Machete
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: September 3, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie's an unexpected end-of-summer tonic: a trash guilty pleasure with a healthy (if really violent) sense of outrage. It's also Rodriguez's freest movie yet, and possibly his best. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Designed and destined to win no awards, Machete is expert, cartoon-violent, lighthearted fun. Just the thing to send Junior back to school in a good mood. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
In the end, Machete may not be all that original, but it is fresh – fresh as a steel blade to the gut. Read full review
75
MovielineEric Hynes
Forget modulation, nuance or storytelling, this is a movie that hits hard from first to last, no questions asked or logic followed. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Danny Trejo plays the long-haired, craggy-faced titular Machete with a combination of swift ferocity and baleful kindliness. And the ladies love it. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
A maniacal, over-the-top, daring, and insanely funny satire of the American cultus from Hollywood to Madison Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue, Machete has all the nutrition a growing film geek could possibly need. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
What Machete does have -- and what saves it from itself -- is comic bloodthirst, shameless vulgarity and the determination of Rodriguez and Maniquis to wink at their audience at every moment. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A gory, pulpy wink of an action thriller, was spun out of a parody trailer Rodriguez directed for the '70s-trash homage "Grindhouse" (2007). The trailer was sublime. As a feature, Machete is more fun than it isn't, but its deadpan mockery of exploitation clichés often slips a bit too close to being the real, schlocky thing. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. Johnson
Moviegoers will know in the first five minutes whether the new B-movie Machete is their cup of tea - or bucket of blood. Read full review
72
NPRIan Buckwalter
Machete works because at no time does it ever ask the audience to take any of this too seriously, yet the nudges and winks are never so forceful that it feels like it's begging for your laughter. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Machete is insanely violent, insanely over-the-top. It's pretty much flat-out insane. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineJohn P. McCarthy
How often can you see Cheech Marin nailed to a cross or Lindsay Lohan in a threesome with Trejo and the actress playing her mother? Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
The ensemble cast -- ranging from an Oscar winner (De Niro) and faded action star (Seagal) to a B-movie vet (Fahey) and tabloid fodder (Lindsay Lohan, not exactly playing against type as a drugged-out, hell-raising sexpot) -- pretty much offers something for everybody. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
For all its political button pushing, Machete is too preposterous to qualify as satire. The only viewers it is likely to upset are the same kind of people who once claimed that the purple Tinky Winky in "Teletubbies" promoted a gay agenda. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Any movie that finds a plausible reason to give Lindsay Lohan a nun's habit and a machine gun is worth your attention. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Like those '70s movies it borrows from, there's a blast of tongue-in-cheek politics built around a "They messed with the WRONG Mexican" message. No, this may not go over in Arizona. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This unholy mess replaces the artful ambition of "The American" with torture, blood spray, kinky sex, twisted fun and a bizarro critique of U.S. policy on illegal immigration. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Director Robert Rodriguez understands the exploitation genre and delivers everything one craves from it - over-the-top, graphic violence; scenery-chewing villains; cheesy one-liners; and plenty of naked boobs and bums. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Despite broad satire about racism and border fences that will appeal to some liberals, the movie doesn't line up neatly along party lines -- except in that other sense of the word "party." It's a movie that just wants to have fun. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
This is the kind of movie in which it's considered the zenith of meta-wit to have a slumming Robert De Niro (as Machete's racist politico nemesis) drive a taxi. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
It's often stylish and exciting, but the pile-up of cool kills, hot bodies, and other unprocessed bits of juvenilia doesn't add up to a good time. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's outlandishly gory and bluntly political, the latter being more interesting than the former. It wears out its welcome, though, long before la revolucion and sequels are promised. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina Longworth
Because there's no real character drama or consistent critique grounding the spoof, when Machete isn't laugh-out-loud funny, it's deadly boring. Read full review
50
VarietyJoe Leydon
Wildly uneven as it doggedly strives (sometimes with obvious strain) to sustain a free-wheeling, anything-goes air of exuberant junkiness. Read full review
50
PremiereNick Starkey
Machete is exactly what you expect. There's ridiculously over-the-top violence, plenty of nudity, and lots of grisly humor. It's mostly enjoyable, but isn't likely to be anyone's top 5 anything. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Machete is a drinking man's "The Expendables." Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
So now we have a full-length Machete movie, and it turns out that, as usual, less is more. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Rodriguez retreats into gruesome violence and flaccid comedy, grasping feebly for topical relevance by referencing the current immigration fracas. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
The whole thing is monumentally gruesome and just as monumentally cynical, a riot of grisly cliches designed to titillate and amuse. Read full review
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