Machete
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan
20th Century Fox
Release Date: September 3, 2010

Keep your cheesy horror flicks and interchangeable kiddy crap. I’m wrapping up my movie going summer basking in the glory of the mightiness of Machete, a movie that by all accounts should not even exist. It started out as an idea for a movie Robert Rodriguez intended to build around the unique talent and looks of his frequent collaborator Danny Trejo, a reformed ex-con who got into acting in 1985 with a small part in the underrated action classic Runaway Train with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. Trejo is a guy who has lived more lives than cats typically are born with and has always survived to tell the tale, usually on his face. He’s also got that awesome chest tattoo of a rather sexy woman that always seems to make its way into Trejo’s movies. Even if he’s in a scene that doesn’t require him to bare his chest somehow, someway, that tat is making a cameo appearance. Trejo has appeared in most of Robert Rodriguez‘s films since 1995’s Desperado, a quasi-remake/sequel to the director’s ultra low-budget 1992 debut El Mariachi. During filming Rodriguez was inspired to create a lead role in a future action epic for Trejo to play, and thus the seed of Machete was prematurely ejaculated, and the waiting began.

Before we get to the news…best headline ever, right? These are the things movie fans dream about hearing about.

In February of this year, word came out of the Berlin Film Festival that legendary director Martin Scorsese was working on a new mob movie called The Irishman with Robert De Niro, re-teaming the duo responsible for creating one of the great mob movies of all time in Goodfellas. The only thing about this movie, was that it would be more of a reflection film, with an old mobster looking back on his life of crime. The movie will be based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, which details the life of Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran — one of the prime suspects in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa — as told by the Irishman himself.

Not many people are all that excited about Little Fockers, the third title in the series that includes Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. Sure the movies are good lighthearted comedies you can watch with your family, and that’s likely to continue here as well, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a buzz surrounding the new installment.

One of the major reasons why people have not being excited about Little Fockers seems to be because every actor was coming back except one, and that one was Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman was a new addition to the second movie, but quickly became the most popular character with his strange, free-flowing hippy persona. If a third movie was going to be made his involvement would make it a lot easier to accept, but scheduling and financial complications seemed to doom that hope.

Thankfully some time has passed, and it has been revealed that thanks to some last-minute re-shoots and successful discussions, Dustin Hoffman will be filming a few scenes in the movie after all.

The first official trailer for Robert Rodriguez‘s grindhouse flick Machete has safely landed on the internet. The movie was born from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s dual-effort, Grindhouse, where Machete made a cameo as one of the many faux trailers used to set the tone as an old school double feature.

The movie is co-directed by Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, and tells the story of a Mexican Federale gun (or blade)-for-hire who’s brought in to do a job that turns out to be a major setup. Eventually he recovers and sets off for bloody revenge. What more do you need than that, really?

Continue on over to check out the trailer now.

The first trailer for Little Fockers has been released online by Universal Pictures. The movie is the latest installment in the series following 2000’s Meet the Parents and 2004’s Meet the Fockers.

This time around, Greg (Ben Stiller) and his wife Pam (Teri Polo) have a couple of kids and things are going well. So well, in fact, that Jack (Robert DeNiro) has even finally accepted Greg into the revered Byrnes family “Circle of Trust.” This doesn’t last long, of course, as Jack suspects Greg of being up to no good and once again questions whether he’s worthy of association with the family.

Click over to the other side to read a synopsis and check out the trailer for Little Fockers now.