Machete!

I hesitated to write this not because of what this movie is but what it means to represent, what is it an homage too?  Having not seen the "fake trailer" before the movie Grindhouse (because as you guessed I have not seen Grindhouse) nor having a treasure-trove of B movie knowledge to fall back on (minus the Ayslum of course), left me once again with only the film itself as my main source of knowledge.  I had a general idea of what the film was paying tribute to whoch I think helped a lot.  B movies are B movies because they just aren't as good as main stream A movies.  They are often over the top in their use of gore, violence, sex and campy dialouge.
Machete walks the fine line between A and B remarkably well, one of the reasons (I feel) it got as critically well received as it did.  It has A list talent in Robert DeNiro and Jessica Alba, old fan favorites in Steven Seagal and Don Johnson, working actors getting a well deserved shot in Danny Trejo and Jeff Fahey AND Cheech Marin (cuz why the heck not).  Oh and Lindsay Lohan but I'm not gonna go there, its too easy to be mean.
While the film has the look of an A movie (with a few throwback excpetions) it retains the B movie feel, pacing and plot which was likely to upset some people.  Though filmed on the relatively small budget of $10 million it lacks nothing in terms of sets, effects and makeup.  The script seems to be to be the most representative homage of all- silly at times, unbeliveable at others but still somehow highly enjoyable.  It seemed to me to be a hard script to conceptualize and then I read how Chris Cooper turned it down because  "it's the most absurd thing I've ever read"  Just goes to show you how the words on a page don't always hold all the keys.
I don't want to go on here so I will throw out a few bullet points of things I liked about Machete:
- Nice to see Steven Seagal in his first purely villian role.  Its small size suits Seagal's shortcomings while showcasing a different side to the actor
-Danny Trejo finally getting a starring role.  Hopefully this will lead to more, but Trejo made his character deeper than any B movie ever could give its protagonist
-Michelle Rodriquez, who I like in small doses, starts well but by the time her character (and her) are worn out the movie is minutes from finishing
-Robert DeNiro gets to make a small, oddball movie and shows he can laugh at himself. Also its probably the last time he gets a role Chris Cooper was offered first
-The nudity in the film, while unnecessary, wasn't offensive since it came off as silly and laughable
-Don Johnson and Cheech reunite!

So to wrap up, Machete is a highly enjoyable, purposefully bad movie.  Bad it its plot and (most characters) but enjoyable in its acting and homages to B movies of the past.  I'd give it a watch!