Grindhouse Review

Written by: BlackDeathDamien   

From cult movie directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez comes a unique film experience: a double-bill of thrillers that recall both filmmakers' favorite exploitation films. "Grindhouse" (a downtown movie theater in disrepair since its glory days as a movie palace known for "grinding out" non-stop double-bill programs of B-movies) is presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Tarantino's film, "Death Proof," is a rip-roaring slasher flick where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife, while Rodriguez's film explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours in "Planet Terror." The films are joined together by clever faux trailers that recall the '50s exploitation drive-in classics.

An homage to exploitation B-movie thrillers that combines two feature-length segments into one double-bill designed to replicate the grind house theatergoing experience of the 70s and 80s. In "Death Proof," a psycho named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalks and kills beautiful women with his car. In "Planet Terror," a small-town sheriffs' department has to deal with an outbreak of murderous, infected people called "sickos." A gun-legged woman named Cherry (Rose McGowan) and her martial arts-wielding partner (Freddy Rodriguez) take on the zombie army. The two films will be fused together by fake movie trailers.

I just saw Grindhouse earlier tonight and i gotta say i enjoyed the experience a whole lot. Both movies were done really well with the whole 70's feel. The acting i thought was very well done with some humor twists to each movie. Here's my take on both films.

Planet Terror- I enjoyed this movie so much. It was by far my favorite. It had a mixture between Dead Rising, Night of the Living Dead, and 28 Days Later. I especially loved how for the entire movie it was completely grainy like the old Grindhouse movies. I could definitely tell there was a mixture of both 70's and 80's style horror. The whole storyline I thought was perfect. Just the way how Rodriguez made the zombies look and how the humans turned into the zombies. The way they looked and moved had that creepy eerie feel. 

The chemistry between Freddy Rodriguez and Rose McGowen couldn't ask for anything better. Robert Rodriguez chose the perfect duo for this movie. The way that they felt about each other from start to finish were pretty believable. They had the hate-love relationship which was great. I would have to say that this movie was flawless. I didn't find one bad thing about this movie. Not only having some seriousness to the film but also some twists of humor in it which makes a great horror movie. Another note, there wasn't too much gore or ridiculious and unessassary explosions and death scenes.

Death Proof- Now as far as this movie goes, I loved and hated this movie at the sametime. What Tarantino did for this movie was done really well. The 70's style enviornments and cars i simply loved. You couldn't ask for anything better in a movie than having smoking hot women, car chases, and women kicking ass. I thought the soundtrack was cheesy and good at the sametime. But i did like it to some extent. The stunts throughout the entire movie were hands down spetacular, from start to finish.

All the women in this movie had great chemistry. The way they acted and talked seemed believable that they were friends for a very long time. With the 3 out of the 4 friends in the final climax of the movie in the car chase were simply amazing. All 3 of them had that believable psychotic feel when you pissed them off. All I have to say is these women can kick some serious ass. Especially the final climax when the women finally catched up with Stuntman Mike. All I can say was simply the best asskicking ever.

As far as Kurt Russell goes, he was born to play Stuntman Mike. Tarantino chose the perfect actor to play as Stuntman Mike. The way he acted and talked was a perfect villain-esque feel. With all the scenes he was in, he had that very evil/sinister look to him. Especially, when he was stalking and talking pictures of the 4 women that he was going to run down. Now when it came down to his car that he drove was simply the best looking car in the movie. Not only was it a death machine but also it can out drive any car. They don't call him Stuntman Mike for nothing.

As far as my dislike about this movie, which had way too damn much of, if you couldn't of guessed was the dialog. There was way to damn much senseless and pointless chit chat between all the women in this movie, from start to finish. Everything that they talked about didn't make any sense and had nothing to do with anything. All they did was go on and on about a bunch of non-sense. This was the only reason that made the movie not as exciting. Now if Tarantino had cut down on the dialog and added more scenes dealing with Stuntman Mike this movie would of been up to par with Planet Terror.

For all of the mock Grindhouse previews that they had were simply ingenious. I was simply blown away with all the mock movies that were shown. To bad that each one wasn't going to be a real movie. B/c all i have to say is that if they did i would love to see them all. I loved each one shown but my pick of the litter was without a doubt the movie "Don'T." OMG! All i have to say is this trailer was so damn hilarious. The entire trailer had me rolling. I so wish that this was going to be a real movie.

So basically the only reason i gave this movie an overall 8 was all the dialog in Death Proof.