08/19/09 - Grindhouse

Grindhouse (2007, 191 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462322/

Recently hearing about all the rumors about this finally coming out to DVD proper back in early August made me really want to see it again. Unfortunately those DVD rumors never actually materialized. I was still pumped to pop this epically long movie in today.

In case you don't know, Grindhouse is two "bad" movies put together along with some interesting trailers. We first start off with Machete, a fake movie trailer done by Robert Rodriguez. The first movie is Planet Terror, also directed by Rodriguez. This movie depicts a small town coping with a virus outbreak and a small band of survivors trying to fight their way to freedom. After this, we get three more trailers: the first is Werewolf Women of the SS, done by Rob Zombie; the second is Don't, created by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame; while the third is contributed by Eli Roth and named Thanksgiving. Following the brief interlude of trailers we get Quentin Tarantino's feature Death Proof. Death Proof stars a crazed stuntman who goes around killing women in his death proof stunt car.

One of the great things about Grindhouse is the huge amount of star power. To really go through the cast list is too daunting so I'll refer to each character by their character name as opposed to jumping back and forth between character name and actor name. And with two films, the amount of names to remember is already immense enough, so it might be easier to just stick to this method for this film.

Because of the large amount of material to cover, I'm actually just going to cover all the different parts of Grindhouse in its own section. So here we go.

Machete (fake trailer) by Robert Rodriguez

We start off with a pretty cool fake trailer. It's really well done and follows what I think of when I think of old action movie trailers. Particularly I like how much of the plot it gives away. I imagine the part where Machete gets betrayed is meant to be a surprise but this point (and exactly when it is in the movie) all are shown to completely destroy any suspense one would have when watching it. Overall I really like this trailer and am not surprised that it's actually getting turned into a movie.

Planet Terror (movie) by Robert Rodriguez (2007, 95 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077258/

Here we get the big action half of Grindhouse. It does one thing superbly in how it pays homage to films of old: the grainy look. I think it's great. From what I've read on the internet, a lot of people disliked this look for some reason but I think it works fine. However, what Planet Terror does not have going for it is the obvious large budget. You can tell Rodriguez wasn't working with the $200 he used to make El mariachi this time. There's huge explosions and great makeup and special effects. These work to make Planet Terror immensely enjoyable but take away from the feel that this is a "bad" movie which is kind of what I think Rodriguez and Tarantino were aiming for with the double feature.
Another quibble I have with Planet Terror is the acting. Again, Rodriguez seems to set out to make a movie and not a "bad" movie. For example, the acting of Dr. Dakota Block seems quite good, being able to actually show a range of emotion in her role. When I see these "terror" and "weird" movies at the local cinema, almost every actor and actress is completely terrible at this. Being able to cry on cue? Forget it. Yet sometimes the actual ability to act comes through from some of the people here.
Overall, though, Planet Terror is too enjoyable to find too many faults with. I mean, sure, it might not be the "bad" movie that it was supposed to be paying homage to, but the fun-filled experience of watching these "bad" movies is still present. And the plot of a terrible virus causing mass panic is not foreign to these types of movies.

Werewolf Women of the SS (fake trailer) by Rob Zombie

This is probably the worst trailer in my opinion. It's just overall pretty boring and forgettable to me. Perhaps this is because I'm not as huge a fan of the horror genre as Rob Zombie is and that makes it so that I don't catch all the things he throws in as he pays homage to films he likes. Overall, I don't dislike this trailer but it's just not as good as the others that are part of Grindhouse.

Don't (fake trailer) by Edgar Wright

The first time I saw this trailer I thought it was pretty stupid, but the second and third time I found it hilarious. As I pointed out in the Machete remarks, the trailer completely takes away any suspense one would get when watching this movie. Going down into the basement is supposed to be scary but after seeing the trailer I know exactly what's going to be down there so the jump won't be nearly as big. It's really cool because these old trailers did do this. And the ending of just saying Don't over and over again followed by the simple last Don't said in a completely different tone by a completely different voice just makes this trailer even better. Overall I found this trailer the funniest. It definitely isn't worth making a movie about, but it's really well done.

Thanksgiving (fake trailer) by Eli Roth

I also found this trailer hilarious. The voice over and comments absolutely make the trailer in my opinion. The corny one-liners said in the absolute strangest voice possible are great. The scenes with the deaths are equally ridiculous and hilarious with people's heads getting chopped off without sound. Some of the more bizarre scenes I didn't find as funny, but the guy getting his head cut off while kissing the girl always makes me chuckle in its quirkiness. Overall, I really liked this trailer, too. It pays homage to the zany voice overs of older movie trailers which I really like.

Death Proof (movie) by Quentin Tarantino (2007, 90 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028528/

And now we get to the other big film. We've already sat through around 100 minutes of film so we have about an hour and a half to go in the total film. And this somewhat hurts Death Proof. The big plus of it in my opinion is that it completely feels like a bad movie from the 1970s. There's tons of scenes that just drag on and drag on with pointless dialogue by characters you really just don't care about. But after watching the 90 minutes before this, filled with the excitement of Planet Terror, it seems pretty boring. But Tarantino just does a great job at capturing the nuances of these older films. Do I care about the group of girls that Stuntman Mike kills at first? Not at all. Yet these people had tons of lines of dialogue to establish their character. And yet Tarantino manages to make all the dialogue pointless, much like what I've seen in the "weird" movies from the local cinema.
The overly stupid and complicated plot only adds to this entire feeling. Why can't Stuntman Mike just kill people instead of plowing his car into theirs at full force? It doesn't make a single bit of sense yet these are the kind of plots I see in the trash movies I've seen from long ago. It's way over-the-top but works for the film perfectly. And to go with Stuntman Mike's "plot" I will actually single out the acting of Kurt Russell in Grindhouse. Russell has such an amazing performance that I feel it's warranted. He completely sells his character in every way. I feel that he throws every bit of feeling into every line, completely seeming like a no name actor who's tried all these years for a shot in the movies and this is his one last chance to gain attention for some bigger role. His weird fake sneeze and the spiel on his "book" are so corny that it's impossible not to love the character, no matter how messed up he clearly is. Russell steals the show in a movie filled with tons of A-list stars.
But why Tarantino didn't touch up the film with the same grimy look that Rodriguez used for Planet Terror I won't know. Had he, this film would undoubtedly be one of the best films to pay homage to influences ever made. It would be essentially perfect in that regard in my opinion. But as it stands, Death Proof's film quality looks almost as if it were made in 2007 instead of 1967 or so.
Overall, I really think Death Proof is exactly what Rodriguez and Tarantino were aiming for in their double feature. But what would've happened if both films would have been this "boring?" No doubt Grindhouse would make even less money than it did. Something that might actually be hard to believe. They'd have to release the thing on about four separate DVDs or something in hopes of making some money. But I guess I'm just in the minority in really liking Death Proof.

Grindhouse
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462322/

So how does the whole thing stand up? Well, in my opinion, Rodriguez got the look down of a "bad" movie but with a big budget while Tarantino got the feel of a "bad" movie down but with the look of a recent movie. Pros and cons abound in watching Grindhouse. Planet Terror wasn't nearly as good the second viewing as it was the first while Death Proof was a whole lot better in the second viewing. Watching tons of low budget movies I feel gives me a better appreciation for Grindhouse than someone who has just watched Hollywood blockbusters and big name movies. Being able to understand that the splinter of wood in The Rapist's eye in Planet Terror is a reference to Zombi 2 or the myriad of nods to Kill Bill in Death Proof makes this film much more enjoyable to me.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. There's quite a few quirks with Grindhouse that knock it from a masterpiece rating. Is it an incredibly fun film that more people need to see and appreciate? 100% without a doubt. It's actually up there with movies like Almost Famous and The Lord of the Rings for best films so far this decade in my opinion. Now I just have to wait for it to come out on DVD and Blu-ray.