Set up, double-crossed and left for dead, Machete Danny Trejo is an ass-kicking ex-Federale who lays waste to anything that gets in his path. As he takes on hitmen, vigilantes and a ruthless drug cartel, bullets fly, blades clash and the body count rises. Any way you slice it, vengeance has a new name--Machete.

Viewers expecting subtlety or even story coherence in Machete should probably check out another movie; the script by Rodriguez and cousin Alvaro leaves no genre cliché or absurd scenario untouched, resulting in less of a plot than a collection of over-the-top set pieces, dialogue, and casting stunts Johnson, Lindsay Lohan as Fahey's libertine daughter, and Rodriguez regulars Cheech Marin, Daryl Sabara, Tom Savini, Michael Parks, and an uncredited Rose McGowan. Most of the cast seems in on the joke, most notably a gleefully over-the-top De Niro and Michelle Rodriguez as a taco truck operator/revolutionary leader who borrows her look from the infamous Thriller: A Cruel Picture Jessica Alba is also on board as a sympathetic fed who becomes Machete's love interest. Though it's occasionally overlong and unnecessarily convoluted, the film's value rests on how well it allows star Danny Trejo to exude his steely, implacable Danny Trejo-ness; on those merits alone, Machete is a blockbuster. --Paul Gaita