Robert Rodriguez, who first gained fame as a director with El Mariachi
, a story about a man near the Mexican border who is mistaken for a killer and pursued by a drug lord's minions, returns to familiar territory in Machete, his latest work. Starring character actor Danny Trejo in what is likely his first title role, Machete presents a nonstop parade of over-the-top action, extreme violence, and gratuitous nudity. While the film offers the story of a former Federale who is made to look like the attempted assassin of a right-wing politician, it is in reality more of an excuse for Rodriguez to trot out a series of off-kilter characters who satirize a variety of Tex-Mex archetypes. If the plot, which involves a conspiracy to erect an electrified fence along Texas' southern border, seems timely, that coincidence probably speaks more strongly about the absurdity of the real-life immigration debate than the strength of the subtext in Machete's preposterous universe.