Going back to the roots of Explosive Action with a look at Six DTV Action Films from the 2010s!
I take a look at the films Bullet (Danny Trejo), Raze (Zoe Bell), Hijacked (Randy Couture), 6 Bullets (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Icarus: The Killing Machine (Dolph Lundgren) and Code of Honor (Steven Seagal).
Tagline:
His Rules. His Way. No Exceptions.
Review:
Jacob (Steven Seagal with a Southern accent) is a homicide detective with a troubled childhood who lets his fists do the talking. In the explosive opening scene he ejects a bomber out the window of a fourth story window and wisecracks over smooth blues guitar. His wisecracks are hard to hear as we are well into the Mumbling Seagal era, but you get the gist.
Meanwhile a psychotic serial killer is punishing then murdering prostitutes, as confirmed by coroner Isaac Hayes (a bizarre casting) and leaving ciphers of astrological symbols with the bodies. Jacob employs his patented interview style by first causing a prolonged and bloody bar fight. The action is unfortunately shaky and zoomed in to make the stunt double less obvious, given his wig is worse than Seagal's.
The FBI get involved in the case and Agent Frankie Miller (Holly Dignard) doesn't appreciate the way Jacob works. I mean the dude slap-fu's his way through innocent patrons at a nightclub to get to our perp at the other side, then shoots up everything in his path and he STILL gets away. The two do eventually combine forces when the case gets more complicated with perhaps more than one killer being involved.
I quite like this for the most part. The action is fast and violent (if too zoomed), even sadistic at times. Seagal might be stunt-doubled quite a bit but there at least looks like effort put in by all parties, and for Steve it's playing to his strengths of close combat. The way he takes out one guy with a hammer is pretty glorious. Add in some twists and you have a low rent but entertaining thriller that's more than just for Seagalogists only.
And this makes me consider some things.. are the best DTV Seagal films from the pre-Donut Beard era uniformly? 2012's Maximum Conviction marks the end of clean-shaven Seagal. 2013's Force of Execution ushers in the circular face fungus. Now I am not one to take IMDB ratings too literally, but the trend definitely kicks off there. For me personally, I start to enjoy the films less as "solid action film" and more "fun, despite Seagal, who makes it hilarious". Just some observations on a Sunday morning...
Image sources: IMDB
Trailer:
Tagline:
Fighting the war to connect the nation.
Movie Review:
I had heard things about this film upfront. I’m not naive when it comes to this kind of film anymore. I know when I see Steven Seagal and Mike Tyson on the cover together, that if - and that’s a big if - the two get to brawl together, it will be for two minutes and then we will see the two stars sitting in chairs on and off throughout the film whilst Third Billing But Actually Main Star Guy takes 90% of the screen time. I went into the film expecting this. What did I get? Read on.
Yan Jian (Dong-xue Li, Brotherhood of Blades), a young Chinese IT engineer in North Africa and helping his company to win a bid for installing a new mobile phone network in the recently war-torn nation. The winning bid will own the rights to control the communication between the south and the north of the continent. French spy Michael (Cloivs Foulin) works for a rival phone company but he also hired the best mercenary in Africa, Lauder (Steven Seagal) and former General Kabbah (Mike Tyson) to help him win. Yan has discovered their conspiracy, and along with his invention that will ensure faster 3G connectivity for all, the full force and forces of the rival company are after him. The plot is utterly ridiculous, but I can’t bring myself to completely blame the writers as apparently this is based on a true story. Rival phone companies actually having a war in Africa over 3G versus CDMA technology is a thing that apparently happened. And China was the one to save the day. There is literal flag waving in the movie.
Let’s get the important thing out of the way first. Yes, Seagal and Tyson fight. And.. it’s pretty damn good, at least when taken at face value. It takes less than ten minutes of the runtime for it to happen and less than fifteen for it to end, but it is exactly the kind of fight I’d want to see between these two. Tyson heavy on the punches, Seagal heavy on the avoidance tactics and his patented slap-fu. The reason for the fight though? Tyson didn’t want to drink whiskey because of religious reasons, so Seagal served him up a gallon of piss. Yup. Actual piss. So Tyson beats the living shit out of Seagal’s henchmen, then the room, and then Seagal (I was impressed with that knockout, as ol' Steve usually doesn’t allow his characters to lose). Forget the fact that as we learn later in the film, these two are on the same side. Tyson rounds out the scene with the line; “Motherfucker, YOU drink piss!”. They could have run the credits at this point and made the best short action film in years. But alas, we have another 105 minutes to go.
The bulk of the film is political drama between Yan and his company, he rival phone company represented by the deranged Michael, and supposed neutral adjudicator Susanna (Janicke Askevold) who ends up helping Yan at the same time as saying his company is shit. Michael as a vile frenchman is equally awful as it is hilarious, straight out of James Bond Evil Bad-guy world. Then we are filled up with boardroom meetings, sabotage of technical equipment, then HOLY SHIT CIVIL WAR, FUCKEN TANKS, BATTLE HORSES then Mike Tyson spying through telescope, Seagal slapping his secretary’s arse, drive to phone tower to install transmitter HOLY SHIT THE LOCALS ARE KILLING A BABY GIRL RESCUE HER actually it was a circumcision and you’ve offended their faith and now IT guy has been strung up by his feet WE’RE TRAPPED IN A SANDSTORM... This is the strangest movie about telecommunications ever made.
The best performance in the film is from Dong-xue Li who tries his best with the material he’s given. He can at least act, with the exception of his fall from the radio tower which should take three seconds but takes twenty and is hilariously overdone. As for Seagal and Tyson’s remainder of the film (I know that’s why you are here); Tyson gets in on the action but mostly it’s driving a tank. No, it’s not as cool as it sounds. He does shoot missiles at a helicopter which IS cool, but misses. Christ he’s a bad actor, really. Not B-action star bad, just BAD. I’ve seen a less wooden performance from a tree. Seagal does a lot of what he does lots of these days - sitting in chairs. He is absent for the entire second act, but I’m sure he was sitting in a chair then too.
I spent a lot of this film with my mouth wide open just astonished at what I was seeing - not for good reasons mind you. The combination of what seems to be an absolutely huge budget with really quite beautiful sets and scenery, likely financed directly by the Chinese Government, contrasted with the quality of script and the bulk of the acting. They were so far apart I just couldn’t believe it. You know in a B-action movie the acting can be ropey and you accept it, but this is that kind of acting you get when both "non-English as a first language” speakers combine with "English as a first language but we better dumb it down for the Chinese audience” speakers butt heads. Top that off with the already suspect acting ability of Tyson and.. this is painful to watch. Scenes change gears so abruptly it feels like something was left on the cutting room floor. One moment Yan Jian is being arrested for drinking alcohol he thought was goats milk (yes, truly) and literally three seconds later Tyson ambushes the building and blows it half up, along with the people inside. Okay? Did that actually happen in this “true story”?
So, Scott Adkins (billed as Scotty Adkins) has executive producer credits on this mess? What the hell was he doing? I love the guy’s work (seriously, everybody go see Savage Dog right now) but he shouldn’t have put his name to this propaganda film. Maybe he just produced the epic fight between our poster hogs? I’ll let myself believe that.
Did I hate this movie then? No. It’s too ridiculous to hate and the opening fight is boss. If they shaved 30 minutes off it (this thing drags through 110 minutes), it could have been loads better. As it is, it’s more often than not unintentionally hilarious what with the bonkers scenes and remedial English. In the final act, Mike Tyson gives a heartfelt monologue complete with tears, but he’s doing that whilst holding detonators in his hand. And when he said “No more war, we must bring peeth” I completely lost it. For a far better Chinese production mixed with Western actors, check out Wolf Warrior 2.
China Salesman movie was written and directed by Tan Bing and it is his only credit on IMDB. I wouldn’t be surprised if it remained that way.
Addendum: it’s worth noting that about a quarter of the film’s runtime is in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Highlight:
As you can probably guess, the best and most traditional part of the film is the Seagal vs Tyson fight at the ten minute mark. It’s pretty epic actually, with Tyson throwing strong punches, Seagal throwing barrels and Tyson punching through them, half a bar being destroyed.. good times. Shame about the rest of the film.
Trailer:
Tagline:
He’s Watching Your Six.
Movie Review:
Sniper: Special Ops is a Fred Olen Ray directed military action film, that is completely unrelated to the Tom Berenger/Billy Zane series. We start with Steven Seagal as Sergeant Jake Chandler, crack-shot sniper, laying down protective cover fire for an assault led by Sergeant Vic Mosby (Tim Abell). Their mission is to rescue a Congressman and return him to the local outpost, but the team come under enemy fire from the local Taliban insurgents. Sgt. Mosby and his team escape but Sgt. Chandler is stuck behind with a wounded soldier. The Colonel refuses a rescue mission at this time due to a lack of manpower, instead sending the team on a different sort of rescue mission; retrieve a stuck Hummer full of much needed ammunition and supplies. But the team get more than they expected when they learn about the civilian - and her baby - that they have to escort as well.
Let’s get this out of the way. This is not a Steven Seagal film. Hell, this is not even a Van Dam film. This is Tim Abell’s starring vehicle, and a fine job he does with it too. I thought he was a believable Seargent who could use his brain and was capable in a battle. Tim is not new to military action films either, having had roles in 2012’s Soldiers of Fortune, 2003’s Special Forces directed by Isaac Florentine, and 2002’s We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. He comes across comfortable in military fatigues and was enjoyable to watch in action. It is a shame he was not credited on the cover as such.
This is, without a doubt, Steven Seagal at his laziest. He is barely in this movie and when he is, he is basically motionless. A Steven Statue. No martial arts. No patented Steven Slap-fu. He might be on the cover but this is actually bait-and-switch territory, folks. Sure in the past he has been so lazy he has had somebody else dub his lines in ADR, but to be frank he doesn’t HAVE enough lines in Sniper: Special Ops to require any ADR. At the 12 and a half minute mark, he finally gets off his arse and enters a proper firefight, however he quickly resumes the sitting position thereafter. Honestly it became a running joke for me, so I itemised his appearances:
As for Rob Van Dam, his character was no standout. He could have been any of the other non-Tim Abell grunts. He was fine and worked with what he was given, but did not deserve second billing over Tim Abell who ran the whole thing. I’m fairly disappointed in the way this film was marketed. I understand Seagal’s billing, but is Van Dam actually big enough to warrant second bill? I wouldn’t have thought so. His only “real" cinematic pictures were Gary Daniel’s Bloodmoon, Wrong Side of Town and 3 Headed Shark Attack (snigger). I suppose WWE fans might be more receptive to him.
And who would the Colonel be in the film? None other than Dale Dye star of Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, JFK, Rules of Engagement, and Seagal’s own classics Under Siege and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (I wonder what Dale thinks about working on a modern Seagal film?). He doesn’t get much to work with, but that’s as a Colonel is on the field - issue some commands and stay in your tent. The other character of note is NATO correspondent Janet (Charlene Amoia) who plays the cliched daughter-of-the-Admiral, allowed to photograph the missions because daddy runs the whole show. She is a little annoying but her character grows during the film and the animosity between her and Sgt. Mosby is calmed when she proves herself in a shootout with the Taliban forces. She is way more important to the story than Ol’ Steve is.
So despite the lack of Seagal, is the film any good? Actually, yes. I found Sniper: Special Ops to be pretty engaging for a film that spends half its running time mulling around an armoured vehicle trying to get it repaired. There was a enough firefights and stealth mission work to keep me glued, and the subplot about the Afghani civilian and her baby was handled well. Plenty of military jargon speak (“Playtime is definitely over, I repeat - Playtime is definitely over!”) that I found amusing as well.
What the film did NOT need... was Steven Seagal. His “rescue me” subplot was completely redundant to the picture until the last fifteen minutes, and they could have written it out entirely. You know those Godfrey Ho cut-and-paste Ninja films, where Richard Harrison is spliced into some random Hong Kong crime drama, wearing a red bandana that says NINJA on it? That’s basically Seagal’s role in this film. You could not phone in a role more than he did here. He shoots a few guys early on, babysits an injured man for 75 minutes then ends by shooting a few more guys and winking at the camera. C’mon, Steve.
Worth a watch, for Tim Abell. As for Steven Seagal? Let’s hope he has more to work with in the upcoming Killing Salazar.
Highlight:
An enjoyable, by-the-numbers minor war-action film with a lack of Seagal doing anything but ending the film with a priceless line:
Janet: “Are you really as good as they say you are?”
Jake, removing sunglasses for the first time of the film: “Every once in a while."
Champagne comedy.
Trailer:
Tagline:
Maximum security. Maximum firepower.
Movie Review:
Steven Seagal has released consistently watchable and enjoyable direct-to-video films for the past five years. Before that there were a few shaky ones, but with the possible exception of Against the Dark (his brief appearances in a vampire film) it's been a pretty good ride since 2007 with Renegade Justice aka Urban Justice, Pistol Whipped, Driven to Kill aka Ruslan, The Keeper, A Dangerous Man and Born to Raise Hell all being good to excellent DTV action films. Steven has been busy of late doing his TV series' Lawman and True Justice and I was wondering if we would get another film. Thankfully we did, and it's just as good as any of the others mentioned above. It's got action "newcomer" Steve Austin in it, and is directed by Keoni Waxman of Seagal's A Dangerous Man and Austin's Hunt to Kill fame.
It should be an easy day's work for Cross (Steven Seagal) and Manning (Steve Austin); overlook and orchestrate the closure of a military penal facility, and organise the transport of the final inmates to their new civilian prison. Cross shows who is boss early in the piece by beating up a 200kg inmate who steps out of line, while Manning is given the delightful task of running the garbage disposal. The day only gets worse when a rolled up note is found that was accidentally dropped by an inmate, detailing times and locations for an attack on the facility. Cross, on his way back to the prison and Manning, still dealing with that garbage disposal, are suddenly involved in a foothold situation as Chris Blake (Michael Pare) and his mercenaries, posing as marshalls, take over the complex in order to extract two of the prisoners - Samantha (Steph Song) and Charlotte (Aliyah O'Brien) - for their own purposes. And it's of course up to Cross, Manning and their phoned-in team of soldiers to sort this out!
The film is similar to Austin's own Tactical Force, except that in that film the good guys only had blank ammunition for training. Not so here; it's an automatic weapons festival! Being essentially one team of mercs. versus another team of mercs. you would expect this, and the film delivers in droves. Fast-firing rifles backed up with hand guns and even a few one-on-one close combat fights make this one of the more action-packed Seagal films in recent times. The dialogue is fairly light to accommodate the continual action; so much so that the only time I looked up at the clock was to see we were 70 minutes in and just about to kick into the final twenty minutes of yet more action and comeuppance for the bad guys.
Seagal and Austin share equal amounts of screen time here, which itself isn't dominating. A lot of the smaller players as well as Pare get their faces on camera. When Seagal and Austin do show up, they are almost always slap-fu'ing, drop-kicking, machine-gunning or launching fire extinguishers as rockets. Seagal appears to be doing most of the stunts himself this time round, which is great, and I doubt Austin even has a stuntman. The only real downside to the movie is the handful of occasions that Seagal speaks to Austin - their voices are both so low and gravelly I had a hard time trying to decipher what was being said!
Michael Pare is good fun as the renegade Chris Blake. It's good to see him taking time out from endless Uwe Boll films to join the big boys of action for a while. He's a little bit sadistic in getting what he wants, stabbing the poor warden in the hand and cutting off one of his fingers - ouch. Also on good form here is Australian actor Bren Forster as Bradley, who leads up Cross and Manning's squad of soldiers. Forster has some martial arts skills and gets to put them to use in a fight near the finale.
Overall this is one of the better DTV action films of the past few years. It's simple, it's direct and it never lets the plot get in the way of a good shootout. Just the way I like it! And there is more to look forward to as Steven Seagal teams up again with Director Keoni Waxman and co-stars Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames in Force of Execution!
Highlight:
There are no major highlights in the film as it is all fairly solid, but I especially enjoyed Steve Austin's various one-liners throughout the film. He breaks a guys elbow? "Does that hurt? You fuckin' pussy." He gets beaten up by a woman? "What the fuck, baby!" He impales a bad guy on a weights rack in the exercise yard? "No pain. No gain." Quality stuff!
Sourced From:
Ex-rental blu-ray from Transmission Films. Great picture and sound quality as can be expected from modern DTV on blu-ray.
Trailer:
Tagline:
If they think they can stop him, they're dead wrong.
Movie Review:
Here's another DTV Seagal I've finally caught up with, 2003's The Foreigner. Seagal did two other movies that year: Out for a Kill and Belly of the Beast. I've not seen Belly of the Beast yet but I have seen Out for a Kill, which was below average with lots of dubbing and stupidity abound, but it does have this scene (skip to 3:40) which makes it awesome. The Foreigner was followed up two years later with a sequel, Black Dawn; perhaps I will make that my next Seagal outing.
Seagal is an agent-for-hire with a girlfriend half his age (again) who is given a job to deliver a package from France to Germany. He initially doesn't want to take it because his father has just died, but agrees in the end. Along for the ride is another agent-for-hire, Dunoir (Max Ryan from Death Race). They arrive at the package collection point and find two guys with their tongues cut out, then masked guys burst in the front door with machine guns and shoot the place up. Seagal and Dunoir escape, Seagal deciding to continue on with the delivery. He eventually decides to open the package and discovers it contains a black box flight recorder from an aircraft that went down in suspicious circumstances, and for whatever reason the recipient - tycoon Jerome Van Aken (Harry Van Gorkum) - has an interest in its whereabouts. Seagal discovers that he is being pursued by various agents and assassins, some known to him and some not, while Van Aken's wife Meredith (Anna-Louise Plowman) also seems to want to get hold of Seagal's package (fnyar fnyar).
This wasn't bad but it was a little confusing, at least to me; I probably need a second viewing. After a while I started forgetting who is double-crossing who and all that kind of stuff. There was a few decent fights that, while they appeared to be slowed down or zoomed in, seemed to be done by Steve himself, though I could be wrong - I've never been good at picking non-obvious body doubles. There was also no line dubbing, at least not on Steve. There was one or two random scenes of non-Seagal characters having lines inserted for them when the camera was looking elsewhere which were a bit annoying but nothing too bad.
The best part of the movie for me was at the thirty-five minute mark. One of the many assassin types after the package catches up with Seagal and knocks him unconscious. Once brought around, the dizzy Seagal is being interrogated by Mr. Mimms (Sherman Augustus from Virus, Rumplestiltskin, Digital Man), someone that looks like they were robbing bookies in Snatch. The wordplay is pretty amusing and very British gangland. Seagal convinces the guy that the package is at a train station locker so the two go down to retrieve it. For some reason the guy decides to open the package in the bathroom and Seagal takes the opportunity to take a slash. Just as the guy tears open the package, Seagal with tackle presumably still out dives out of a conveniantly placed (but closed) glass window and the package detonates in the guys face. The whole building goes up in what must have been 2/3rd's of the film's budget - a very impressive explosion indeed.
I liked seeing Englishwoman Anna-Louise Plowman in this. She was one of my favourite characters from Stargate SG-1 as Osiris and her character in The Foreigner, whilst entirely removed from a mythical Egyptian god, is quite pivotal to how things play out. She's not done much in the way of movies so it makes sense that she's in a direct-to-video film and does a good job being extra British.
Seagal is on pretty good form though nothing outstanding. A lot of shooting, a few slap-fu fights that aren't too bad but a distinct lack of mutherfukkaz and his usual slang. He's also not quite the jam donut he becomes by Pistol Whipped. It's pretty violent overall with a bloody torture scene. One guy actually dies three times, though I won't spoil who. Worth it for the scene with the big arse explosion, which unfortunately is the climax to the trailer below.
The Video:
Clean and crisp like most modern DTV movies Seagal has done, with clear audio (except when Seagal mumbles into his coat). Runtime 92 minutes.
Sourced From:
In a box set of 6 other DTV-era Seagal movies that I think cost me $50 for the lot.
Trailer:
More Screens:
Tagline:
They just messed with the wrong Mexican.
Movie Review:
Post #50!
Well I made it to my fiftieth post and what better way to celebrate than with, in my opinion, one of the two best action films of the year. In August we were lucky enough to have The Expendables, an all star action-movie ensemble cast extravaganza. I loved every minute of it and have seen it three times now. Putting all the old action movie stars, and some new ones, together in a movie could have failed miserably but I was extremely happy with the final product. And seeing Dolph back on the big screen was a thing to behold. Now in November (two months after the US, unfortunately) we finally get to see if Machete can hold it's own against the big boys of action.
Born as an idea that Rodriguez had after filming Desperado in 1993, Machete eventually culminated in to a fake trailer sandwiched between Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" and Rodriguez's own "Planet Terror"; collectively known as Grindhouse. The idea was sound and although I believe they succeeded, the box office told otherwise. But there was still enough interest in the fake trailer for Machete to convince Rodriguez to take the fans seriously and actually film the thing in its entirety.
Machete is a different beast entirely to The Expendables. While The Expendables was all about stuffing as many recognisable action (and wrestling) stars into a movie and blowing things up in Madeupistan, Machete is more about one man's fight for vengeance, with a whole fleet of "hey it's that guy!" types in tow. The Expendables had Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li; Machete has a weathered Danny Trejo, a larger Steven Seagal and Cheech.
We immediately and literally kick into high gear as Machete smashes his car into the wall of a house and begins taking out bad guys with his blade without even making eye contact with them. At one point he chops the hand off a guy who was shooting at him and uses the disembodied hand, still gripping the gun, to kill two other guys. Machete rescues a naked and stoned bimbo but it's a trap and get's shot in the leg for his efforts, then made to watch his wife die by decapitation at the hands of an evil Steven Seagal in drug-lord motif.
A few years later Machete alone and on hard times joins the daily work gangs to make a living. One day he is picked up by Jeff Fahey in a limousine. Machete expects some gardening or plumbing work but instead is offered $150k to kill a right-wing politician (Robert De Niro) with strong anti-immigration ideals. Machete considers and eventually accepts the money. You know the drill from here if you've seen the fake trailer - Machete is double crossed, Machete turns out to be an ex-Federale, Machete get's revenge.
There is so much gold in Machete I have trouble finding where to begin. Once again I have to turn to the IMDB Parental Guide to summarise some of the best parts of this movie:
I can't emphasise enough how cool some of the violence and gore is in the movie. It's slapstick on level with Evil Dead 2, and then some. A guy gets crushed by the wheels of a bouncing car. That says it all really.
The only real downsides to the movie, and there aren't many, are basically the same ones I have with The Expendables. Firstly: so much awesome talent and not enough time. I love Steven Seagal and I could not get enough of his ridiculous Mexican accent in this, but he spends the vast majority of the movie behind a laptop and on a screen. This is understandable as he would simply get all his henchmen to do the work, and he does finally come out swinging a samurai sword, but still I would have liked some Seagal Slap-fu. Tom Savini also only has a very minor role as a hitman but I had forgot he was in this at all so was delighted to see him show up.
The second downside is Jessica Alba. She is a very pretty girl, no doubt about that, but out of all the ladies in Machete she is the one that needs to work on her acting chops a little more. That may sound harsh but up against the display that Michelle Rodriguez put on as the Taco-selling reisistance-running Luz, Alba's law enforcement character was weak by comparison. Her lines were delivered mostly flat and without emotion, whereas I easily believed Luz had been fighting this war for years. I can let it slide however, as many grindhouse movies of old had far, far worse acting on show than Alba.
Cheech is brilliant as Padre - I wish all priests were like him - he is a definite highlight. Seagal proves he still has it and also that he can play an over-the-top bad guy, something he hasn't done before (It's great to see him on the big screen again just like Dolph, too). Fahey, De Niro and Don Johnson as the vigilante redneck are all great, and even the Lohan factor couldn't keep the movie down. Despite her negative publicity she's a fine actress. In fact she should play Killer Nun's more often.
Danny Trejo IS Machete. This could be his typecast for the next twenty years. There is absolutely nobody else that could pull off this role so well. Trejo does some of his best acting with just the cracks and lines in his face. He delivers some cool lines that are bound to become catch phrases and as was said in the fake trailer "He kills the bad guys. He gets the women". Boy, does he ever.
I was amazed that all the main parts of the fake trailer were used, verbatim, in the final picture. Some isolated scenes would have been easy to include, like Machete sharpening his blade on a stone wheel, but Rodriguez went to the effort of making up Lindsay Lohan to look like the blonde from the skinny-dipping scene in the fake trailer and filming more of it. And of course we still get the awesome scene with Cheech ("God forgives. I don't!") and the finale of the fake trailer Machete on his motorbike with mounted minigun. The inclusion of all these scenes is very important as it shows that Rodriguez both respects his fan base and also stays true to his original ideals for Machete.
There have been some nay-sayers about the strong political agenda Machete raises. I have to plead ignorance on this. I know very little about Mexico and so-called illegals in America; it's not something that really gets reported on in Australian news. I only know what I've seen in this and other TV shows and movies - obviously not trustworthy sources of information - that all Mexicans are lazy drug dealers and/or working as maids in hotels filled with white people. That would be like saying all Australians own pet kangaroos and live on a diet of beer (well.. that last part is quite accurate). So I see this as I would any other action movie; a required plot to get us from explosion A to explosion B. And on that front it excels. I didn't take my eyes off the screen for a second. The Senator's campaign videos were a hoot too.
Honestly they are very different movies, but if the choice were between The Expendables and Machete I would have to give my final vote to Machete. It's non-stop action, it's hyper-violent, there's plenty of boobs and tonnes of laughs. The Expendables was a great homage to 80's action. Machete is pure grindhouse.
Trailer:
Posters:
