Movie: Grindhouse
Starring: Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, and Bruce Willis
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
Planet Terror Rating: 3 Stars
Death Proof Rating: 3.5 Stars
Total Rating: 3.5 Stars
What a thrill ride! There's no argument that Grindhouse is one of the most original films of the decade. From broken film reels that go up in flames to trailers involving a locked and loaded priest, a hobo with a shotgun, and werewolf SS women, it is a complete blast.
The beginning of the film is terrific. It starts off with, like I said, a fake trailer called Hobo with a Shotgun (go on YouTube and you'll find it) which blows the audience away (no pun intended) with its twisted and violent humour. Then the actual previews came, such as Anthony Hopkins newest film, Fractured.
Finally, the double-bill begins, starting off with Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez, who stirs up the momentum and blood-splattering violence with a zombie satire that is really just a satire. It stars Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer with a machine gun attached to her leg and Freddy Rodriguez as a proverbial gunslinger who, "Never misses!"
The flick is fun, action-packed and so over the top, but it works because it is a mockery of older slasher films (that failed to even earn a star in most people's systems). It even casts the actor who plays Say-hid on ABC's Lost, as a mercenary. Throughout Planet Terror, you get various puss-spewing, flesh-eaters limping around Austin, Texas preying on the living.
The ending to this flick is hilarious, gory, and cinematic, but it isn't as great as I wanted it to be: just a shootout. Also, most students that have seen this movie will most likely disagree with this review because the film, to them, is so obviously cheesy that it doesn't work at all. However, they have to understand that these films were not meant to be realistic, but to ridicule its cheesier predecessors. I mean, do you really think a girl with a gun attached to her amputated leg can jump over a twenty-foot wall and shoot mercenaries while she's at it?
Then came Death Proof, a bit more realistic, but still remaining in the cartoon genre of action films. The beginning is brilliant because it shows a girl's foot waving back and forth on a car and the screen reads, Thunder Bolt for a split second and then quickly switches to Death Proof.
However, the prime reason, why Death Proof is better than Planet Terror is because the dialogue is intriguing and the directing is awesome. Quentin tries and succeeds in getting us to know the characters and uses interesting conversations about each girl's personal life as they ride through a small town in Texas.
After approximately fifty minutes of conversation and cut-out clips, the car chase begins. The chase will blow the audience away, not because of visual effects, but because the scene was actually done by the actors. The race goes on for a while, but it doesn't drag since it is so entertaining.
In the closing act there is a shot when the girls leap for joy in the air and the screen reads, "THE END". It's so '70s. That's why I loved Grindhouse, its fun, over the top, and cheesy. In a way it's like Snakes on a Plane (but much better) because it is purposely lame, but it is way better because it is much more entertaining, the plot is better, the directing is great, the acting is top-notch, and it serves up a gory thrill-ride that no one will ever forget.
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