Grindhouse

Rated R for: strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use

Running time: 3 hrs, 11 min.
Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis

Rating: Three and a half stars [out of four]

In theatres now



Most of the people reading this blog [myself included] have probably never seen a true "grindhouse" film. Many of us [again, myself included] were just babies, or not even born yet, during the heyday of such cinematic monsters.

Nevetheless, "Grindhouse," the new film [or pair of films, rather] directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, try to bring the experience of grindhouse cinema back into theatres. Having never seen a true grindhouse movie myself, I can't really say whether or not they succeeded. I can say, however, that they did a hell of a good job at creating a fun, ridiculous romp.

Ok, let me start with a little background. "Grindhouse" is a term used to describe a genre of film that was popular mostly during the seventies and eighties. These were horror films that were exploitative to their core: tons of sex, violence, bad acting and over the top plotlines. They're so ludicrously bad they're good.

They were also usually in pretty bad shape, as each film was usually shipped from town to town. Oftentimes, entire scenes went missing, and the next town the film went to was just, well, out of luck.

Now, along comes Robert Rodriguez, best known for his "Spy Kids" films, "Desperado," and, most recentally, "Sin City." He teams up with our favorite "indie" director Quentin Tarantino, and they decide to make a double feature, two seperate, full-length motion pictures that try to recapture the magic of grindhouse cinema under the banner, well, "Grindhouse."

"Grindhouse" is as over the top as cinema can get. It's filled with violence, sex, nudity...in other words, all the good stuff that you'd expect from something like this.

As I mentioned, there are two feature-length movies here, and I will review both of them seperately in just a moment. What I don't want to forget to mention, though, are the wildly funny and very fun movie trailers for fake movies that play in-between our features. Rogriguez and Tarantino recruited three very talented filmmakers for this task, each of which create their own fake trailer: Eli Roth ["Hostel"], Edgar Wright ["Shaun Of The Dead"] and Rob Zombie ["The Devil's Rejects," the upcoming "Halloween" remake]. All do a fine job with their respective trailers, each of which more than stand head to head with their feature counterparts.

Ok, onto the films themselves.

First off, we get Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," a somewhat by-the-numbers zombie movie satire starring the wonderful Freddy Rodriguez [whom some of you may remember as Federico on the show "Six Feet Under"] and Rose McGowan.

As you would expect in this type of movie, a strange chemical has been unleased on a small town that is turning everyone into zombies. It's up to our heros, the go-go dancer turned heroine Cherry [McGowan] and her just-turned-up-out-of-the-blue ex, El Wray [Rodriguez] to save the day. Thrown in for good measure is Bruce Willis as Lt. Muldoon, who is, of course, an evil government official who is trying to stand in our heros' way.

There's really not much more to be said about "Planet Terror." The story has a few twists and turns. It's exactly the way it sounds- a B movie through and through, and you know what? It's terrific. It's turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride, "wink wink" to the audience, "wow, look at that zombie explode into a million pieces" fun. The characters are great, the dialogue is sharp, and the action is cleverly done. If you go in knowing what to expect, and if you can enjoy the occasional corny horror movie, and, in this case, the occasional satire, then you'll love this.

And, as with so many things in life, "Grindhouse" is very much a situation of ying-yang. Where as "Planet Terror" was throughly enjoyable beginning to end with almost no lull, Taratino's "Death Proof" is almost all lull with a few notable scenes of excitement.

And this pains me to write, by the way. Though I haven't enjoyed all of his work, I will always love Quentin Tarantino for "Pulp Fiction," if nothing else. Even when I didn't enjoy his films all that much [see the "Kill Bill" series] I could at least appreciate the creativity and sheer genius that went into them.

Unfortunately, I really can't say the same thing for "Death Proof." Now, everyone expects a lot of dialogue from our pal Quentin. He's built a career on it, and "Pulp Fiction" is a prime example, with some of the best and snappiest dialogue ever put to film. "Death Proof" tries to top that, but fails miserably. The dialogue, much of the time, pretty much falls flat.

Actually, it probably wouldn't fall on its face as hard if there weren't so much of it. The ratio of dialogue-to-plot here is way off, and the movie suffers greatly for it. Note to Tarantino: we don't need ten minute scenes of purely dialogue that go absolutely nowhere. Yes, we understand you're building exposition here, but one of the golden rules of cinema is that you keep your exposition as short as possible.

Tarantino breaks this rule over and over again. We hear minutes upon minutes upon minutes of dialogue, with an extremely slow plot progression, and you can't help but start to tap your foot and look at your watch. Now, I don't expect this thing to be filled with wall to wall action, the way that "Planet Terror" was, but come on...give us something for God's sake.




"Death Proof" stars a group of young women, all working in the entertainment industry, who are chosen by our villian, Stuntman Mike [Kurt Russell], as his next set of victims.

You see, Stunman Mike is, as you would probably guess, a former stuntman who is just a bit off his rocker. He uses his car as his weapon. I don't want to talk too much more about the plot than this, lest I spoil any of the fun details, but let's just say that it won't be too hard to see what's coming here.

Besides, there isn't much plot to talk about. We meet our group of heroes, watch them talk for awhile [ok, a long while] a bit of action happens, they talk some more, then talk some more, than talk some more, then comes the climax.

Fortunately, when "Death Proof" finally delivers its climax, it really delivers. And that's the problem- it almost seems as if Tarantino had this great idea for an ending, but then had the problem of that pesky plot to deal with. It feels like he wrote the ending first [and it is an absolutely amazing ending] and then tried desperately to put the pieces together that would lead up to it.

All in all, surprisingly, "Death Proof" despite being much less entertaining overall than its counter-part, was, in the end, the more suspenseful movie, by far. By the end, you'll be dancing in your seat, barely able to contain yourself as things build and build to a rather unexpected finale.

That's not to say that "Planet Terror" didn't have its share of tension; it certainly did, and, as I mentioned, it was a much better film. But "Death Proof" really does build the suspense to the point where you almost can't take any more.

So, overall, I would say that "Grindhouse" is the most entertaining movie of the year so far, by far. It certainly isn't for everyone- this is one of the most graphic movies I have seen in a long, long time, and there is a ton of sex and nudity here. Also, there is one part of the film that may cross a moral line for some people, and may make you uncomfortable, so be warned.

All that being said, if cheesy, over-the-top horror movie satire sounds like a good time at the movies, then you're in for a real treat with "Grindhouse." It's fun, fresh, and a terrific roller-coaster ride. Don't miss it.