Review of Grindhouse (2007) by Warda E — 12 Apr 2010

When I saw this at the cinema the audience stood and cheered at the end of each film, there was a sense that we all together had experienced something special. This is one sleazy double act with Rodriguez gore fest 'Planet Terror' and Tarantinos stylish 'Death Proof' intercut with some fake trailers from acclaimed directors such as Rob Zombie (Halloween) and Eli Roth (Hostel).

Planet Terror is absurd, witty and often repulsive. It is a classic Zombie B-movie, skipping boring plot holes and filling it with all out zombie killing action. Rose McGown opens the film by pole dancing in a skin tight outfit and by the end has had her leg eaten by zombies and has fitted a machine gun to the stump. 'It's a virus outbreak, so what? Who cares what the plot is, lets just shoot some zombie brains out' is the logic and it works. It's simply genius fast paced fun with some of the best one liners in cinematic history.

Then there is Death Proof which wilts in comparison to Planet Terror. It is full of the self-indulgent speeches that Tarantino is known for. Except he takes it too far in Planet Terror, whilst the 'superhero' speech in Kill Bill was entertaining it was clear he had taken conversations he has had with his friends and put it into a film. He just likes the sound of his dialogue far too much. In this film the talking keeps going and going and half way through it leaves you thinking 'where is the point and how do I get to it?'. He does get to it though, and the femme fatale revenge driven car chase begins. It is awesome, these ladies know how to bring a man to his knees. The crashes are astounding and overly dramatic, but it keeps comming back to the fact it took to long to get there.

Perhaps their biggest mistake was having Deathproof come after Planet Terror. The sheer energy of Planet Terror whips the viewer into a bloodlust frenzy, then along comes Deathproof to put a dampner on it. Where as they could have built up to the hyper intense killing spree by starting slow, and thats what Deathproof is, slow. I have alays been one of Tarantinos greatest advocates, but he is starting to get a little too full of himself (as those who have seen Inglorious will presumably agree). He is concentrating so much on 'his style' and 'his dialogue' in Deathproof that he misses the point of a Grindhouse film. A Grindhouse film should be a violent, gore filled, stomach turning yet hilarious guilty pleasure, Rodriguez delivers Tarantino does not. Don't be put off though, Deathproof is still good, it just pales in comparison. Which must have been a major consideration to the DVD distributors when they decided to split the films (apart from in Japan where if you want a copy you can pick one up for a mere £70). They should bring them out together though for the western audiences, the film is about the experience and together it is still a 5* effort.

**Note: Rob Zombie has taken Machete (one of the fake trailers) into full scale production. Here's hoping he does a Grindhouse production of his own featuring Machete and Werewolf Women of the SS.