Robert Rodriguez's Cinco de Mayo F— You to Arizona
Grindhouse director Robert Rodriguez apparently put together an early trailer for star-studded Mexploitation film Machete as a "Cinco de Mayo message for Arizona," featuring the likes of Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and Danny Trejo fighting violently to protect illegal immigrants from racist politicians.
It's pretty glorious, and cuts startlingly close the bone with regards to Arizona's current events. (In some parallel universe, the breathless headline is "Mexican director depicts murder of border-tightening pols.") Ain't it Cool News says the trailer comes directly from Rodriguez and Trejo, and is a comment on Arizona's immigration law. Machete started as a fake trailer for Grindhouse. Vanity Fair's John Lopez writes, "Today's trailer is basically an expanded version of the fake Grindhouse trailer, with the notable difference of showcasing Rodriguez's dream cast," including Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan as a gun-licking nun, and Robert De Niro as an angry Arizona politician. Lopez concludes,
To top it off, there's Trejo himself. Never has a Mexican so deliciously embodied the nativist nightmares of all those who fear the Brown Menace. With his gilded spiderweb Eme tats and gnarled-carnitas face, Trejo is clearly the illegal action hero the border's been waiting for-El Hombre Sin Nombre at the immigration showdown.