Grindhouse review by The Grim Ringler
Ok, this is a call to geek arms – get out and see this movie now, now, now.
We can debate whether this is
a great movie or a failed experiment but the thing is that this is the sort of filmmaking
experience we rarely get anymore. This is a love letter to a bygone era and to
fans of genre cinema and the writing on the wall seems to say that this isn’t a
film long for the theaters. If that’s the case then now is the time to get out
and see this while it is what it was meant to be – a flashback to the days of
double features and getting your money’s worth.
First on the bill of this double-feature is Planet Terror a zombie film from Robert
Rodriguez. The government has gotten its hands on a deadly biological agent
that creates zombies of anyone that comes in contact with it in the hopes of
using this during war times, unfortunately for the world; this agent has been
leaked into the general populace. Several people band together to fight the
undead as the plague spreads, hoping to stop it from spreading any further.
Limbs are lost, pus is sprayed, and children are killed in this over-the-top gorefest that mixes a bit of the underground horror genre
with poverty row exploitation films.
Next come trailers from the likes of Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and Edgar
Wright. Each of these trailers is a different take on the horror genre
that, again, lived on poverty row and was found only in dank metro-theaters or
on dusty video shelves. The standout of these three trailers is Don’t by Wright, which plays with the, shall we say ‘warning’ sub-genre that
had a moment of glory in the seventies. All three shorts are very fun and
really allowed the filmmakers to play with something without committing to a
full project.
The second feature film is Death Proof, from Quentin
Tarantino, his ode to exploitation action/revenge films. In this film a
psychotic stuntman (played wonderfully by Kurt
Russell, reminding us of why he’s so damned cool) uses his souped up street-rod as a weapon and hunts down and stalks
and kills beautiful young women with the car. The stuntman though finds his
match in three young women who don’t take too kindly to his killing ambitions
and turn the tables on him in what becomes a very nasty car chase.
Personally, I loved the hell out of this, well,
experience. I love the concept, I love the experimentation, and I love that
they even did this. This, like 300 is a movie made to be an
experience, not to be pondered over. This is pure popcorn and it’s wonderful as
such. It’ll be a damned shame if they do as they’re talking about and cut the
film in two and release each feature separately. What a shame. Will this make
as much as was hoped, obviously not, but this is one of those times where you
have an experience, and yes, I keep using that word, that isn’t like anything
that’s out there. This isn’t meant to be mainstream,
and it wasn’t going to be. Sure, the saturated
marketing didn’t help matters, and maybe the run time did as well but this was
never going to do 300 numbers. But then,
you can’t always catch lightning in a bottle. I guarantee you though, these are
films that will be beloved for years to come by genre fans and which will be
brought up by geeks in ten years and more.
Ah, but how are the movies?
Both are pretty damned good. Planet Terror works a little better because you don’t need to be in
on any sort of clever nod to the audience that you might need for Death Proof. PT is a straight up zombie romp. It’s ridiculous, it has some of
the corniest and funniest dialogue around, and it’s dumb in the best of ways.
It is, without a doubt, the movie that friends will get together to watch,
whether on something or not, and just have a riot experiencing. This is Rodriguez showing how much damned fun he
has making movies. He does everything here and it all works. Now, my thing
though is that the next thing I want to see him make is a serious fill and THEN
I will be impressed. The actors are very good and once again Rose McGowan proves what a good actress
she is as she really pushes this film towards the end. Truly though, this
works.
Death Proof actually
works for me as well, but this one is slow to come to a boil. The thing here is
that while Rodriguez channels several
genres that don’t need a set up, well, DP
sorta does. Tarantino
made a classic ’70’s exploitation film, and in so doing it, it follows that
sort of film’s pace – action, lots and lots of exposition, then a boat load of
action and a sudden ending. This may rankle some but if you get what he’s
doing, it’s hilarious. As I said before, Russell
is fantastic and really creates a memorable, and pathetic, character. This
is your usual talky Tarantino and
there are a
The big problem I had with the film is that, well, dammit, Tarantino is
just so corny as an actor and he’s in here a lot. In
both films to be exact, and in neither is he good. He isn’t AWFUL, but he isn’t
good. Trust me. And yeah, the ‘dropped reel’ moments of the film get
frustrating as you feel like you missed a lot of stuff but then again, it’s all
part of the schtick of Grindhouse.
Is this art? Yes and no. It’s
art in a way in that it takes something that used to be known so well, and
which had little credibility and it takes the best of those films and
celebrates it. The films are not perfect, but then, that’s part of the fun as
well. There are crazy twists, crazier logic, and an insane amount of violence,
and I say good, no great!
It’s rare that I have this much fun at a movie and this was definitely a movie
made for fun. While this is best seen in a sleazy theater or at a drive in,
catch it any way you can while you can because the next chance you may get to
see these films together is on DVD. One of those movies you have to see in the theater (preferably
with friends) to get the most out of.
Fantastic.
….c…
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