GRINDHOUSE 2007, dir. Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie, Jason Eisener, John Davies, and Rob Cotterill 191 min., Rated R. Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Nicky Katt, Marley Shelton, Naveen Andrews, Jeff Fahey, Nicolas Cage, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Sybil Danning, Quentin Tarantino, Tom Savini, Sydney Poitier, Melissa Arcaro, Vanessa Ferlito, Marcy Harriell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Tracie Thoms, Omar Doom, Kurt Russell, and Fergie. Review by Bobby

Grindhouse is a schlock, B-movie double-feature by this generations “renegade” directors (Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino for those not in the know). The films feature fake trailers by famous horror-movie directors, purposefully scratchy film quality, 70’s-era special effects, and typical Taranntino dialogue. Are they “good” movies? Not really, but…it is fucking awesome.

Even though they are somewhat related, this really is two separate movies, so I’ll split the review as such, with an additional section for the extra stuff.

I’m gonna start with the trailers which some critics have said are the best part of the whole damn thing. Overall, I liked them. They were varied, fun and added that little something extra to the show. First off, we get a massive trailer by Rodriguez called Machete, which is a mexploitation version of Desperado on PCP. It’s basically Danny Trejo running around killing people with big knives but it’s so wicked-awesome that Rodriguez is going to make a feature out of it. The other trailers are as follows:

• Werewolf Women of the SS (Rob Zombie) – It’s exactly what it sounds like so I don’t have to really go into details other than Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu is pretty cool.
• Don’t (Edgar Wright) – This is supposed to be funny and clever but I just thought it was just kind of silly and lame.
• Thanksgiving (Eli Roth) – So far, this trailer is better than both of Roth’s features and it shows the Thanksgiving killer fucking a turkey so I give it a thumbs up.
• Hobo With A Shotgun (Jason Eisener, John Davies, and Rob Cotterill) – This was only shown in selected screenings and I didn’t see it but I do know that it features a pedophilic Santa Claus so it sucks that I missed it.

Now on to the features…

Planet Terror just drips of every 70’s (and even 80’s) crap horror/sci-fi film ever made. Zombies, gore, guns, a chick with a gun for a leg (gimmicky but it worked) and more gore. If this is your type of thing then you’re gonna love it. The story, acting, cinematography and effects are all bad on purpose and it’s just a whole lot of fun. There’s really just not much more to it than that. The only problem I had with it is that you can tell that the production is poor on purpose. There’s a big difference between a bad movie that is trying to be good and a bad movie that is purposefully being bad. And it’s painfully obvious while you’re watching it. To me, it was like watching Dead Alive, except that Peter Jackson didn’t have the money to make anything better at the time. Even with that being said though, at a base level, it’s still really badass.

Death Proof is half slasher flick with a car and half Tarantino talk-fest. This sounds like a mish-mash and it is. Tarantino really should have stuck to one thing and I’m beginning to think that he can’t make a film without huge sections of it being clever but pointless, dialogue. His writing’s not bad, it’s always interesting, but is this a Kurt Russell serial killer movie or a “let’s re-do the opening scene from Reservoir Dogs but with hot chicks” movie? The sad thing is that, it doesn’t matter…unless you just hate Tarantino’s style (in which case you probably won’t be watching this anyway) it’s just hard to not like Death Proof. The characters are cool, the writing is classic Tarantino and it has Kurt Russell in it. The movie feels really disjointed and even sloppy at times but hell, should we really be trying to pick this shit apart?

If you liked Pulp Fiction or Desperado or Kill Bill or From Dusk Till Dawn, you’re probably going to dig this. If not, you’ll fo sho hate it. Either way, I don’t think Rodriguez or Tarantino probably give a shit. They did what they set out to do, they weren’t trying to win the hearts of new fans and they definitely weren’t trying to win any Oscars. It’s overly gimmicky, way too long for the average movie-goer and basically, just crap. But like I said before, it’s just awesome. It’s every bad horror/sci-fi/slasher/Tarantino/Rodriguez movie ever made rolled into one. And there’s a lot of it…maybe too much…but I think that in the end…and this applies to both films…sometimes too much of a good thing is never too much.

Bookmark It!

Hide Sites