Robert Rodriguez returns to the grindhouse by means of this entertainingly over-the-top, ultraviolent exploitationer. “Machete” started off life as one among the list of fake trailers in the B-picture homage “Grindhouse,” the 2007 Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino collaboration which allowed the 2 directors to pay homage to their splattery ’70s drive-in roots. And any person whose appetite had been whetted from that teasing coming attraction indisputably is going to be satiated by Robert Rodriguez and co-director Ethan Maniquis’ full-length incarnation, which gives you everything that was promised.

Depending on what viewpoint Danny Trejo, the unlikely starlet of Machete, is shot from, he can certainly seem to be the earth’s hardest biker, a Native American shaman, or a extremely angry carp. Trejo has got a face that’s so abrasive, rugged, and teemed with hard living that it’s much like a natural rock formation. With a tattooed upper body as huge as a refrigerator, and very long greasy black hair that frames his simmering coal-fire eyes, Trejo, like Mickey Rourke, is the freakishly hypnotic camera target. However the film never treats Machete as a joke. When he slashes people with his machete, which he favors because he’s a true warrior, he’s an unholy ethnic avenger out of a ’70s walking-tall fantasy. As Machete, a previous Mexican federale, Trejo develops into a ghost of a man after his spouse was slaughtered in front of him by a drug kingpin (Steven Seagal). Machete, who gets chosen to assassinate the Texas politician (Robert De Niro) running a hate campaign against illegal immigrants, finds that he has been set up as a patsy. The physical violence can be witty, but the minor wonder of Machete is how mean everyone in the film is. The convoluted story largely is an excuse just for a relentless sequence of action set pieces in which Machete disposes his opponents working with any and all sharp items available — from surgical instruments to the fearsome titular blade (not to mention a weed-whacker fight that may very well encourage well-heeled Los Angeles inhabitants to treat their landscapers a little bit better). It’s all executed with the director’s typical low-budget style and finesse, and such instances as Machete carrying out a round-robin decapitation of a number of hoods at once or rappelling down the side of a building using one of his victim’s intestines surely will have viewers howling with approval.

The movie also includes Jessica Alba as Sartana, a comely INS agent striving to uncover the center of a secret illegal-immigrant network; Michelle Rodriguez as Luz, the sexy taco-stand owner and underground opposition leader; Jeff Fahey as the senator’s evil aide; Lindsay Lohan as his slutty daughter; Cheech Marin as Machete’s priest brother; and an unrecognizable Don Johnson as the leader of a vigilante border militia.

Interestingly, just about every actor involved is aware of exactly how to perform this blend of camp, carnage, and social commentary. Rodriguez can changeover from a cartoonishly raw scene of several decapitations (the machete is an extremely sharp tool) to a artificial political ad that seems similar to the most recent sound bite from Arizona to a gratuitous shower scene that slyly employs Alba with her consent to the slapstick comedy of Machete disguised as a gardener while combating a villain with a lawn edger, and throughout all the changes the tone of engaged mayhem continues to be consistent.

Sure, “Machete” is trash – an offensively bloody, politically incorrect action film about a badass Mexican Federale seeking retribution. Nevertheless, with Steven Seagal playing the drug lord and Robert De Niro playing the senator, you could begin to sense the fun to be had with this flick.