"Two against the world, baby!"
First, a word about this childish boycott. "Grindhouse" gave us two brilliant genre films for the price of one in the theaters. It was a once in a lifetime experience for most of us and a chance to see the two most bada$* directors in Hollywood give us 3+ hours of hardcore horror entertainment including the funniest faux-trailers your likely to ever see. And it bombed. Big time. Why? Because lazy America said it'd wait for the DVD because the film was too long and lost the chance to support a truly brilliant idea and show that we are sick and tired of cardboard cutout PG-13 teen horror and bad remakes of beloved cult classics. They went to see "Disturbia" instead. "Grindhouse" was what true horror fans -hell, what all true film fanatics- have been dying for and shame on all of you who missed it. So the studio took a loss for taking a chance on this idea and as a result, they've split the two films up with extra scenes that were cut for time and are giving us these two films as...
Spectacular
The best part of Grindhouse (besides the fake trailers) was Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, which is now on DVD nearly a month after Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof was released. Though the Weinstein Company sadly decided to split the films for home video release (besides Machete, the fake trailers aren't here), the pair's Grindhouse films are an experience to say the least. Planet Terror revolves around Go-Go dancer Cherry (Rose McGowan) and her ex-flame El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) who are caught in the middle of an undead outbreak. As survivors gather together, the military steps in with their own intentions, and thus let the blood bath begin. What really makes Planet Terror so good is that Robert Rodriguez is clearly having a blast with the proceedings, as he pays delightful homage to the exploitation flicks that inspired Grindhouse as a whole. There's nifty gore effects from industry master Greg Nicotero, and the rest of the cast, including Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Marley...
Fun romp through homage to zombie-fest flicks offers chuckles rather than screams
Robert Rodriguez ("El Mariachi," "Once Upon a Time in Mexico") and Quentin Tarantino (do I need to list references?) have famously teamed up on a number of projects ("Desperado," "Sin City"). While these two cinemaphiles always appear to have a blast making their movies, the "Grindhouse" project may be the paragon of their mad-cap filmmaking self-indulgence.
"Grindhouse" was a double-feature in which RR and QT each provided a flick designed to be a homage to the low-budget horror/exploitation films of the 60s and 70s. "Planet Terror" is RR's entry, although QT makes quite an impression in an extended cameo as a deranged military nutcase. QT's half was "Death Proof," which I won't review here, but it's definitely of a piece with "Planet Terror."
Zombie films are seemingly as popular now as ever, so RR's spoof/tribute is timely. The flick opens with a hilarious mock trailer for "Machete," an X-rated revenge flick. The film quality of the trailer is terrible -...
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