For the most part, I really enjoyed directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's 2007 experimental film "Grindhouse," although by all accounts the experiment was not exactly successful. The film, which opened as a combination of two movies, Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Tarantino's "Death Proof," were flanked with outrageous trailers to movies that don't exist like Rob Zombie's "Werewolf Women Of The SS," Edgar Wright's "Don't," Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" and the extremely popular Machete directed by Rodriguez and starring Danny Trejo. When "Grindhouse" debuted it had a terrible opening weekend, in part due to confusing advertisements and bad reviews. But that was made worse when the distributor, Miramax, panicked the following weekend and separated the film into two different movies. Essentially getting rid of most fans favorite part of the picture, the trailers, and destroying the "Grindhouse" experience all together.

In fact, the film that originally opened no longer exists. "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" were released on two separate DVDs and to my knowledge neither include any of the original fake trailers. But that doesn't mean that the trailers are gone for good. It was recently announced that director Eli Roth is planning to shoot a feature version of "Thanksgiving" and Robert Rodriguez is now releasing his long awaited feature film version of Machete with Danny Trejo reprising his title role. Trejo began his life on the wrong side of the law serving time as a San Quentin inmate but turned to acting upon release and has now appeared in over a hundred films including "Desperado," "Heat" and "Con-Air." In addition to Trejo the film includes an amazing cast of colorful veteran actors such as Jessica Alba ("Sin City"), Michelle Rodriguez ("Avatar"), Jeff Fahey ("Lost"), Cheech Marin ("Up In Smoke"), Don Johnson ("Miami Vice"), Steven Segal ("Out For Justice"), Lindsay Lohan ("Mean Girls") and Oscar winner Robert De Niro ("Raging Bull"). They are all pretty incredible in the film.

I don't want to give away to many details about the plot so I will be careful to just give you the broad strokes. The film begins by basically giving us the origin story of Machete. He was a Mexican police officer who got too close to a drug lord named Torrez (played by the always awesome Steven Segal) who had his entire family murdered. Machete escapes and flees to the United States where he tries to get work at a Texas construction site. There he befriends Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), a taco truck owner who is secretly a revolutionary named She'. Soon Machete is caught up in a web of political trouble when a ruthless businessman named Benz (Jeff Fahey) hires him to kill a Senator (Robert De Niro) who wants to send all illegal immigrants out of the country and is in league with a crooked Immigration and Customs Official played by Don Johnson. Machete soon realizes that Benz has double-crossed him and is planning to use him as a patsy so he teams up with She' and his "holy" brother, Padre Benito Del Toro played by longtime Rodriguez collaborator Cheech Marin to take down Benz, the Senator and their crooked plans. His first move is to kidnap Benz's wife and daughter (Lindsey Lohan), which eventually forces Machete to go one-on-one against his old enemy, Torrez.

What Rodriguez has achieved with this film is to create a completely original and fun movie that not only is true to its "Grindhouse" roots but has a deep political message as well. While the film is definitely over-the-top and ridiculous at times it is on purpose and fits within the tone of the movie. Although I fear that those who do not get the "joke" of the film will not enjoy it and just label it as "bad," which really would be a shame because it is quite a great achievement. Rodriguez has successfully balanced pure action-driven excitement with social commentary, which is not an easy thing to do. Trejo was born to play this role and gives both a commanding and at times touching performance as the former "Mexican Federal" who is out for justice against the men who killed his family. As Rodriguez recently put it, he's gone from "ex-con to icon" and that is certainly true. I can't think of anyone else in the world that could have pulled off this role as believably as Trejo. Michelle Rodriguez is also excellent in her role as Luz/She' and is really starting to grow into a badass leading actress following her involvement in James Cameron's "Avatar."

But unfortunately, if there is one weak link in the film it is Jessica Alba. As beautiful as she is, and as sweet and cute as she comes off on screen, the bottom line is that she is just not a good actress. That fact is pretty obvious in this film except that Rodriguez's direction and tone kind of give her a pass. Since the film is done in the "bad-acting" style of the old "Grindhouse" pictures, her lack of acting abilities actually help her in her part, which is also something that helps Steven Segal come off so good in his role. Its common knowledge that Segal was never known for his acting chops but he was great at martial arts and having a cool screen presence, which is in full force here. He is wonderful as Torrez and when he finally picks up a sword and goes one-on-one with Machete at the end, it's not only totally awesome but will remind you have the classic Segal that we all fell in love with in the '80s. In fact, this film is kind of like the "artsy" version of "The Expendables." The fact that the four main villains are Segal, Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson and Robert De Niro is just priceless. While De Niro is hilarious and clearly having fun playing against type, Fahey and Johnson (both mainstays in film and TV in the '1980s and '90s) prove that they still have what it takes to hold their own against a legend like "Bobby D."

Also surprisingly great in the movie is Lindsay Lohan, who essentially plays an exaggerated version of her self, a barely dressed party girl who likes to fool around with guns. The actress plays with her own off-screen persona in the movie quite well and also gives an extremely believable performance. As a friend put it best, "Being a good actress was never her problem." Cheech Marin wonderfully reprises his role from the original trailer and "Grindhouse" fans should keep an eye out for twin actresses Electra and Elise Avellan, who appear in this film as well. While it is director Robert Rodriguez's vision that brought this movie to the big screen it is Danny Trejo's presence and persistence (he bugged Rodriguez for years to film it) that makes Machete a must-see-film for any fan of "Grindhouse" or any of Rodriguez's previous work.