FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino join forces to recreate the magic and wonderment of the grindhouse double-feature. Back in the 1970s, there was a surge of “bad” movies being shown two for the price of one in smaller venues and drive-in theaters. The majority of the films were made with the intention of moving away from the mainstream. Often times they could be construed as glorifying sex, violence, gore and all that good stuff. These exploitation films were shown in the long forgotten practice of the double-bill. You would pay for one ticket and then see the first feature, some previews and commercials and then the second feature. “Grindhouse” plays off this concept well by giving us two feature-length films surrounded by fake trailers by their director friends. It makes for a long, but very fun night.

Planet Terror – ****

When a deadly chemical weapons sale goes horribly wrong, shots are fired and the gasses are expelled, creating ravenous, flesh-craving “zombies” dubbed Sickos. The disease travels quickly and affects anyone bitten or swapping fluids with the grotesque monsters. Who can possibly stop them? That’d be El Wray, a well-known local criminal and the best darn shooter you’ve ever seen. With the help of his stripper ex-girlfriend Cherry and a colorful supporting cast, he’s out to stop the terror before it envelopes the entire planet.

The homage to 1970s exploitation and B-grade movies is immediately evident and an incredible joy to watch. The opening credit sequence starts to roll with an intentionally cheesy montage of Cherry, played by Rose McGowan, dancing and writhing on her stripper pole in front of an unseen audience while equally cheesy music gives us a perfect taste of what we’re in for. We’re in for about an hour and a half of glorious gratuitous schlock of all kinds.

Auteur Robert Rodriguez, performing the roles of writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor and providing original music (along with Graeme Revell and Carl Thiel), does an outstanding job of staying true to the spirit of the movies he’s paying homage to. All of the bad dialogue and crazy situations and the seemingly random yet still totally predictable plot work in tandem to perfectly walk on the right side of that line between making fun of bad movies and making a bad movie. What we end up getting is a slightly exaggerated version, because it’s actually really good.

The movie is hilarious in all the right ways. Obviously the plan is to make fun of itself and how ridiculous (yet simultaneously cool) movies of that time period are. Rodriguez also plays around with the film-going experience of the era. In post-production they added all kinds of film scratches and gate hairs to dirty up the “print,” the audio is given pops and buzzes, and they’ve even inserted a couple instances where they make it look like the film has broken and was spliced back together after missing some key information. Very rarely would a projection actually be this bad if you were attending a double feature in the 1970s, but it makes for some great comedy and adds a nice touch to the overall experience.

My only real gripe with the film is that the acting is a tad too good at times and the production definitely looks like it had a much bigger budget than something like this would have had. With all the gun fights, make-up and gore, massive locations, rockets and explosions, and of course the awesome machine gun leg, it’s hard to believe that a legitimate B-move director would be able to produce something this cool. But, I’ll take a good over-production over a bad over-production any day. And this is one hell of an over-production.

Fake Trailers

Don’t get out of your seat in between the films, because as an added bonus, Rodriguez and Tarantino have enlisted the help of a few filmmaking friends to create fake trailers to act as a buffer for the features. Before “Planet Terror” starts, there’s a trailer for “Machete” about a vigilante ladies man who exacts revenge with the titular weapon while holding onto some nice titulars. After the first film has ended, there are three more trailers and a fake commercial. Rob Zombie’s “Werewolf Women of the SS,” Edgar Wright’s “Don’t,” and Eli Roth’s best work to date “Thanksgiving.” Each of the four has a distinctly different style and together show the breadth of films that fall under the grindhouse category. Do your best to avoid a snack break, because there’s a lot of great rapid fire jokes and entertainment in these trailers for films I wish would actually get made.

Death Proof – **1/2

A group of four young girls go out on the town to have some fun and hang out at a local bar. There they trash talk people they know, dance around, act a little rowdy and generally do what girls who think they’re better than everyone else do. They also meet Stuntman Mike. He’s a washed up stuntman from TV and movies in the 70s, who may be the most interesting person in the bar that they don’t care to give the time of day. Well after they part ways, they run into him again – literally. You see, Stuntman Mike has made his car “death proof,” meaning no matter what he does to his car, he’ll be safe inside thanks to all the contraptions inside. He tests this theory out, has he has many times before, on this group of four. You can guess what happened to them. Will the next group of four fair any better?

Quentin Tarantino’s half of the “Grindhouse” double-feature gives audiences a completely different flavor of bad movie glory. Where “Planet Terror” focuses more on the gory horror and sci-fi violence side of things, “Death Proof” offers up a fetish tale, with elements of gore and violence to be sure. It’s not a bad approach, but I think the execution isn’t quite what we’re expecting after such the hilarious thrill ride of “Planet Terror.”

The problem is that the picture just moves too slowly. There’s a lot of horrible dialogue, which I assume is partly homage, but is also probably largely because that’s what you get out of Tarantino. The very beginning is dull, then the death scene piques your interest, and then it’s just dead for a very long time before slamming us right into the action. I really could care less about these (purposefully) underdeveloped characters, because I just wanted to see more mayhem and destruction and car wheels digging into faces. Is that bad? The decision to tell a lame, boring story that drags before it drag races had to be an intentional one, but that doesn’t make the movie interesting.

The big saving grace is that once the action picks up again, it doesn’t let up. The stunt work and the climactic car scene in general is simply incredible. The best part is that it’s all really playing out in front of your eyes. They aren’t acting in front of a green screen. Oh no. They are actually holding on to the hood of the car going at high speeds while another car rams into it. That sense of actual danger glues your eyes to the picture for the remainder of the picture. And even though I wish they would have revisited one specific character at some point, that ending is probably one of the best I’ve seen in years. It really helps to encapsulate the whole experience. If only the middle wasn’t so insanely boring.

Closing Thoughts

While overall, I had a great time in the theater, I couldn’t help but think a couple of things were a tad off. For one, I was a little surprised at the lack of nudity throughout the presentation. I figured we’d see a teensy bit more sexploitation. That’s one of the drawbacks when working with established actresses sometimes, I suppose. The bigger issue for me, however, was the use of modern technology such as cell phones and email. If it’s meant to play like a 1970s type showcase, why not base the films back then too in order to completely authenticate it? Nonetheless, “Grindhouse” is an incredibly clever, funny and exciting piece of entertainment. I would love to see something like this come out much more frequently, because for the first time in a very long time, going to the movies became an experience again.

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