Back Seat Producers

A former Mexican Federale gets caught up in a plot to assassinate a United States Senatorial candidate and now he’s out for revenge.

That’s all that I’m going to say about the story to the newest film from co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Manaquis, the long-awaited Machete.

Well, it’s not really been that long a wait. The character Machete first made his appearance as the first of the four “fake” trailers in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse back in 2007. For me, Grindhouse was the best movie of the year in 2007, it’s just a shame that it failed miserably at the box office. Grindhouse celebrated the exploitation film genre through both it’s content and it’s presentation. It promised a different experience to a whole new generation of moviegoers that just didn’t embrace it theatrically, and it was a shame, I really wanted to see that continue as it’s own series of films. But y’know, I get it’s failure, it didn’t do anything wrong (in fact it did everything right) it was just something that people did not want to see (sort of like the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World of 2007, a movie that I myself just didn’t care to see).

But fortunately, that hasn’t stopped some creative minds from returning back to the exploitation genre, and while they don’t carry the bells and whistles of Grindhouse recent films like Piranha 3D and The Last Exorcism carry a similar sensibility, so it gives me hope.

Now on to Machete itself. After a nice opening sequence that sets up Machete’s origin (and is a nice salute to Grindhouse – set in 2007 and using similar techniques with film scratches) we move to today and the start of the plot that I described in the first paragraph. Once we’re in the present day, the film dispenses with Grindhouse scratchiness and remains clean throughout. That’s of course just with the quality of the presentation, the sensibility is still there. The rest of the movie is pure exploitation goodness, complete with massive amounts of violence, over-the-top characters and just a wee bit of gratuitous nudity. And it is a lot of fun, though I do have a couple of criticisms, both pretty minor.

This even takes the time to offer it’s own commentary surrounding illegal immigration today. Now this isn’t new in the exploitation genre, a lot of the films made back in the day had their little social message as well, they just didn’t get overly caught up in it, and they were wise to do so. If you’re going to see this and know what you’re getting into, then what you want to see is a very cool title character doing the things that he does best, which is doling out his own special brand of justice. Machete delivers that in spades and it has a great time doing it. This isn’t a blatant comedy, but it’s certainly not meant to be taken seriously either.

What is serious though is the level of talent this film has going for it, and most of it comes from Machette’s creator and co-director, Robert Rodriguez who has his hand in everything including the movie’s excellent score and it’s suitably appropriate visual effects. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t cook for the crew at some point either. To me, he’s one of the most talented creative forces in movies today- he knows what he wants and he always gets it and he’s willing to put himself into it fully to get it.

Veteran character actor Danny Trejo gets a big moment to shine as the title character. Now Trejo is the real deal and if you want proof of that, then you should check out the excellent documentary about him and his past life Champion (and if you have Netflix Instant Play, that film is available to watch right now). He’s a definite tough guy and this film just amplifies that. He’s there to be super-cool and that’s it. And he is, his look is terrific and whenever he gets ready to do his thing, it’s right on the money.

That same image though presents some limitations and that’s mostly with driving things forward. That comes through with the other characters. Jessica Alba plays an immigration officer who not only represents the legal side of the immigration argument, but she looks damn good doing it. Robert DeNiro and Don Johnson play two of our villains of the piece. DeNiro plays the Senator who’s been the victim of the assassination attempt due to his views on illegal immigration. He’s a pure cartoon here (as are all of the villains) and one of the funnier bits showed just how quick he was to change his point of view when his back was up against the wall (well, maybe he’s not such a cartoon after all). Johnson is much more single-minded, and while I don’t think he necessarily did anything to stand out, he didn’t do anything wrong either and it was still fun to see him here.

My favorite members of the cast though (aside from Danny Trejo) are Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal and Michelle Rodriguez. Fahey plays the Senator’s aide and he’s just having a ball here. Even more than the other villains, Fahey brings just a little more of a sleaze factor to the whole thing, and I tend to eat that stuff up. Steven Seagal gets his first villain role with this movie playing the crime lord Torrez who’s at the root of Machete’s origin. Again, like Fahey, he’s really chewing the scenery and looks like he’s having a grand time doing it, and that does translate. He also faces Machete in a final fight and this is where one of my minor criticisms lie. While the fight is good, I wish it had been just a little more over-the-top than what it is. Ten years ago, it would’ve been. It’s well-played considering the actors’ ages, but I would’ve liked a little more. Michelle Rodiguez plays Luz, the leader of the illegal immigration circuit. She looks terrific, better than I’ve ever seen her look on-screen before and she just has real presence in the movie. To me, one of the film’s signature images belongs to her, when she exits from an ambulance clad in skimpy black leather ready to kick ass and take names.

My other criticism also comes form another member of the cast, and that’s with Lindsay Lohan being cast as Fahey’s daughter. When we’re first introduced to her, she’s being “rescued” from her father from a night of debauchery and it’s basically hard to take that scene seriously in light of her recent problems. Now sure, you could say it’s authentic, but unlike Trejo’s authenticity, this works against things. It’s not unbearable by any means and really, the problem’s not necessarily entirely hers or the crews. It’s more a matter of unfortunate timing.

Machete is a lot of fun but, like the other recent exploitation styled films, it won’t be for everybody. Some will get caught up in the film’s social message, and I can understand how that might hurt everything for them. I had a great time with it and certainly wouldn’t mind at all to see sequels. It’s great to see the Grindhouse still going with something like this and again, I can just hope that it will continue and I’ll leave with my plea to Rob Zombie to please, please, please make a full-length feature of Werewolf Women of the S.S.

The Reverend Cotton Marcus is a man on a mission, and he believes in his own way that it is a mission for God. Marcus is a moderately successful preacher with his own showy and persuasive style. Since the birth of his son, suffering from defects, Marcus has lost his faith but still believes that he does perform a valuable service for people even though he’s way more pragmatic about how it relates to he and his family. Marcus has performed exorcisms in the past and he’s seen that others have performed exorcisms that have led to the death of their subjects. Now, Marcus is making a documentary film that will expose the secrets behind these exorcisms. He’s contacted by a man named Louis Sweetzer in rural Louisiana to help his daughter Nell, and is about to face more than he ever expected.

The Last Exorcism is a low-budget horror film from producers Eli Roth, Strike Entertainment and directed by Daniel Stamm. Now I’m not really familiar with either of Stamm’s other movies, but I’m definitely familiar with work coming from Roth and Strike Entertainment. Roth of course directed Cabin Fever and the Hostel films, all of which I enjoyed very much. Strike Entertainment was behind the Zack Snyder re-make of Dawn of the Dead and I hold that remake in the same high regard as the original. So having this producing crew behind The Last Exorcism had me looking forward to the movie. For the most part, I think it delivers, though I do have one small problem with it.

This film is shot in the same fake documentary style as movies like The Blair Witch Project, Quarantine and last year’s big smash, Paranormal Activity and right off the bat, I know that will be a big turn-off to a lot of viewers. Whether you see it as an over-used gimmick or you’re just turned off by the shaky hand-held camera style, if you’re turned off by this, then just avoid it at all costs. Personally though, I love this way of filmmaking. It throws you smack dab into the middle of things and doesn’t do anything uncomfortable in it’s set-up. It also doesn’t rely on overly flashy effects, and due to the hand-held camera work, forces you to rely more on your imagination for the real horror.

But, there is a problem within this presentation and it’s just by the fact that the creative team decided to use some minimal music in some scenes to both heighten and dull some of the moments. Now I can understand why they did this. If you check all sorts of movie messageboards, you can certainly see that some are turned off by this style. So, in my opinion, I can see the addition of music to be a tool used to say that this is more your traditional sort of movie rather than the fake documentary. I think it was a mistake to go that route though and the film as a whole would’ve been much more effective had they chosen to exorcise the music from it.

That’s my only gripe. The rest of this, I thought was very well-made for the style of film. It features a nice twist, that I certainly didn’t see coming, at the end. I thought that was a nice little throwback to some horror movies of the 70s. The best part though is the earnest performances from it’s cast.

Patrick Fabian plays Cotton Marcus and he’s really good, sort of coming off to me as what you’d get if you crossed Jeff Daniels with Marjoe Gortner. A good portion of the start of the movie is used to put us in Cotton’s shoes and Fabian has a great charisma that made me want to join him on the road. I’ve also got to give high marks to both Ashley Bell who plays Nell Sweetzer and Louis Herthurm who plays her father, Louis Sweetzer. Bell is appropriately sweet and innocent until the moments of possession sinks in and then she’s just as appropriately creepy. Herthurm was the only cast member who I was familiar with, having seen him in all sorts of character parts in the past. He gets some real shining moments here and certainly has some believable conviction.

I did enjoy this, though as I said it loses some marks from me for it’s unnecessary use of music. As the credits started to roll, I overheard the couple sitting behind me making their comments. The woman really liked the movie while the man with her said “It’s cheesy.” Well, I just had to ask him why. And I know I took him by surprise with that, but still I was genuinely curious. He took a moment and said “It was fake.” to which I immediately asked “How could it be “real?” (though I admit it’s hard to emphasize the quote portion of that) and I didn’t get an answer. Again, I understand that, I was putting the guy on the spot and I can certainly understand if something like the inclusion of music added to that. I tend to think that he more wanted to see a more traditionally-produced horror film and was just turned off by this film’s obvious low-budget approach. I think that will be the case with most who do see this, but regardless, I still had a great time with it.

Pretty simply, every year, the small resort area of Lake Victoria sees it’s population rise thanks to the influx of thousands of college students wanting to party their brains out for spring break. This year is no exception, but with one addition: a small earthquake hits opening a fissure in the lake bottom, releasing thousands of prehistoric piranha on an unsuspecting spring break populace.

That’s the premise to Piranha 3D, the latest film from horror director Alexandre Aja. It’s also a remake of Joe Dante’s 1978 film Piranha, recently rereleased on DVD as part of Shout! Factory’s Roger Corman’s Cult Classics. And it’s one hell of a good time, especially if you enjoy over-the-top exploitation movies.

This movie lets you know what you’re in for right from the start with it’s opening scene. Featuring a cameo appearance by Richard Dreyfuss, playing a fisherman named Matt, singing the song, “Show Me The Way To Go Home,” this scene acknowledges the intentions of the original movie (being a Jaws rip-off) and sets you up for the wild ride that you’re about to take.

That wild ride is very bloody, very violent and filled with gratuitous nudity (it very much earns it’s R rating- this one isn’t for kids). It’s all in glorious 3D and just fun as all get out. Like the original, everyone here knows just what kind of movie they’re making and it’s all played very straight (with one notable exception), just like it should be.

Previously, Alexandre Aja made the very effective French horror film, High Tension which got him a lot of notice. From there, he headed up the remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes and gave us a fun ride with that as well. After that, came the thriller Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland, that I wasn’t quite a s enamored with.

When I first heard Piranha 3D was coming, I was looking forward to it, though at the time I hadn’t seen the original movie. Since seeing the original, and knowing that Aja was attached to it, that raised my expectations quite a bit and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

While this varies in story points from the original, structurally it runs the same course with it’s set-up, character introduction, a couple of mini-climaxes and an ending that even uses the same escape scenario. Characters are simply drawn and serviceable to what we really want to see.

It looks great and runs counter to the visuals of Aja’s other movies with tons of bright color and detail. The visual effects with the piranha is pretty obvious CGI work, and by that obviousness, very suitable to the exploitation feel of the movie.

We’ve got a good cast in this film and as I said above, they know what kind of movie they’re in and they go with it. Elizabeth Shue plays Lake Vicotria’s sheriff and it’s really cool to see here do something like this. Ving Rhames is her bad-ass deputy who has his own way of dealing with the piranha. Stephen R. McQueen plays Shue’s son, who’s the hero focus of the film, and he’s suitable to the movie, though more of the fun is being had by the bigger names. Those include the above-mentioned Richard Dreyfuss, Jerry O’Connell and Christopher Lloyd. Dreyfuss, is purely there for the set-up and I thought it was very cool that he did it. O’Connell plays a Joe Francis (Girls Gone Wild) type of character as the over-the-top Derrick Jones. Jones is in Lake Victoria to shoot his latest video, Wild Wild Girls, and right from the start, you pretty much know what’s going to happen to him in the end. Christopher Lloyd is the notable exception that I alluded to above. He plays the town expert who informs the sheriff of just what she’s dealing with. Right from the moment we see him, he’s in his full Doc Brown glory and chews more scenery than the piranha do. But y’know, I really wouldn’t have it any other way. It doesn’t deter from anything else that has happened in the movie up to that point and really just emphasizes the movie’s fun factor.

I think the 3D is just terrific here. It’s a shame that earlier in the year we had to have some movies with tacked on 3D, because they just took away from the real fun that you can have when a movie is legitimately made with 3D in mind. Like Step Up 3D, Piranha 3D uses it’s gimmick very well with not only immersive depth of the environment but with plenty of reach-out-and-touch-it moments. It works great for all of the piranha scenes and it’s really well-used with an underwater erotic scene that Derrick Jones is filming.

Piranha 3D ain’t for everyone, that’s for sure, but then that’s the case with most exploitation movies. Make no mistake, this is pure exploitation and if that’s you’re thing (it’s mine) and you’re willing to let your hair down, you should have a great time with this. As a remake, I’d put this on the same par as Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of The Dead, a movie that can stand right alongside with the original. With Robert Rodriguez’s Machete around the corner, and with Piranha 3D out now, it’s great to see that these sort of movies are still getting released, especially in the wake of Grindhouse’s failure to do big box office. Now we just need Rob Zombie to make a full length version of Werewolf Women of the S.S.