movie review friday: machete and lebanon

Seems to be a gruesome weekend in Minneapolis theaters today.  The Robert Rodriguez sendup to 70's exploitation films (for the 2nd time), Machete, opens as well as the Israeli war film, Lebanon.  Both films were reviewed by Star Tribune's Tom Horgan and the Pioneer Press' Chris Hewitt, and neither critic found anything subtle in these movies.

In Lebanon, we ride alongside a group of soldiers in their tank one day during the 1982 Israeli invasion of their neighbors to the north.  Of the film, Horgan calls it:

an exhilarating exercise in sensory filmmaking. The tank compartment is filthy. The metal floorboards pool with a mix of water, cigarette butts and bullet casings. The control panel oozes oil and grease like leaky pores.

As for its stance on war, Hewitt finds Lebanon's definition of combat to read:

It's messy and chaotic, and it's fought by young people who are out of their minds with fear. Writer/director Samuel Maoz based "Lebanon" on his own traumatic experiences in the 1982 Lebanon war, and it feels like a very personal war film. His instinct is not to go for big themes, but like a more intimate "Black Hawk Down," he wants to capture the intensity and powerlessness of a soldier on the front lines.

If you don't like the heavy-handedness of such films, but appreciate the high-octane adrenaline rush it provides, one might think Machete is a safe bet.  However, this seemingly senseless gore-fest has an agenda all its own.  The movie pits an aging vigilante against a group of Texan lawmakers on the anti-immigration war path.  Horgan writes:

The film engages the immigration debate with little subtlety. (At one point, Johnson's evil militiaman even shoots a pregnant woman trying to cross the border.) And that's the great thing about an exploitation homage like "Machete." There's no need for Rodriguez to disguise his politics with nuance when he can present them loud and clear -- like a shotgun blast, or the blood-curdling screams of a bad guy who's had his intestinal tract ripped out and used as a bungee cord by Machete to rappel down the side of a building.

That sounds less like fantasy and more like the state of politics to come.

And for all those out there who wonder why filmgoers need to see this only three years after Rodriguez attempted a similar homage with Planet Terror, Hewitt has this to say:

I wish Rodriguez had made this movie for "Grindhouse" instead of "Planet Terror," because it's swifter, smarter and funnier than "Planet."

I might believe him if it weren't for the fact that he later claims Rodriguez "just wants to have fun."  While his movies are fun, my guess is there's a little bit more to him than fun.  Like his love of gore, for example.  And Tarantino.  The dude loves Tarantino.