TheRetroCritic

Following a popular franchise like Austin Powers was never going to be easy so it's no big surprise that The Love Guru tanked upon its release. What is surprising though is the general hate the film generated from critics. I mean, ok, I'm not gonna pretend this is any good but there are far worse films out there. One only needs to look to Myers' buddy Dana Carvey and his little nugget Master Of Disguise , a film so unfunny it's actually sad. Admittedly The Love Guru does a lot of things wrong: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba are both typically awful, Ben Kingsley as a cross-eyed Indian guru is disturbing, the whole thing is a sports movie (*puke*) and the central romance is about as interesting as Fat Bastard's ass. Oh, and a lot of the jokes just don't work. Then again, Mike Myers is genuinely fun even if he does turn into Dr Evil or Austin Powers occasionally, there are some good jokes here and there and the whole thing is pretty entertaining. Sure

One of the best bits of Grindhouse was definitely the fake trailers. And one of the best bits of the fake trailers was Machete , which promised flying motorbikes, killer priests, threesomes and Danny Trejo kicking a whole lotta ass. Three years later, we finally got the promised feature. Better late than never, I say. Shame  Sin City 2 took decades... Robert Rodriguez excels at mimicking 70's exploitation films, whether it be horror movies ( F rom Dusk Till Dawn , Planet Terror ) or Mexploitation action flicks ( Once Upon a Time in Mexico , Desperado ) so Machete was always going to be a shoe-in. That it took so long to make is therefore surprising but as long as it exists, I'm not about to complain. So does Machete get the job done? Perfectly capturing the sleaze and silliness of Grindhouse action B-movies, Machete is about as badass, random and fun as it gets. Rodriguez's film certainly shows weak efforts like A-Team and The Expendables (out the same year)