GRINDHOUSE is actually two movies, conceived in the style of old 1970s matinee horror/zombie/slasher films. Gore, violence, over-the-top acting, grainy film, vintage announcements…it’s all here. It is accompanied by a collection of AMAZING fake trailers (especially noteworthy is Werewolf Women of the S.S. – a movie that DEMANDS to be made immediately).
But the meat of the film is a double feature – two films that take two completely different approaches to the genre. One is semi-effective…the other is pure genius!
PLANET TERROR
Written & Directed by Robert Rodriguez
“If anyone comes to the door, I want you to shoot them.”
“What if it’s dad?”
“ESPECIALLY if it’s dad!”
Planet Terror is outrageous. It’s nothing but a long series of gory, putrid, sticky, icky, repulsive slaughters…intermixed with sudden, disgusting deformities, injuries, and sick (really, really, REALLY sick) & bloody spectacles.
It’s also strangely witty and (at times) utterly hilarious. Robert Rodriguez knows that the entire zombie/death genre is just an excuse for outrageous on-screen violence. Therefore, he goes whole hog and gives us a battleground as sick and twisted and gory as he is capable of producing. There’s an utterly ridiculous, mouth-gaping human SPLAT every five minutes.
There’s also a strangely fascinating dissection of whether plot actually MATTERS to a movie. Through the use of “missing reels” and destroyed footage, we leap across several narrative gaps (such as jumping to the immediate aftermath of a zombie attack – which makes for a surprisingly funny commentary on the entire film…). Depending on your point of view, this is either a masterful commentary on the lack of a decent plot, or a giant shrug from a director simply deciding to “go with the flow”.
It’s also full of some of the most compelling bad acting this side of the Razzie awards. Sometimes it’s creepy and effective…other times, it’s just…bad. Bad in a Doctor Who/Horns of Nimon way. No…even worse. Spock’s Brain bad, actually…
Planet Terror straddles the line between hommage and outright copy. Sometimes, it does it very well, sometimes it does it very very VERY badly. But it’s certainly never boring.
6
DEATH PROOF
Written & Directed by Quentin Tarantino
“I don’t know what utopian society you’re livin’ in, but in my world…bitch needs a gun.”
As my friend turned to me and said, after the second half was finished, “Tarantino sacrificed a small child in order to make this film”.
Pure and utter genius! It’s easily Quentin Tarantino’s finest work as a film maker.
A first half that gives us excruciating, self-involved, whorish, razor-sharp/cliched women getting drunk and high & horny…Kurt Russell offering a hypnotic, mesmerizing performance as Stuntman Mike…the death of all the above mentioned self-involved women, in the most artistically grisly, rapturous, slow-motion fashion imaginable…
…and then, it transforms into something indescribable.
A second group of women: successful, confident, charming, witty (yes…only Tarantino can make vulgar profanity flow like amber dripping from the well of the gods)…nearly killed in a second confrontation with Stuntman Mike that can only be describes as the GREATEST CAR CHASE EVER FILMED ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH…and then, they turn the tables…they go AFTER him, run him off the road, and take out their revenge… revealing Mike to be nothing more than loud, empty nothingness. He’s a pitiful, emasculated man who needs his car to feel any sort of power…and he gets EXACTLY what he deserves!
It’s utterly brilliant. A complete and total subversion of the Grindhouse cliches that Planet Terror revels in…and the end result is the greatest statement of feminism and girl power to ever appear on the silver screen!
Your body won’t be able to produce enough adrenaline to keep up with this film. You’ll hide behind your hands as you watch the chase. You’ll laugh until you weep at some of the most hilarious word play and jokes to ever appear in a Tarantino film. You’ll punch the air with glee as the final, UTTERLY MAGNIFICENT five minutes unfolds – a testament to where power truly lies, and with whom…something years in the making.
I wish the second half was a stand-alone movie. It deserves to be. It is a perfect piece of art that deserves to be shown to anyone who doesn’t believe in the cathartic power of cinema. BLOODY FANTASTIC!
10
