Just a warning before you read this review.  This review has a few minor spoilers in it so stop reading if you do not want to know anything about “Machete”.

Ever since Grindhouse was released and the world was given the ever so small glimpse of “Machete”, I knew I wanted to  see it as quickly as possible.  After hearing about the casting decisions, I wanted even more to see this film with Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Segal, Jeff Fahey, Jessica Alba, and Don Johnson lending themselves to this “fun as hell film.

Now I really enjoy most the films of Robert Rodriguez including: El Mariachi, Desperado, Sin City, Dusk Till Dawn, and his segment of Four Rooms, but I really do not care for Once Upon a Time in Mexico, or the Spy Kids films, Sharkboy, or Shorts all that much.  So I was just a tad bit uneasy that “Machete” would fall into the latter category of films I did not like.  Well safe to say, that “Machete” falls into the films I love.

It’s time of release has been coincided with Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables”.  Now Sly made Expendables with trying to make it realistic and true to nature whereas “Machete” is far from that.  It is a work of complete off the wall awesomeness and far from reality which makes it that much better.

Now you should know that “Machete” has balls to the wall gore throughout the film and naked women.  One of those naked ladies is Lindsay Lohan.  But you will get to see tons of decapitations, bloody head shots, tons of entrails, amputations, and a gigantic heap of machete kills.  Even at one point “Machete” guts an evil doer and pulls out his intestines and jumps out the 4th story hospital window and swings into the 3rd story window on the intestines.  That was an “OHMYGOD!”  and there are plenty of those.

Danny Trejo was born to play this role.  He moves through each frame with such a cool swagger that it looks like the whole film was shot in slow motion.  Trejo just owns this movie.  And his surrounding supporting cast is just as good.

Steven Segal plays the evil man which is out of the ordinary for Segal, but Segal plays this role so easily and it makes me wonder, why he hasn’t been a horrible villain more often.  He is great as a villain.  I must say that Segal’s death is one of the best and funniest deaths I have ever seen in a film.  It made me laugh hysterically.

Cheech Marin well is Cheech Marin and has the best dialogue exchange with Trejo in the entire film.  Cheech is just a great character actor and it shows along with Fahey’s evil republican role.  They just do such a great job of it.

Now what would a Rodriguez film be without the us of make-up artist legend Tom Savini.  Yes.  Savini might have the best cameo roles ever.  Right up there with Bill Murray in Zombieland.  You might remember Savini as “Sex Machine” from Dusk Till Dawn.  The character with the gun attached to his privates.  Well Savini in this film plays “Osiris”.  A very skilled hardcore hitman.  Every scene with “Osiris” is gold.  Let us hope they make a spin-off movie of “Osiris” or at least a sequel to “Machete”.

This film’s reason is to make an excellent exploitation or should I say “Mex-ploitation” film that takes one hardcore badass seek his vengeance and justice through the evil people of the world.  Simple as that.

Loved it and am looking forward to more.

George Romero has given us some of the best, if not the best films in the zombie genre.  Hell, he invented the genre.  He has given us “Night of the Living Dead” , “Dawn of the Dead” (my personal favorite), and ” Day of the Dead”.  Some twenty years later the man returned to the zombie genre and gave us “Land of the Dead” which was good on its best day.  Then he gave us the Blair Witch/Cloverfield inspired “Diary of the Dead” which I thought was fantastic.  A true return to his political and class statements on society as he did with the earlier films of his career.

Now with “Survival of the Dead” we get a new look into the world of Romero’s zombie  universe.

Now I have been hearing quite a bit about this while it was being made, and sadly it did not get a theatrical release but maybe a handful of theatres across the states.  But non the less I was looking forward to seeing it.  If anything, Romero still finds the most creative and brutal ways to kill zombies so I would most likely get lucky and have a few cool blood spattered death scenes.

From most of the reviews of this I have read, it seems that most people down right hate this latest installment and they feel that Romero has lost it as a filmmaker and they wonder if he ever even had it.  I whole heartedly disagree.  I think his latest film “Survival of the Dead” is quite good.  Not his best, but still quite good and a great addition to the evolution of the zombie franchise.

This film takes place a little while after “Diary of the Dead” took place and takes one of the smaller characters from that movie, in this case military personnel, and follows their journey through the world zombie infested lands.

Meanwhile, there is an island not too far from the New England coast where people live with very few flesh eaters still roaming around.  On this island are two families that have lived on this island for quite sometime, even before the zombie outbreak.  It sort of plays out like a Romeo and Juliet type of scenario where these two prosperous families hate each other for their disagreements on what to do with the zombies.  One side wants to completely eradicate and kill every zombie whereas the other side wants to use the zombies for chores and slaves and keep them around and see if they can find a cure or to see if they can get the zombies to start eating animals instead of humans.  Personally, I think that is a pretty good story line set up and that it takes the “Dead” franchise into another evolution of what might happen if faced with these circumstances.

So the leader of the family that wants to eradicate all zombies is exiled to the mainland and a few of his cronies follow him there.  This is where the military personnel meet with him and they both decide to hitch a ride back to the island now packed with soldiers and weapons to gain control back of the island.

As you may be wondering, more zombies attack when let loose and quite a few deaths ensue, but not only from zombie attacks but from stubborn humans killing other humans which is a sad tale but also a true one.

As this film ends we are left with quite an amazing picture as to what is in store next for the evolution of zombies and how the rest of the human population will deal with it.

The death scenes are a plenty with  some great gore effects.  Sadly, Romero has not hired Tom Savini to do actual makeup for most of the gore, instead we get CGI gore which I hate, because it always looks ridiculous and stupid.  But, when people get ripped apart and their guts spill, it is all real make up and gore which put a smile on my face.

In all i thought this was a solid add to the franchise and look forward to whatever sequels Romero tends to make and to see his social commentary on society put into his work.  Kudos to you Romero.

In addition, you will get an AWESOME intro to the movie by Romero himself with zombies in the background working on the movie set and destroying things and when the zombies destroy things and interrupts Romero, he gets his sweet sweet revenge.  It is really funny.

Buy the movie HERE.