If an audience doesn't find themselves thinking "I can't believe what I'm seeing" in a grindhouse movie, it's probably not a grindhouse movie.
A great, classic, grindhouse film is extremely rare, and is entertaining from start to finish. Most are memorable only for their few great moments of shock or sex, improved when experienced under the influence of teenage hormones. The unfortunate effect that time has had on most of these guilty pleasures is that much of what was seen as shocking in the 70's, rated "X" and luring our inner pervs into run-down theatres, is now barely titillating enough to warrant a pause of the remote on cable TV.
Yet the adolescent delight in movies that are "so bad they're good" lives on, and the compulsion to endure scenes of bad dialogue, terrible acting and clumsy film technique to find a juicy morsel of voyeuristic sex, lurid violence or even a glimpse of unexpected genius can be irresistible.
In Grindhouse, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino deliver the best of the worst and the most sublime of gratuitous thrills to be found in classic B-movies, as they pay homage to the genres of zombie films (Planet Terror) and car crash movies (Death Proof).
A hilariously fake movie trailer about a vengeful Mexican hit man known as "Machete" sets the tone for the 3 hour immersion into the experience of a grindhouse double-feature, complete with choppy editing and scratchy film, including a between-movie pause for more "coming attractions," provided by Rob Zombie, Eli Roth (Hostel) and Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead)..
Planet Terror comes first, and it's a loopy, laugh-out-loud, zombie gore fest with squibs the size of water balloons exploding with the blood of the undead at every gunshot. The comic dialogue is probably the best since Night of the Living Dead, and the personal relationships of all the characters are playfully, perversely twisted.
Robert Rodriguez deserves special credit for creating a group of characters that we can care about: Cherry Darling, the melancholy go-go dancer with a secret ambition; Wray, the tow-truck driver with a secret past; J.T., the BBQ restaurant owner with the recipe to die for, and many more. Planet Terror is filled with fun cameo appearances too, including Bruce Willis and Black Eyed Pea Fergie.
Tarantino's Death Proof approaches grindhouse from a completely different way. While the gore in Planet Terror is effectively played for laughs, Tarantino uses it for shock value in a way he's never done before. For half of its running time, Death Proof is closer to Hitchcock than to Hershel Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast ). The pace is slow, like a patient fighter waiting his moment to land a haymaker for a devastating knock-out punch.
In the second half, the entire movie shifts gears, shifts tone, and shifts direction, until in the end, Tarantino's homage to grindhouse is even more tongue-in-cheek than Rodriguez.' In fact, despite Tarantino's well-known appreciation for grindhouse films, including the occasional championing of his favorites through DVDs and film festivals, his Death Proof ultimately feels less like a grindhouse film than Planet Terror, coming off more like a made for TV movie from the 70's.
There are too many great casting choices in Grindhouse to mention them all, but it's great to see Rose McGowan back from TV land in a part that would usually go to Milla Jovovich, great to see Freddy Rodriguez transformed into an action star, great to see Kurt Russell as a bad-ass again, and awesome to see stunt-woman Zoë Bell playing herself in one of the most exciting car chase sequences ever.
Grindhouse is Rated R for strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use.
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PLANET TERROR
directed by Robert Rodriguez
Starring
Rose McGowan .........Cherry Darling
Freddy Rodriguez ......Wray
Josh Brolin ...............Dr. Block
Marley Shelton ..........Dr. Dakota Block
Jeff Fahey ................J.T.
Michael Biehn ...........Sheriff Hague
Naveen Andrews .......Abby
Stacy 'Ferguson ....... .Tammy
Tom Savini ............. .Deputy Tolo
Bruce Willis ........... ...Muldoon
Elise Avellan ......... ...Babysitter Twin 1
Electra Avellan ....... ..Babysitter Twin 2
Quentin Tarantino ... .Rapist Guard
DEATH PROOF
directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring
Rose McGowan ...........Pam
Kurt Russell ................Stunt Man Mike
Sydney Poitier .............Jungle Julia
Vanessa Ferlito ...........Arlene
Jordan Ladd ................Shanna
Marta Mendoza ............Sonia
Rosario Dawson ..........Abernathy
Zoë Bell ......................Zoe
Tracie Thoms ..............Kim
Marley Shelton ............Dr. Dakota Block
Eli Roth ......................Dov
Quentin Tarantino .......Warren
Mary Elizabeth Winstead ........Lee
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