"But back in the all or nothing days...they had real cars
crashing into real cars and real dumb people driving 'em."
Grindhouse is a
particularly hard film to review. Partly because, at over 3 hours, it consists
of two movies, Planet Terror and Deathproof, and a couple of fake movie
trailers. But mostly it’s difficult because Grindhouse
is meant to be a throwback to the American “grindhouse” theaters of the 1970’s
and the exploitation and B-movies that they showed, many times as double or
triple features. And since it is 2012 and Grindhouse
came out in 2007, I clearly did not see it in theaters, the way it was meant to
be seen. The movies Grindhouse is
trying to emulate were known to be terrible: ridiculous plots, little-to-no
acting, and special effects that consisted of strings. So it’s hard to gauge
what to base a review on. Should it be like any other movie and be defined by
how good it is? Or should it be viewed as homage to grindhouse films, with
mistakes and everything? Although it walks a very fine line, Grindhouse seems to be both well made
and a frame-by-frame tribute.
The first movie, Robert Rodriguez’ Planet Terror, is basically a zombie movie. The acting is a little cheesy, but the plot itself is very tongue-in-cheek so it all kinda works together. What is really interesting is some of the technical choices. To simulate worn film from reels being transported across the US to various grindhouses, Rodriguez scratches the hell out of his film. It’s a unique and cool stylistic choice and definitely something you might never see again what with the (unfortunate) eminent demise of 35mm film in favor of digital. Also back in the heyday of grindhouses, films got shuffled around so much that poor handling resulted in a loss of reels from a movie. To get that accidental effect on purpose, Rodriguez cuts chunks out of the exposition and replaces it with stock footage with the phrase, “missing reel” (Tarantino does this for his film as well). It’s a cute little nod to the grindhouse era and ultimately we don’t lose anything important exposition-wise.
Quentin Tarantino’s section, Death Proof, is much less straightforward. His film is about a maniacal stunt driver who uses his “death-proof” car to kill young women. A couple of years ago I actually saw the standalone version of Death Proof with close to 30 minutes of footage added back to it and I honestly didn’t really like it. For whatever reason, Death Proof works much better with the missing reels and as the second part of a double feature. Still the first half of the film goes on much too long and just isn’t as interesting, funny, or action-packed as the second half. The plot itself is almost more ridiculous than Planet Terror, but Tarantino is a great director and is able to take the absurd and make it entertaining. As I previously mentioned, Tarantino edited the film down to the bare essentials with a handful of missing reels. However, as opposed to Planet Terror’s scratched up film, Death Proof is picture-perfect clean. It’s a bit odd when watched as the full-length double feature but probably unnoticeable on its own.
Each of the films is preceded by a duo of fake movie trailers made by famous directors in the vein of 70’s slasher and exploitation films: Robert Rodriguez gives us Machete (now an actual film), Rob Zombie offers Werewolf Women of the SS, from Edgar Wright Don’t, and finally Eli Roth made Thanksgiving. All four succeed very well, both as a send-up up of 70’s era trailers and as the director’s personal love letter to the genre films that inspired them.
Gun to my head, I'd be more likely to recommend Death Proof of the two. Planet Terror is a lot of fun but it's definitely not quite as well made or as unique as Death Proof. But they truly shine as a double feature.
Taken as a whole, Rodriguez and Tarantino give us two fast-paced action films with plenty of funny moments along with some bonus trailers just for fun. It’s entertaining, interesting, and a hands-on history lesson of 70’s exploitation films, but more than anything, Grindhouse is an experience.
The first movie, Robert Rodriguez’ Planet Terror, is basically a zombie movie. The acting is a little cheesy, but the plot itself is very tongue-in-cheek so it all kinda works together. What is really interesting is some of the technical choices. To simulate worn film from reels being transported across the US to various grindhouses, Rodriguez scratches the hell out of his film. It’s a unique and cool stylistic choice and definitely something you might never see again what with the (unfortunate) eminent demise of 35mm film in favor of digital. Also back in the heyday of grindhouses, films got shuffled around so much that poor handling resulted in a loss of reels from a movie. To get that accidental effect on purpose, Rodriguez cuts chunks out of the exposition and replaces it with stock footage with the phrase, “missing reel” (Tarantino does this for his film as well). It’s a cute little nod to the grindhouse era and ultimately we don’t lose anything important exposition-wise.
Quentin Tarantino’s section, Death Proof, is much less straightforward. His film is about a maniacal stunt driver who uses his “death-proof” car to kill young women. A couple of years ago I actually saw the standalone version of Death Proof with close to 30 minutes of footage added back to it and I honestly didn’t really like it. For whatever reason, Death Proof works much better with the missing reels and as the second part of a double feature. Still the first half of the film goes on much too long and just isn’t as interesting, funny, or action-packed as the second half. The plot itself is almost more ridiculous than Planet Terror, but Tarantino is a great director and is able to take the absurd and make it entertaining. As I previously mentioned, Tarantino edited the film down to the bare essentials with a handful of missing reels. However, as opposed to Planet Terror’s scratched up film, Death Proof is picture-perfect clean. It’s a bit odd when watched as the full-length double feature but probably unnoticeable on its own.
Each of the films is preceded by a duo of fake movie trailers made by famous directors in the vein of 70’s slasher and exploitation films: Robert Rodriguez gives us Machete (now an actual film), Rob Zombie offers Werewolf Women of the SS, from Edgar Wright Don’t, and finally Eli Roth made Thanksgiving. All four succeed very well, both as a send-up up of 70’s era trailers and as the director’s personal love letter to the genre films that inspired them.
Gun to my head, I'd be more likely to recommend Death Proof of the two. Planet Terror is a lot of fun but it's definitely not quite as well made or as unique as Death Proof. But they truly shine as a double feature.
Taken as a whole, Rodriguez and Tarantino give us two fast-paced action films with plenty of funny moments along with some bonus trailers just for fun. It’s entertaining, interesting, and a hands-on history lesson of 70’s exploitation films, but more than anything, Grindhouse is an experience.
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