Having seen many Trejo movies, and having loved many of them (not all mind you, just many), I was disappointed with this one.
In order to make a old man into a larger than life figure, you need to pull off a small miracle. You need to bend and direct the audience's perception juuuuust right. Machete pulled it off, but Bullet simply does not. Danny does not truly appear as a larger than life character who takes charge and lives life dangerously, but instead as a nearly retired cop who has too many problems. I confess that I don't have the technical movie knowledge to adequately explain what I'm trying to say.
I can only say that the movie felt.. like the illusion was empty.
Trejo's movies are usually somewhat outlandish, heavy on the "grindhouse" style, and inventive. This film has none of that. It seems that the director decided to try making it more dramatic instead. The fun and vivacious extremity I was expecting was instead replaced with old cop movie clichés.
The acting was poor because it tried too hard, the execution was plodding and halting. The special effects were disappointingly poor. It seems the director and editor had no concept of what I like to call "vicinity errors". These occur when the objects being used in the scene do not correctly stay in their places from scene to scene, or their behavior defies the common sense expectations of the viewers. Essentially, the area around the actors isn't correctly used. Bullets hitting their targets too long after being fired, objects being there one second and gone the next, or a character taking his hat off twice in the same scene without putting it back on in between.. These are vicinity errors and are usually are the result of bad editing. This movie has too many of them.
It was not a bad film. It just simply didn't shine with any of the usual Trejo brilliance.
