Grindhouse

The idea of the movie is to make a homage/parody of B movies and recreate a distilled grind-house experience, with an oversized budget, A-list star cast and by two top directors, resources that none of the trashy genre movies had. It is a work of love and a guilty pleasure to watch, though the first part, Planet Terror, is much more successful and would rate 9+, while the Tarantino entry is somewhat of a miss. The fake trailers, the first of which resulted in an eventual feature - Machete, are great.

Planet Terror is the very definition of camp, and its only (slight) flaw is how obvious and in-your-face that campiness actually is. This part is action filled, and works perfectly as great, over-the-top, always hilariously fun, gory cheesecake. The second part is slower and somewhat different in tone, and is perhaps better viewed separately, it has its moments but Planet Terror is the superior part.

Grindhouse (2007)

**** (out of 4)

Sure, these movies are far from a real grindhouse but you're not going to have a better time inside a theater. With the fake trailers, messed up prints and bloody action, this movie is unlike any other ever made and that can only mean fun.

Planet Terror Robert Rodriguez's horror film about a chemical outbreak, which turns the citizens of a small Texas town into zombies. The only thing standing in the way of the zombies going worldwide is a one-legged stripper (Rose McGowan) and her sharpshooting boyfriend (Freddy Rodriquez). This throwback to the low budget shockers of the 1970's hits all the right marks and also turns out to be the goriest film I've ever seen. How in the world this got away with an R-rating is a mystery to me because this thing is non-stop gore from start to finish and we're not talking about little spots of the red stuff here and there. Each single death (out of hundreds) has tons of the red stuff through heads being ripped off to zombies munching on some flesh. McGowan is the perfect "B" actress to make her role very memorable and goddamn was it nice seeing Jeff Fahey once again. Tom Savini, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin and various others fill out the cast. The "grindhouse" effect of a cut up print with scratches and missing reels are used perfectly here. There's some humor throughout but the politically incorrect joke of a kid playing with a gun was a real hoot. Rodriquez fills the film with countless "bad" moments in great homage to the films this is trying to be like. If you're a fan of this type of thing then you'll love it. Others beware.

Death Proof Quentin Tarantino's homage to those car chase movies features Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike, a psychopath who loves to stalk women in his death proof car. The girls, including Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Tracie Thomas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, stunt woman Zoe Bell and Rose McGowan (again) are all perfectly cast and really nail Tarantino's dialogue but the real star here is the terrific return to form of Russell. Russell wasn't the first choice by the director but damn was he a great one. Russell just has that perfect smile and twisted laugh to make this psychopath so charming that you'd like to have a beer with him even though you know he'd probably kill you afterwards. Russell nails all the right marks making Stuntman Mike live right up there with Snake Plissken. This film is certainly a lot different than the first. This film takes its time in getting to know the female characters and I think this pays off in the end. Tarantino does a great job referencing other pictures so this will add some charm to die hard fans of the genre. Then there's the incredible chase at the end, which has to go down as one of the greatest ever. The chase is incredibly thrilling but it's also just a lot of fun. Seeing the girls being tortured by the "always having fun" Stuntman Mike was just a terrific time at the movies. I won't spoil anything but when the girl's seek revenge it's something that will make you want to cheer in laughter. Once again, if you're a fan then you'll love it but others beware.

I'm commenting on the double feature version of this rather than the separate films. I do have quite separate impressions of these but I do believe that the original intent was that they be seen together, and with all the interstitial matter.

When you approach films from certain filmmakers, you do it on a basis of trust. Its a matter of how willing you are to allow yourself to be.

Rodriguez has never betrayed my trust, so each time I encounter him, I am willing to play the game by his rules. That allows me to take more chances about the balances he chooses to make. Its a matter of yielding in the collaboration, so when he makes a cinematic joke or comment, I don't fight it. Trust.

In this case, its sharpened by this phenomenon I notice a lot: he's directing a lover. It is obvious of course, but even if it weren't, it drives him to make ever stronger chances, on the edge of his emotional horizon.

I think these two factors would make me like what he has done here regardless of all other factors. I do see the interior nature of the cinematic world. I do settle into the thick web of narrative threads. I do cheer when his love kicks ass.

But the opposite is the case with Quentin. I cannot trust him. It isn't just because he's made some bad films. Its because he sets himself aside. He doesn't include the viewer: he preaches. All of the cinematic effects are delivered as monologues not as a collaboration. So we are never in on the joke, never in on extending the nature of the world.

So I truly disliked his film. Sure, there's an empowerment story, and a sort of male's view of female bonding. But its all from the outside: the current of fate, the access to the group, the folding of all the principle characters being in the movie business. The actual camera-work of the stunts is from a discrete viewer, where Rodriguez puts the camera jumping around in the midst of the action and the emotional space.

Both films play with the joke of what constitutes good and evil. But they themselves represent this as well.

I will give Rodriguez a 3 and Tarantino a 1, but having Tarantino to have to go through increases the value of Rodriguez' effort. Bless him. I hope he does well with this woman.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I went into this film with expectations for an extreme amount of campy senseless gore and violence - and it was delivered as promised! A WARNING: Know what to expect when you go see this movie, or you might be surprised/disappointed. There is no moral, no good sense or life lesson to be taken from the story lines or characters. Sometimes things don't make sense and this is all done on purpose in homage to original exploitation films Warnings aside, Grindhouse is a lot of fun, there were as many "ooh" and "ahh" moments as there were "oh my god why did they show that?" moments. All of the actors' performances were right on and the action directing was excellent. My only negative comment is that Tarintino's film dragged a bit in the middle, but he more than made up for it. I couldn't help but raise my fist in the air and shout out "yeah!" at the end of his flick.

You will be surprise, you will be disgusted and you'll enjoy the hell out of it.

A unique cinema experience indeed.

Tarantino's critics do not seem to fully understand what he is up to. More than "making movies" he "makes movies about movies", in this case the B-movie genre.

This is what Igor Stravinsky did with music. He would take some genre(baroque, 12 tonal or even jazz music), break it down into the essence of its component parts and then put them back together in different ways. What you got was no longer baroque, 12 tonal or jazz. It made you stop to wonder what those styles really were and why they appealed or didn't appeal to you.

In a way, Tarantino is doing the same thing. He's making us question why we go to these movies and what the process of watching a film is all about. As a result it is not fair to criticize him because "the girls should have just stopped the car". In B-movies the girls just don't stop the car! It's like criticizing a serious drama for not having enough good jokes. He has really captured something about why these movies get audiences and are such intense fun to watch.

Now that Tarantino has dabbled with films about B-movies, kung-fu movies,action movies,revenge movies, etc. it will be interesting to see if he can extend into other genres. Will we ever see a Tarantino musical, serious drama, love story or western?