The following is a review of the film Grindhouse.
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Grindhouse
It probably wasn't the best day for me to watch a Tarantino/Rodriguez film in retrospect. I was breaking into a full sinus infection, and I thought that over three hours in a movie theater would calm my immune system. I was still plenty uncomfortable for the duration of the film, but I didn't care. Grindhouse was pure, unadulterated fun.
Grindhouse is a double feature, the first film, Planet Terror, was directed by Robert Rodriguez, while the second, Death Proof, was directed by Quentin Tarantino. Both features combined run 191 minutes, which, even to the seasoned movie-goer, is a long time to spend in a theater. Don't go if you have a sinus infection.
This is absolutely a film to be seen in a theater, complete with a giant silver screen, and surround sound. And those snazzy home theaters won't cut it either. Grindhouse demands to be experienced in a dingy, run-down theater, complete with sticky floors, stale popcorn, and shady management. I saw it at the G Street theater... pretty close.
Both features tap into the expoitation genre of film that thrived during the 1970s. Blood, guts, flying racial stereotypes, rampant sex appeal, and bondage drip down the walls of the theater. In addition, Rodriguez and Tarantino weave fake movie previews inbetween features, complete with pulpy hype, plenty of dripping and splashing blood, and an earful of screams straight out of The Creature From the Black Lagoon. They're campy, hokey, and spectacular. I especially liked the preview for Machete with the ending tagline "They fucked with the wrong Mexican!" There are also cleverly placed "missing reels" of film, usually strategically placed to focus on the film's exploitation lore.
I think it makes more sense to review each feature separately, as they actuallly work better as two films (and are released separately in countries other than the U.S.).
Planet Terror (2 stars)
Just when you thought Robert Rodriguez had reached his ceiling with the grotesque and violent unthinkable, he affixed a sawed-off carbine assault rifle to the amputated stump where Cherry Darling's leg had once been in Planet Terror. That was mostly the highlight of the film.
We find ourselves in a rural town in Texas as a slow but deadly realization drifts through the town. A rogue paramilitary group has botched an experiment involving a poisonous gas, capable of mutating its host into a zombie! Write your congressman.
As strange accidents occur throughout the town, and Dr. William Block's (Josh Brolin) ER wing reaches its capacity, it becomes painfully obvious that it will be up to simultaneous drifters and once-lovers, El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) and Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) to save the day and blow the heads off of some preeeetty hideous creatures.
They join forces with the likes of restauranteur J.T. Hague (Jeff Fahey), and Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton). Dakota is running from her deranged doctor husband, the other Doctor Block, who makes Dr. Josef Mengele look like Steve from Blues Clues. J.T. basically just wants to save the bar-be-que. Dakota has several scenes extremely reminiscent of The Bride in the Kill Bill films, involving her struggle to obtain a goal with a temporary disability. Marley Shelton even looks like Uma Thurman!
I must say that I was impressed with the level of 'mutant grossness' in Planet Terror. I mean, these zombies were gross. Beyond gross. It's the kind of disgust that is hugely comical and brought a new respect for cinematic makeup. My popcorn eating slowed a tad during those scenes.
And congratulations to the set designers for making the small Texas town so dirty. The restaurant was dirty, the hospital was filthy, and even the brief sex scene was tolerable at best.
Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling steals the screen with her witty and often comical dialogue. She trades barbs with the slow-witted but tough El Wray. However, most of the dialogue in the film is slow and drawn-out, as if Rodriguez ran out of content to fill the 90 mintues. You can almost tell that the actors don't really like what they're saying. Rodriguez is more of a visual director, and he succeeds on that front.
In the last half hour, we encounter the paramilitaries, led by Lieutenant Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and aided by bio-chemist Abby (Naveen Andrews), and zombies are shot, people explode, and yadda yadda, credits roll.
I haven't been much of a zombie film fan in the past. This one doesn't offer much more. Aside from the visual arts direction, the characters are flat and trite, the conversation limps along, and in the end we're left with what we've been expecting all along... I won't spoil it for you, but just imagine any zombie film you've ever seen, and you can fill in the blanks like a mad libs game.
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Death Proof (3.5 stars)
I loved Death Proof. I can tell because this was when my illness really started to kick in, and yet, I lauged and gasped just as loud.
Set in another small Texas town (but this time during the day), and also in Tennessee, the film follows two groups of friends who both have an encounter with an either shyly genuine or disturbingly creepy ex-stuntman, who inhabits the local dive bars and is known as Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell). Suffice it to say that something very horrific happens to the first group of girls after he gains their trust.
By the time the second group of girls comes around, we're not sure of what to expect. The atmosphere is relaxed as they reminisce about who's had sex with who, and share a meal at a diner while discussing the trivialities of their lives. Tarantino skillfully works to regain the audience's trust after the horror of the first segment and he begins to succeed. This group is on location working on the production crew of a movie that is being filmed in Tennessee. Zoe (Zoe Bell) and Kim (Tracie Thoms) are stuntwomen, while Abernathy (Rosario Dawson) and Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) have unknown jobs with the company.
Tarantino's dialogue is back in full force, as he doesn't try to hide his love affair with language. He is in love with every line and it shows. The characters share exchanges that have a genuineness and reality that remind us of Vincent and Mia in Pulp Fiction, and Beatrix and Bill in Kill Bill. It's not quite as sophisticated, but it comes close.
Zoe is originally from New Zealand (Not Australia!) and makes it known that she intends to test-drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger as it is undeniably her favorite car, featured in her favorite movie Vanishing Point. It's always been a dream of her's to drive that car, and it just so happens that there is a 1970 Dodge Challenger for sale in town. They meet the owner, sweet-talk him a little, leave Lee as collateral, and take off in the car. Zoe convinces Kim to let her try one hell of a daredevil stunt and the three girls ride into the sunset in pure ecstasy. Little do they know that Stuntman Mike is just around the corner.
This is the part where the film took off. An epic car chase ensues that was so visceral, and so real, that I could feel the 440 cc V8 engine. Tarantino wisely leaves out CGI for a car chase that is as authentic as they come. You are right there in the mix of it, hanging on for dear life, as an insane stuntman plays Russian roulette with your life. Tarantino also toys with an interesting premise here, that being stuntmen (which encompasses women, I suppose 'stuntpeople' would be more PC) duking it out for real outside of a film. Yet in reality, they're stuntmen playing stuntmen who are having a real fight. With me?
The casting here is great, with Tracie Thoms as the testosterone-souped stuntwoman itching for a thrill, Zoe Bell as the portrait of youth and vigor, Rosario Dawson as the more cautious yet equally badass member of the group, and Kurt Russell as a truly menacing antagonist. The characters are well-written and believable at every turn.
There's a scene where the tables turn and the audience goes with it in full force, and from that point on, the adrenaline rises exponentially.
And in the end, Tarantino remains what he always has been, a brilliant storyteller. He manages to bring you into the story to a point where you care of nothing else. The audience exists in his world. When I left the theater, did I rev the engine of my 1989 Acura Legend? You can sure bet I did.
