Review of Forbidden Planet (1956) by E T — 05 Oct 2007

Friday night I watched Death Proof at Vue cinema in Plymouth. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun there! Lucky for me there was only about 8 other people in screen 6 so I could cackle with delight to my heart's content. The film starts with 3 sexy bitches, doing sexy things and talking about the sexy things that they get up to because they are sexy bitches. I loved all of it - it was such classic Tarantino dialogue and even the man himself makes a (rather embarrassing) appearance as the landlord of a bar. There were some excellent touches that showed just how much of a film geek QT is and I loved all the homages to exploitation cinema like the distressing of the film and the entirely gratuitous "arse shots" throughout.

Anyway, after the sexy bitches have spent 40 minutes making it plain to us viewers that they are sexy bitches there was a brutal incident involving the mysterious Stuntman Mike (making it clear why the film has an 18 rating) and then the film starts anew. Death Proof feels like a double feature in itself, the first and second parts are so different.

So the second half of the movie starts with some new sexy bitches, doing sexy things and making it clear that they are sexy bitches. Then a new brutal incident occurs that is the same as the first, but different, and the movie ends.

I really enjoyed it - there is a fantastic car chase, I'm so used to seeing car chases and thinking "Wow, they did some fantastic CGI shit right there" but Death Proof just made me think "This is awesome. There is a car chase and it is awesome." I will say that a lot of the dialogue is rather tiresome and as a girl I felt slightly embarrassed that anyone would think girls actually talk like that, but I still loved it.

Saturday night I stayed home alone and watched Forbidden Planet and drank bourbon. It was filmed in glorious Eastman Color and was a pleasure to watch. The plot is fabulously camp and had me grinning throughout. The survivors of an Earth colony; a lone scientist and his beautiful daughter (who has never visited Earth) are visited by a starship crew and all sorts of delightful interactions between the stunning Anne Francis (the daughter) and the crew occur. I was waiting for her to say "Tell me more of this Earth activity you call kissing".

The Id monster was animated by Joshua Meador of Disney and having seen the Looney Tunes monster "Gossamer" I found it hard to be scared of the monster, but there was still some marvellous tension building scenes.

Both films were great, but for different reasons - Death Proof would be great to watch with your friends and take delight in the QT's love of grindhouse cinema, I would definitely watch this with friends who love movies too so we could pick apart all the references to the exploitation genre. Forbidden Planet is camped up B Movie classic (and the first movie with an all electronic score) and more of a Sunday afternoon film to just lie back and enjoy the saturated colour and hammed up acting. I'm more scared of Stuntman Mike than I am of the Id Monster.