’s also dealing with issues that are largely visceral,” she says. “I don’t know that people in the middle of the debate will view it as satire.”

If you love exploitation flicks, there’s a very good chance you’ll revel in Machete. It’s got an iconic hero, gunfights, fist fights, sword fights, missiles, Gatling guns, some very impressive lo-riders, evil villains, hot women and more blood guts and veins in one’s teeth than any movie in recent memory – at least one that wasn’t a pointless horror/slasher flick with no plot. Robert Rodriguez’s new film, Machete, knife-fights its way into theaters this weekend, leaving behind a gratuitous trail of carnage and scantily clad ladies. From the Machete’s opening moments, in which the incorruptible title character’s refusal to take a less thorough approach to his job resulting in the death of his partner, his wife and daughter the latter not actually seen onscreen, it’s apparent that Rodriguez has nailed the violence and surprising wit of the best of those old exploitation flicks. One of these, Machete, has now spawned a full-length feature that screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week. Spotting a window at the safer end of the corridor, he slices open the belly of one of his pursuers, pulls out the guy’s intestines and vaults out the window, crashing back in through the window on the floor below. Yet his scarred, battle-hardened features have seen him cast in countless action movies, among them this summer’s sci-fi fantasy Predators. Might seem a little extreme but, as director?co-writer?producer?everything-else Robert Rodriguez explains, “The intestine is 10 times longer than the human body. True fact.” Not true, actually ? more like four times longer ? but hey, Machete is a movie . Danny Trejo’s character is picked up and asked to take out a senator (Robert DeNiro), but is double crossed in the process.

The two movies even came with two trailers to fake movies, one of those trailers was for “Machete.” In fact, if you bring up YouTube and watch the original trailer and compare it with the trailer from the 2010 film, they are almost identical. To be precise, it’s the action comedy the summer of 2010 has been promising for nearly four months but waited till Labor Day weekend to deliver. The things the new trailer includes however, is a long list of actors that make you say, “seriously?” This movie was the perfect cocktail of actors you thought were dead and actors who leave you wondering what they did to have to do a movie like this.

After the various disappointments and underperformances of Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, MacGruber, Prince of Persia, Killers, The A-Team, Knight & Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Salt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables , audiences can be grateful for this lithe and knowing pastiche. Indeed, there are more than a few moments where Rodriguez allows polemic to take up a bit too much time and that does detract from Machete’s frenetic pacing and slashing wit. I think what I enjoyed most is that this is just a good hard R movie. I grow tired of all the PG-13′s out there, sometimes I need my violence fix, and Machete more than delivers. And then we made the trailer and we were getting incredible feedback from the audience. You cannot go into this movie expecting a serious film. “in the UK, I think, some guys tattooed a picture of Machete on their backs. Rule number one when seeing a film like this is to know you are about to see something outrageous. “We knew it had a huge cult following and there was real pressure from then on from fans to make the film.” “I wanted to make sure that the film would live up to the trailer we had made,” says Rodriguez. You can get away with all these political messages. That’s fitting, since, as Rodriguez has said, “When I watched John Woo’s movies, they made me want to be Asian. I abhor movies that portray realistic violence. Overall, though, Machete is good, dirty, bloody fun – and the stoic Trejo makes an effective iconic hero.

If you don’t walk out of the theater afterward feeling exhilarated, then you just don’t get the spirit of a great exploitation flick.

One of these, Machete, has now spawned a full-length feature that screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week. Yet his scarred, battle-hardened features have seen him cast in countless action movies, among them this summer’s sci-fi fantasy Predators. NEW YORK “Machete” is about as campy a film as it gets. “Robert had talked to me about the character of Machete as far back as 16 years ago when we made Desperado,” Trejo recalls. And it was surprisingly not a bad movie, either.

True fact.” Not true, actually ? more like four times longer ? but hey, Machete is a movie . The political iconography is so overt that amid all the explosions, blood, and lethal cutlery, you can’t help but wonder if Machete might have an agenda. It is so exploitative, one can’t help throw up their hands, sit back and roll with the punches. Danny Trejo’s character is picked up and asked to take out a senator (Robert DeNiro), but is double crossed in the process. To be precise, it’s the action comedy the summer of 2010 has been promising for nearly four months but waited till Labor Day weekend to deliver. “We knew it had a huge cult following and there was real pressure from then on from fans to make the film.” “I wanted to make sure that the film would live up to the trailer we had made,” says Rodriguez. The movie is ham-handed, repetitive, and rhythm-less—a mess that’s uglier than its hero and nowhere near as likable.

After the various disappointments and underperformances of Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, MacGruber, Prince of Persia, Killers, The A-Team, Knight & Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Salt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables , audiences can be grateful for this lithe and knowing pastiche. Having seen Rodriguez in Avatar and Girlfight, we felt it wise to butter-up the renowned cinematic tough girl with questions about her process first. “I think Danny in a role like this makes a lot of sense. Rodriguez, who’s based in Austin, gets a lot of mileage out of building up the anti-immigration movement into a posse of Sheriff Joes. I grow tired of all the PG-13′s out there, sometimes I need my violence fix, and Machete more than delivers. He knows that the grand majority of the time if you want to express two sides of the story—the hick version and the Mexican version—and you want people to watch, you can’t go the drama/documentary/serious film route, because it just never works, nobody cares.” Wait a second, we said, does that mean all those gratuitous shower shots of Jessica Alba could actually be sugarcoating some kind of socio-political satire? But that’s a red herring. Michelle coyly said, “it’s like Family Guy or South Park. … “If you look at the violence as a laundry list of things I plan from start to finish at the movie, then yes you’d be horrified,” the director concedes. There was only two disappointments I had with Machete.

“But at the same time it makes you laugh, and I actually never got tired of it. One, I thought Michelle Rodriguez’s character would have more action time when she was She, and two, not enough naked Jessica Alba. “When you have HD TV and home cinema, tempting people out of their homes is difficult these days. “You need to give them something spectacular, something to laugh at.” Machete is due to open in UK cinemas on 26 November.

A naked nymph slithers up to a stony-faced Mexican federal Police officer and slips her hand below his waist. “What’s this long, hard thing?” she purrs. “My machete,” the cop growls, neither cracking a smile nor registering the slightest sign of arousal. Don’t get him wrong — Machete Cortez, the title character of “Machete,” is definitely not asexual: Before his story is complete, he’ll bed at least two — and possibly two more — lovely women. The film stars Danny Trejo, who plays the Machete character. One of these, Machete, has now spawned a full-length feature that screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week. Dispensing plenty of rough justice to anyone who gets in his way. Yet despite Machete’ s unabashed absurdity, the story kind of makes you think Rodriguez might be inciting a lowrider revolución. In the beginning, things do not go as he had hoped, and his wife is killed in front of him and he is left to die himself. Might seem a little extreme but, as director?co-writer?producer?everything-else Robert Rodriguez explains, “The intestine is 10 times longer than the human body. After three years of rehabilitation from the event while in America illegally, Machete becomes involved in another plot against his life. I kept bugging him about it. “Then about five years ago he did this trailer in ‘Grindhouse,’ and the audience response was so great, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ” “Machete” also stars Robert De Niro, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal as opponents and exploiters of Mexican immigration, and Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan and Alba as allies. “You have to understand we did this a long time before Arizona hit the map,” Trejo said of the plotline. Although the gimmickry is set aside once the plot roars into motion, the heavy-duty mucho-macho tone is sustained until the end credits.

The movie is action packed, and Robert Rodriguez’s style shines throughout the film. The only problem is she has a camera on her the whole time. His skin looks like sun-baked adobe, his face like 10 miles of rough road. At only an hour and forty five minutes, it is well worth anyone’s time. He may not be a conventionally buffed-up action star, but he’s not likely to be easily forgotten, either: Rare is the man who can engage in a bare-knuckle brawl while still managing to enjoy his soft-shell taco in between punches. And when a man on the receiving end of Marin’s gun pleads for mercy, the padre replies, “God has mercy. “in the UK, I think, some guys tattooed a picture of Machete on their backs.

Rodriguez regularly gets his female stars to disrobe and many of the men wind up losing limbs instead of their clothes. Michelle offered a philosophical take: “I feel like it’s about creating the dialogue—initiating and igniting this conversation amongst each other. “If you look at the violence as a laundry list of things I plan from start to finish at the movie, then yes you’d be horrified,” the director concedes. The absurdities of the film highlight the more ludicrous overtones of the immigration debate. “I was told that to make a successful movie, you have to do three things in it that the audience don’t expect,” says Rodriguez. It was very empowering.” According to the festival’s artistic director Marco Mueller, Machete’s inclusion in the programme was meant to reach out to Latin American audiences. Instead of camping it up, most of the actors play it reasonably straight, without commenting on the absurdities all around them, such as a meat thermometer being utilized as a lethal weapon, or an unfortunate thug’s intestines being used as… well, see for yourself. While the subject matter may be timely and the violence ultra-gory, “Machete” is hardly more shocking than a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon and it’s certainly a lot funnier.

“Machete” is everything “The Expendables” could have been but isn’t: vicious, witty, funny, ridiculous, engrossing. The sight of Sly Stallone cavorting with Dolph Lundgren and Jet Li in “Expendables” wears off pretty quickly, and what you’re left with is dull dialogue, explosions-by-numbers action sequences and characters that you never get to know enough to actually care about. As nutty as “Machete” is, it’s actually smart, with snappy dialogue, clever kills and a story line crackling with social commentary about the heated immigration debate in North America. Tweet Digg Machete (Danny Trejo) needs to check out of a hospital, quick, and alive; bad men keep trying to kill him. Both films are self-conscious throwbacks to bygone genres; part of the problem with Stallone’s movie is that it wasn’t self-conscious enough . It wasn’t much of a stretch, as the former drug addict had just gotten out of prison after changing his life with the help of a 12-step program. Devoid of any real character development or subtext, the film is a complete parody booby-trapped with over-the-top violence, blood and gore – racist and sexist to the extreme. Since that movie, the craggy-faced, tattooed Trejo has become one of film’s most dependable heavies. “I’ve never been accused of being pretty,” Trejo, 66, said with a laugh.

Might seem a little extreme but, as director/cowriter/producer/everything-else Robert Rodriguez explains, “The intestine is 10 times longer than the human body. The story is updated for 2010, but the style and tone minus the irony would have been at home in a greasy Times Square-adjacent theater in the early ’70s. I kept bugging him about it. “Then about five years ago he did this trailer in ‘Grindhouse,’ and the audience response was so great, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ” “Machete” also stars Robert De Niro, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal as opponents and exploiters of Mexican immigration, and Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan and Alba as allies. “You have to understand we did this a long time before Arizona hit the map,” Trejo said of the plotline. “Robert had talked to me about the character of Machete as far back as 16 years ago when we made Desperado,” Trejo recalls. It also features nudity – is Alba really starkers in that shower? “That’s the magic of Hollywood,” Trejo revealed. “It really is her, but she had a body suit on.” As for Lohan, who goes skinny dipping with him in the film, “Lindsay is a little young girl who’s playing like any other young girl. After the various disappointments and underperformances of Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, MacGruber, Prince of Persia, Killers, The A-Team, Knight & Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Salt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables , audiences can be grateful for this lithe and knowing pastiche. “So when he finally had a script for me to read, I already knew the part. The only problem is she has a camera on her the whole time.

Machete is much more successful at finding the balance. She went to rehab and we’ve reached out to her,” said Trejo, who has counseled prisoners and addicts. “She’s going to be OK.” Maybe you remember a scene from that clip, in which Cheech Marin plays a priest called to arm himself against an angry mob?

He knows that the grand majority of the time if you want to express two sides of the story—the hick version and the Mexican version—and you want people to watch, you can’t go the drama/documentary/serious film route, because it just never works, nobody cares.” Wait a second, we said, does that mean all those gratuitous shower shots of Jessica Alba could actually be sugarcoating some kind of socio-political satire? They enlist Machete to be the patsy in a staged assassination attempt, but find they are messing with the wrong man. You can’t always count on Rodriguez to get the balance of lunacy, competence and coherence right. But here he more or less gives you exactly what you were looking for: 100 or so minutes as bloody, excessive and ridiculous as those initial 150 or so seconds.” — Shawn Levy, The Oregonian Check out everything we’ve got on “Machete.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

Tweet Digg Machete (Danny Trejo) needs to check out of a hospital, quick, and alive; bad men keep trying to kill him. No exit, the nurses tell him.

“You could see the wife’s face, but you can’t see the daughter’s. In brief, the story revolves around Machete (Danny Trejo), an ex-Federale who gets caught up in an assassination plot for which he is framed and must seek vengeance. Devoid of any real character development or subtext, the film is a complete parody booby-trapped with over-the-top violence, blood and gore – racist and sexist to the extreme.

It is so exploitative, one can’t help throw up their hands, sit back and roll with the punches. The Internet rumor mill kicked into high gear, with rumblings of a direct-to-DVD release . But that’s the classic shot of the trailer that everyone knows.” From there, Rodriguez “reverse engineered” and came up with a storyline for Lohan around the character, who became a drug-using wild child that drives her father crazy with her antics. After the various disappointments and underperformances of Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, MacGruber, Prince of Persia, Killers, The A-Team, Knight & Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Salt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables , audiences can be grateful for this lithe and knowing pastiche.

At SXSW , Rodriguez announced his plans to go ahead with the full-blown feature. Fast forward and Trejo is working as a lowly-paid day laborer without papers. Maybe you remember a scene from that clip, in which Cheech Marin plays a priest called to arm himself against an angry mob? The only problem is she has a camera on her the whole time. Ask and ye shall receive! I don’t,” and blasts away? Well, this Machete is that one plus about 90 more minutes of shooting, double-dealing and exploding heads ? nonstop mayhem with a corpse count in the hundreds and a merry wink in every eye that hasn’t been sliced open. (See the 100 best movies of all time.) A salsa of every macho movie trope plied over the past half-century in films from Hollywood to Hong Kong, Machete hits U.S. theaters Friday but got its world premiere as the opening day’s midnight showing at the Venice Film Festival, where Hong Kong director John Woo will also be given a lifetime achievement award. In a vendetta to avenge the murder of his wife and daughter Machete goes all out to track down the guy who set him up, and the senator and the crime boss who took down his family. Just the thing to send Junior back to school in a good mood. See photos of immigration detention in Arizona.

“Machete” is here and ready to blow your mind with every minute of its bloody, action-packed, sexy, slice-and-dicey good times. In brief, the story revolves around Machete (Danny Trejo), an ex-Federale who gets caught up in an assassination plot for which he is framed and must seek vengeance. We’ve been following this zany, violent, Mexploitation romp since its humble beginnings as a mock trailer attached to 2007′s “Grindhouse.” To celebrate its long-awaited arrival in theaters on Friday (September 3), here is everything you need to know about “Machete.” In 2007, Robert Rodriguez unleashed the fake trailer in front of “Grindhouse.” It was met with raucous applause and fan demands for a full-length feature. I loved what Anthony Lane said about it in The New Yorker: “You might expect, given the title, a few shafts of irony or pathos to be leveled at this symposium of has-beens, but … And the situation calls for it a lot in Robert Rodriguez ‘s entertaining and blood-spattered action comedy. Machete , which he co-wrote with his cousin Alvaro Rodriguez and co-directed with editor Ethan Maniquis, is an enthusiastic and affectionate exploitation flick, a movie that is fully aware of (and delighted by) its own absurdity. As for answers, here’s one: 10.

Ask and ye shall receive! The number of heads, roughly, Danny Trejo severs (and he severs them roughly) as the title character in “Machete.” He plays an ex-federale now caught up in a conspiracy involving a Mexican drug lord (Steven Seagal), a border vigilante (Don Johnson) and a racist Texas politician (Robert De Niro). Fast-forward a few years, and Machete finds himself at the center of a conspiracy involving an opportunistic Texan politician, Sen. From that point on, whenever MTV News found ourselves in the presence of one of the film’s stellar castmembers, we peppered them for details about the film, which yielded Trejo’s comments about his first day on set and a brief exchange with Jessica Alba during which she weighed in on action-movie hero Steven Seagal. Machete is much more successful at finding the balance.

How about Lohan having an amorous encounter with her on-screen mother and Machete in a pool? (OK, that scene was just gross, but in a jaw-dropping I-cant-believe-they-just-did-that kind of way.) Other highlights: Machete torturing a goon with a weed wacker, a Catholic priest (Cheech Marin) in a gun battle in a church and a woman pulling a cell phone from a part of her body that would most assuredly void the terms of the manufacturers warranty. Plenty of the characters, dialogue, and performances are interesting in their own right, even outside the context. McLaughlin has made illegal immigration the cornerstone of his re-election campaign. In early July, we got our hands and eyes on the first “Machete” trailer which, as we expected, was every bit as gritty and ballsy as Rodriguez’s original. Everybody clowns around, but not everything’s as funny as Rodriguez thinks it is. So yes, Machete has something to offend just about everyone. First, Rodriguez revealed his tricks of the trade, and then lovely leading ladies Alba and Rodriguez discussed the art of post-production nipple addition. But Machete is double-crossed, framed for something he didn’t do, and must prove his innocence. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films’ biggest stars. Check out everything we’ve got on “Machete.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

If you think there’s nothing new to add to the immigration debate, you have not seen “Machete.” I don’t think Robert Rodriguez’s movie advances the dialogue very much (in fact, it probably moves it back a peg or two), but it does have something to add – the naked bodies of Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan, and the virtually nude figure of Michelle Rodriguez.

And it does raise some interesting questions. He was born in a trailer. And the ladies love it. Stallone seems genuinely to believe that he is dealing in still-cans.” Robert Rodriguez is much more eager to embrace the camp value of the ultra-violent B-movies of yesteryear. And the situation calls for it a lot in Robert Rodriguez ‘s entertaining and blood-spattered action comedy. And he’s so good with the big knives, whirling and twirling and slicing and dicing and stabbing and throwing with lethal fierceness or maybe it’s fierce lethalness that he could easily make the finals on “America’s Got Talent.” Rating: 3 1/2 stars. The story is updated for 2010, but the style and tone minus the irony would have been at home in a greasy Times Square-adjacent theater in the early ’70s. Everybody clowns around, but not everything’s as funny as Rodriguez thinks it is. Machete is much more successful at finding the balance. It seems inflammatory, and not just because everything blew up. Some of those include Lohan in a nun’s habit (after cavorting around naked and uttering leaden line readings), Cheech Marin as a gun-toting priest, De Niro as the rabid senator shooting wildly at immigrants as they run across the border. On the other hand, there are jokes that kill, pardon the pun. And Seagal’s performance during his ultimate showdown with Machete is as almost funny as his hairpiece.

If you think there’s nothing new to add to the immigration debate, you have not seen “Machete.” I don’t think Robert Rodriguez’s movie advances the dialogue very much (in fact, it probably moves it back a peg or two), but it does have something to add – the naked bodies of Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan, and the virtually nude figure of Michelle Rodriguez. And it does raise some interesting questions. Danny Trejo plays the long-haired, craggy-faced titular Machete with a combination of swift ferocity and baleful kindliness. And the ladies love it.

Rodriguez has complied, maintaining a fair amount of the wicked humor and every bit of the savage bloodshed the trailer promised. How long is the gastrointestinal tract, and what are its possible uses in a gunfight? And the situation calls for it a lot in Robert Rodriguez ‘s entertaining and blood-spattered action comedy. So he dusted off an unproduced script he’d written in 1993, after he’d first cast Danny Trejo in “Desperado.” Then, recycling footage from the fake trailer, casting Trejo in the lead and adding star power with a surprisingly potent cast that includes Robert De Niro , Jessica Alba , Steven Seagal , Michelle Rodriguez , Don Johnson and Lindsay Lohan , Rodriguez gradually built a “Machete” that 20th Century Fox elected to release as a late-summer theatrical feature. The number of heads, roughly, Danny Trejo severs (and he severs them roughly) as the title character in “Machete.” He plays an ex-federale now caught up in a conspiracy involving a Mexican drug lord (Steven Seagal), a border vigilante (Don Johnson) and a racist Texas politician (Robert De Niro).

They’ll most definitely be on board with “Machete,” which gives ex-prison inmate Trejo his first lead role in a long career of mostly smallish parts as taciturn tough guys who choose their words carefully. When Warner Bros. was prepping Kevin Costner ‘s “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” for its 1991 theatrical release, a trailer was released months in advance to whet audiences’ appetites. The trailer featured a cutting-edge, digital arrow-cam shot that followed an arrow from the archer’s bow as it zipped through the forest and thudded into the trunk of a tree. The shot was not originally included in the film. The result is inconsistent but amusing. And Trejo is a welcome variation on the slick action hero – a cunning, ragged survivor who prefers blades but gets very creative with guns, gardening tools and kitchen utensils when other weapons are scarce.

On the other hand, there are jokes that kill, pardon the pun. And Seagal’s performance during his ultimate showdown with Machete is as almost funny as his hairpiece.  

For a man who’s so stone-faced on the screen, Danny Trejo sure has a lot to say. Standing up at a banquette inside the classic Hollywood restaurant Musso & Frank on a recent afternoon, Trejo tells an elderly man hovering uncertainly in the doorway to “come on in,” imitates director Robert Rodriguez ‘s text-happy fingers, gestures to the waiter for a refill of his cranberry and 7-Up (“Manny, another one!”) and turns to a reporter to decry the flaws in the California prison system before offering some culinary advice (“You’ve never had the eggs Benedict here? Despite a recognizable face, Danny Trejo has maintained a prolific career of smaller roles. Jessica Alba has defended Lindsay Lohan saying her Machete co-star is a ‘brilliant actress’. “Machete” is insanely violent, insanely over-the-top. She’s done the time, but Lindsay Lohan is still paying for her crime! “Machete” was originally conceived as a fake trailer in “Grindhouse,” but fan demand convinced director Robert Rodriguez to make the story into a full-length feature, which opens Friday.

Then, he follows said reporter into the restroom, where the business at hand does little to stop Trejo’s riff about the time his then-9-year-old-son greeted Robert De Niro with a “Taxi Driver” imitation. (“I said ‘ Mi hijo , how do you know that movie?’ “) Welcome to the world of Hollywood’s toughest bad guy — or possibly its biggest social butterfly? The unlikely action hero of the blood-filled film is a long-haired, tattooed and aging former Mexican cop, nicknamed Machete after his favorite weapon which he uses time and again to get revenge against the killers of his family. Set on the barren border between Texas and Mexico, Machete has an eclectic cast including Robert De Niro as an anti-immigrant U.S. senator, Jessica Alba as a law enforcement agent, veteran action film actor Steven Seagal, “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson and Lindsay Lohan. PHOTOS: Lindsay’s biggest OMG! moments “He was frantically trying to track down her manager to make sure she didn’t go,” says the source. But when he’s not starring as the requisite roughneck, Trejo cultivates a different image. Rating: R for strong, bloody violence throughout, language, sexual content and nudity. She tells me, ‘You need to have more hot chicks in this movie!’ ” Rodriguez said, playfully deferring to his co-editor and co-writer, Alvaro Rodriguez.

“I was doing radio interviews and all of them were asking me about my song,” he says, referencing a track about him from Monterrey rock band Plastilina Mosh. Machete (“Grindhouse,” “Machete”) Trejo first appeared as this ultra-violent incarnation of Machete in a fake trailer screened during “Grindhouse.” Machete was such a crowd-pleaser, he demanded the feature-length treatment. 2. How can you ever forget that? Director Robert Rodriguez has expanded his mock trailer from “Grindhouse,” with Danny Trejo starring as Machete, a wronged federale now in the U.S. working as a day laborer. A mythic, abstract force as much as full-blown character, Machete can pulverize baddies with little more than the flick of his wrist while making hotties like Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba fall into bed with him with barely a head nod. Trejo (“Heat”) Playing a career criminal was only a slight stretch for the actor, who is candid about his lawbreaking past. “If you do it at the beginning of the movie, in your mind, everyone is naked the rest of the movie if they’re scantily clad — because that’s how the comics are drawn,” he said. “It’s an honor to be the first Latino superhero,” says Trejo about a character Rodriguez conceived of more than 15 years ago and who began on-screen life as a fake trailer in “Grindhouse,” the director’s 2007 love letter to exploitation movies that he helmed with Quentin Tarantino . I did play a medicine man.” He tries to remember. Was it — no, the other one.

Stars Jessica Alba , Danny Trejo , and Michelle Rodriguez beamed with excitement for their new film at the screening in L.A.. Danny rolled in to the premiere on a lowrider bike — fitting to his role in the action film. Most of the cast of “Machete” was on hand in Los Angeles on Wednesday (August 25) to celebrate the premiere of their B-movie-inspired, Robert Rodriguez-directed flick. Lindsay Lohan was absent from the premiere of her upcoming movie Machete last night, but her co-stars all had great things to say about her. But one of the film’s stars was noticeably absent: Lindsay Lohan, who had been released from rehab a day earlier.

So everyone that’s in it, this is for them,” Jessica Alba told Access Hollywood when asked about Lindsay, who was released from rehab on Tuesday after 22 days. Lohan was forced to miss the special showing in Los Angeles, which took place just one day after she was discharged from a rehab clinic at the UCLA Medical Center. Director Robert Rodriguez told Access , “She will see it very soon. “The first scene I did in this movie, you open this van door and there she is naked. “Lindsay is so good in the movie, and I can’t wait for her to see it,” Jessica Alba , 29, told PEOPLE on the red carpet. He told MTV.com, “She’s awesome in the movie. Welcome to ‘Machete,’” he recalled with a laugh. “She’s awesome in the movie. She knows what to do.” Another one of the flick’s stars, Cheech Marin, wanted to let Lohan know he supports her, and that he hopes this incident will be a catalyst for her getting her life back on track. So, that’s amazing, the fact that she came out and she’s straight into work and so excited for her life and what’s about to happen to her,” Electra continued. “It’s going to be incredible… She’s back on top.” Danny Trejo said the “Machete” gang has been in contact with the actress. “She’s got her own little thing going on and she’ll be alright,” he told Access . “We’ve already reached out to her and she’s going to be fine.” “Machete” hits theaters on September 3. She then spent 23 days in rehab. I mean, she’s a talented young actress,” he said. “She taught me how to pose with a gun and look hot,” said Electra.

So, it’s all up to her.” Michelle Rodriguez , who has also spent time in jail for a DUI, related to Lindsay’s case.

This movie is so great for her. “I think she’s going to be back on top really fast.” Machete himself, Danny Trejo , can sympathize with the troubled young star. “We all have a personal life,” he understands. “So, that’s really the core of why I’ve survived so many years and I can go and I can fall down and I can get back up. “She’ll come out of it. I can’t wait for people to see her in it.” Praise for Lohan’s performance also came from the film’s director. “She’s awesome in the movie. No debate” Lindsay Lohan was once attached to the project, before all of her legal woes. Unfortunately, the 24-year-old actress didn’t make her big red carpet debut last night at the premiere, like some had predicted she would.