Robert Rodriguez

The Long Center was transformed into a carnival setting and red carpet on Saturday, August 13, for the gala premiere of the Austin-shot movie Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. Austin Film Society hosted this benefit screening for the Dell Children's Medical Center and the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund.

The attendees for the event included not only a lot of very happy kids but also filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, producer Elizabeth Avellan, new Spy Kids Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook, and the original Spy Kids, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, who are also in this fourth installment in the series. I was out of town and missed the whole thing, sadly, but fortunately AFS has published a lot of great photos from the event, some of which I'm happy to share here.

Why the Long Center? I found out when I saw Spy Kids 4 this weekend (my review). In the movie, the exterior of the secret spy headquarters is in fact the Long Center. My guess is that it was very convincing for people who don't live in Austin; I thought it was amusing myself.

Check out the whole AFS photo set from the premiere on Flickr. For another viewpoint on the day, you might enjoy reading AFS intern Lauren Hill's behind-the-scenes account.

I remember the delighted surprise of seeing the original Spy Kids with a friend one Sunday afternoon ten years ago. I didn't know who Robert Rodriguez was, didn't know much about the Austin film scene at all, but we'd heard the movie was fun even for grownups and gave it a try. It was a little silly with a few eye-rollingly juvenile jokes but much better than we'd expected. And the problem I've had subsequent Spy Kids movies has been that they simply don't measure up to the experience of the first.

Possibly if I were nine years old and hadn't watched any of the previous movies in the series, I might enjoy watching Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. Not being in those circumstances, I can't be sure. But I think even my childhood self would get impatient and annoyed by the last 30 minutes of the film. On the other hand, my grownup self quite liked the first 20 minutes or so and is sorry the movie couldn't sustain that tone.

Also, I was disappointed by a shocking lack of Danny Trejo, who is billed high on IMDb for this movie but appears in a single blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

On Thursday afternoon, Robert Rodriguez took the stage of the infamous Hall H at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con with a plethora of announcements, and I was fortunate enough to be there to hear them all. The Austin filmmaker started his panel with an overview of a number of projects in varying states of development.

The first project he mentioned was the imminent release Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. Rodriguez spent time explaining Smell-o-vision -- a scratch-and-sniff card that's a throwback to gimmicks of John Waters and William Castle. He also took credit for reinvigorating 3D technology. I'm not so sure I'd list this as an accomplishment, but that is just one man's opinion.

In more exciting news, Rodriguez announced Troublemaker Studios is greenlit to make two sequels to the grindhouse classic Machete (Jette's review). These sequels will be named Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again. Rodriguez joked that the last one would take place in outer space and will bring to the world (I paraphrase) "The first Mexican in space." Maybe he forgot Khan.

Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez and other famed Texas filmmakers may be household names now. But like most filmmakers, they launched their careers with low-budget, largely unseen short films.

Despite the later success of these Texas cinematic giants, their early works remain relatively obscure and are rarely screened. So, if you're a Texas movie buff like me, you won't want to miss the upcoming "Texas Legends, Before They Were Legends" program, which presents a collection of first short films from some of Texas' most successful and cherished filmmakers. Presented by the Texas Independent Film Network, Austin Film Society and Screen Door Film, the program includes the following films:

• Bottle Rocket (1992), by Wes Anderson. This short (pictured at right) is the basis for the full-length feature version of Bottle Rocket, released four years later.
• Styx (1976), by Jan Krawitz. This documentary is an impressionistic view of the Philadelphia subway system.
• Woodshock (1985), by Richard Linklater. This documentary captures the mayhem of the 1985 Woodshock Music Festival in Dripping Springs.

Fans of Machete now can see Robert Rodriguez's brilliantly overdone homage to exploitation flicks on the small screen, and it loses none of its gleefully gory and sexy charm in the translation. The new Machete Blu-ray captures every severed limb, explosion and naked female body part in glorious HD video and superb sound. (If you don't have a Blu-ray player, you can enjoy Machete's brand of heartwarming family entertainment on DVD.)

For an exploitation film, Machete has a surprisingly complex and coherent plot, not that this matters terribly much amid all the mayhem. Set in Austin, south Texas and Mexico, the story follows Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo), an ex-Federale turned immigrant day laborer hired by sinister political operative Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate a Texas state senator, John McLaughlin (Robert De Niro).

Meanwhile, immigration agent Sartana Rivera (Jessica Alba) stakes out taco truck owner Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), the suspected head of The Network, an organization that helps Mexican immigrants cross the border and find jobs. The two storylines intersect when Machete befriends Luz at a day labor site, and Rivera suspects he is part of The Network also.

Things go horribly wrong during the assassination attempt, and Machete is the victim of a double cross. He finds himself on the run from several parties, including the cops, Rivera, Booth and Machete's old nemesis, a Mexican drug lord named Torrez (a perfectly miscast Steven Seagal). Vowing revenge on those who double crossed him, Machete sets out to give them their bloody comeuppance with the help of Luz, Rivera and Machete's brother, a well-armed priest named Padre (Cheech Marin).

This synopsis leaves out plenty of details involving a vigilante group, political corruption, shifting alliances, incriminating videos, drug smuggling, impressive weapons caches, lesbian incest, scores of dead bodies, way-cool lowriders and online porn, but to say more would spoil some of the surprises and all of the fun. It suffices to say that Machete delivers most every flavor of fu, all presented with great wit and style.

Last Thursday night, the Paramount was completely sold out for the local premiere of Machete, the latest film from Troublemaker Studios. The event was a fundraiser for the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund and the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA). Director Robert Rodriguez was on the red carpet along with a number of stars and supporting cast from the locally shot film: Danny Trejo (shown above, naturally), Michelle Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Daryl Sabara, Elise and Electra Avellan, Billy Blair, Mayra Leal, and several others.

Paul Gandersman took some excellent photos for Slackerwood from the Machete red carpet, as well as a few from the intro and Q&A inside the Paramount. This was an impressive feat since the red carpet was extremely crowded that night, both with celebrities on the actual carpet and media surrounding it. Here are some of the best pictures from that evening -- mouse over them if you want to know who's in them. For more info on Machete itself, read Jette's review. Many thanks again to Paul for the following photos.

"Finally, the movie that Eat Pray Love should have been."
-- Slackerwood contributor Don Clinchy, immediately after watching Machete

I feel I can't really do Machete justice without channeling Joe Bob Briggs, the drive-in movie of Grapevine, Texas, and giving you a count on decapitations, bare breasts, nine kinds of fu, and other grisly types of fighting, wounding, and death. And tattoos. But Joe Bob, I am not.

I also wish I'd seen Machete in a drive-in theater, but we don’t really have those in Texas anymore -- not the old-fashioned kind, anyway, with the crappy speakers that hook onto your cars and the scary faraway bathrooms and all that. Since drive-ins are nearly extinct, Robert Rodriguez's latest flick will flourish with a big, receptive, rowdy audience for full enjoyment. Don’t wait for DVD. You want the kind of crowd you get at an Alamo Weird Wednesday, who can respect the movie while at the same time cheering and applauding for the best lines and the most creative kills.

However, while Machete was born to be a midnight movie, the movie is happily free of too much self-awareness of this fact, and avoids an excess of camp, apart from the occasional knowing wink to the 1970s exploitation films that inspired it.

A note from Jette: I'd like to introduce you all to our newest Slackerwood contributor, Paul Gandersman. Paul is an amazing photographer who attended the Predators red carpet and world premiere. My own red-carpet photography skills have come a long way since my first experience with them, but Paul's photos leave mine in the shade. He captured some great photos of Predators producers Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan, director Nimrod Antal and star Adrien Brody. In addition, red carpet appearances included a couple of actors from previous Troublemaker Studios films who Joe O'Connell tells us are about to star in blacktino, a movie produced by Avellan (that I'd love to hear more about): Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids, World's Greatest Dad) and Jeff Fahey (Planet Terror).

I'm posting these photos without any descriptions in between them -- I think they stand on their own very well. For those of you needing a hint, you can mouse over the photos themselves. Enjoy.

How do you rate big dumb summer movies? Sometimes they can be clever, like the first Iron Man movie -- sometimes all you want is for them to entertain you without being annoying. Predators isn't fresh or new and it isn't even memorable, but on the other hand, you can enjoy some suspenseful scenes and even a few explosions without feeling bored or annoyed. In terms of summer blockbuster scale, that counts for a lot. You don't even have to know anything about the previous Predator movies -- in fact, maybe it's best if you don't.

Predators is so predictable that you can actually recite along with the dialogue, knowing exactly what the characters will say, and then feel a small sense of pride and accomplishment at having got it right. I made a bet with myself on the time and victim of the first death and was off by only about two minutes. The problem with having a number of character actors and little-known actors among well-known stars is that the audience has a pretty good idea of who's going to survive at least the first hour of the movie.

The characters don't reveal their names, which is appropriate because they are a collection of stereotypes and ass-kicking archetypes from the action-film genre. We've got the Tough Reluctant Leader (Adrien Brody), the Tough Military Chick (Alice Braga), the Mexican You Don't F*** With (Danny Trejo, natch), Silent Yakuza, Wise-Ass Serial Killer ... you get the idea. Oh, and one meek and seemingly out-of-place Doctor (Topher Grace). They each find themselves suddenly parachuting into an unfamiliar jungle, and after a few scuffles, all band together to find out what's going on.

The Troublemaker Studios-produced summer action blockbuster Predators will have its world premiere here in Austin, at -- where else? -- The Paramount. Austin Film Society is hosting the gala event on Wednesday, July 7 at 8 pm. Tickets go on sale this Thursday at noon via the Paramount website.

No word yet on which cast and crew will be there, but a red carpet is planned so we know some celebrity-spotting will be happening. I assume we'll see director Nimrod Antal there as well as Austin producers Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan. I'm hoping for Danny Trejo, myself.

You may remember that Fox hosted some sneak peeks at bits of Predators during SXSW this year: Rod Paddock gave us the scoop on the extremely popular "first look" event, and I was up bright and early the next morning for a press conference (where I took the picture of Rodriguez at right).

Predators was shot here in Austin (as well as in Hawaii), but I don't think any of it was shot outside of Troublemaker Studios, so we may not see any recognizable landmarks in the film. After all, it is primarily set on the Predator planet, so far as I can tell. Although I'm not normally a big summer action-film lover, I liked what I saw at the SXSW preview and the cast is a very interesting combination: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga and -- the man who probably steals the film -- Laurence Fishburne.