Movie Review: Grindhouse

Went to the movies last night and saw Grindhouse, the latest film from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

As usual, I will try to keep it as spoiler free as I can, but if there are any spoilers up ahead, I will give some heads up.

As you may know, Grindhouse is split up into two parts - the Robert Rodriguez feature "Planet Terror" and the Quentin Tarantino part "Death Proof". I guess I should explain first the premise/concept of the entire thing in the first place - or rather, I will let Mania.com's reviewer explain it. Go here and read the first 2 paragraphs - don't read past that because it's choc' full of spoilers.

My thoughts:

1) Planet Terror was pure fun. Silly, over the top, wacko, disgusting fun. Rodriguez just lets loose completely, and the movie's all the better for it. Don't look for a deep plot or anything, just go into it knowing that it's mayhem 90% of the time and enjoy.

2) The cast in Planet Terror was great. Freddy Rodriguez was surprisingly good as an action hero. Rose McGowan - let me tell you something - pictures/film do not do justice as to how beautiful she is in person. I once had the pleasure of sitting next to her at a restaurant in the Village and it is ridiculous how beautiful she is in person. She is not photogenic in that regard in that she is 100 times prettier in person than on film/camera. If the rumors are true that Robert Rodriguez and her had an affair on set, and he is leaving his wife for her... Listen, I don't condone that type of behavior, but I have always said if you are gonna do something horrible, make sure it's damn worth it. And on a purely "looks" basis, I can see how she might be damn worth it for Rodriguez. But kudos to the rest of the cast need to go out as well.

3) The faux trailers were great. I especially enjoyed The Thanksgiving one. I was cracking up over the killer's get up on that one.

4) On to Death Proof. Quentin actually tried to be an artiste with this one. This one is 100 times more serious than Rodriguez' part of the double feature, and the Patented Tarantino Long Winded Dialogue (hereon referred to as PTLWD) is in full force. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind PTTLWD usually, as long as it fits the film. In this instance, it didn't really. He could have cut down on it.

5) Quentin still cannot write dialogue for women. I think he still pictures Samuel L. saying the lines he writes.

6) ** SPOILER ALERT** Highlight it if you want to read. It takes a while to get to the payoff in Death Proof (ol' Quentin pulls off the false movie start, basically rebooting everything after the first 30 minutes), but what a payoff. The last 30 minutes or so are complete edge of your seat stuff with the driving.

7) Kurt Russell - phenomenal. Truly one of the most underrated and under appreciated actors of his time. He showed so much range in his role.

8) In the end, I think the movie would have been well served by switching the order of the two features. Planet Terror got you off to such a ridiculous rush, it was hard to come down from it while watching Death Proof and antsy-ness abounded.

But all in all, I give it 6 Nations.