Illegal MACHETE!

Danny Trejo scowls at the camera and declares a "special Cinco de Mayo message...to ARIZONA!"

Yesterday the new trailer for the forthcoming Robert Rodriguez production of Machete premiered online. Machete was a faux movie trailer featured at the beginning of the Rodriquez/Quentin Tarantino double feature extravaganza Grindhouse (2007). Machete is played by Danny Trejo, a character actor with a Bronsonesque face that suggests a past life of rugged hard living. Trejo was a convict who spent much of his youth in the California penal system until he redeemed himself by turning into an actor after working as an extra in the prison scenes in Runaway Train (1985). This led to small roles in B-action pictures and years later he began collaborating with Robert Rodriguez, who it turns out is a distant cousin of his. Rodriguez wrote Machete with Trejo in mind. He claims he shot at least half the movie while shooting the faux trailer.

After Grindhouse was released and subsequently bombed at the US box office, it was announced that Machete would become a full length feature for the home video market. Then 20th Century Fox announced they would be releasing it as a theatrical feature set for a September 2010 release.

Once the cast was announced, heads began to spin. The film would feature not only Robert DeNiro, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey and Don Johnson but also Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba AND Lindsey Lohan?!

This obviously has shaped up to be an unusual project that goes beyond it's gritty exploitation inspiration. The most interesting casting in my opinion is that of Michelle Rodriguez sporting sexy tank tops and a black eye patch. Don Johnson seems welcome and well suited in the role of a dirty lawman, "There's nothing I'd like more than to see that Mexican dance the bolero with the end of a rope." Johnson coldly says.

The first trailer had the scratches and faded megenta you'd expect to see in an exploitation trailer of old. The new trailer is clear and clean and seeing DeNiro sporting a cowboy hat and a fake southern accent seems to transcend it into another cinematic universe. Maybe it would have been better if Rodriquez had stuck with lesser known character actors instead of big stars, but who knows, perhaps this movie could be silly, bizarre fun.

Check out the trailer for yourself: