Grindhouse
 

Saw an advanced screening of Grindhouse last night. It was great.

3 hours; 2 movies, and a few great fake movie previews. You have to understand what kind of show this is. If you're looking for a "good movie" then you can skip this. Grindhouse is an *experience* .. like a visit to a theme park. Expect: Over the top exploitation, people talking and being noisey, yelling at the screen, awesome bad movies.

Planet Terror:

Non-stop violence, absurdity, shock, cheesey jokes, continuity flaws and plot holes. Totally solid as an exploitation flick. I was laughing and cringing twice a minute... it just doesn't let up with the wacky shit. Totally enjoyable.

Death Proof:

Quentin Tarantino went running, worked up a sweat, wiped his face with a towel, rung out the towel into a bucket, and this is what he got. Eau de Quentin. The dialogue spans the majority of the film and gets kinda ... ignorable. However, when the action happens, it is gripping and genuinely thrilling. Comparably, strangely, I thought this was the "better" movie, because very little of it is cheap. In fact, Tarantino is too talented for his own good when immersed in this medium. While Planet Terror was nearly the quintessential sloppy exploitation movie, Death Proof is like a joke with a long wind-up and a great punchline.

The fake previews are fuckin' awesome.

ahhh! spoiler tags please!

I hope I didn't read too much. now I must see it quickly! i just hope theres not too much stupid kids in the room.

But I didn't have any spoilers. :p

Sounds exactly how I thought it would be....which is to say, awesome :D

Sounds like its going to be awesome. Going to see it Sunday. Hell this is going to be an awesome movie weekend for me. Fido is playing at the local art house theater and Grindhouse on the big screen.

I can't wait to see this!

Hopefully I can get a chance to see it soon myself, looks awesome.

I will be viewing it this evening... should I be pretty drunk or REALLY drunk?

pretty drunk will do just fine

Another movie I really wanted to love but didn't. I enjoyed a lot of it, but not the whole thing.

I agree that the fake preview are nothing short of spectacular. They were all over the top and all thoroughly entertaining in exactly the right way.

"Planet Terror" I thoroughly enjoyed. Halx's review says everything I would say about the movie, so I won't bother repeating it. I liked this movie better than the other by a significant margin. Random trivia if you didn't catch it, Spoiler: the last item on the female doctor's "To Do" list is "Kill Bill". This movie achieved everything it set out to be and did so with style and a very large tongue stuck in its cheek.

"Death Proof" was, in my opinion, horrible. The dialogue had a few funny moments but, for the most part, was trite, boring and lacked direction. There is an hour of dialogue, then 5 minutes of action that has almost NOTHING to do with that action. Then the movie resets and you get another thirty minutes of totally superfluous dialogue before 15 minutes of chase scene death race action. Now, I realize that Tarantino writes rambling movies and that some of his most famous dialogue has had shit to do with moving the plot-the "Quarter Pounder" exchange being one of the most notable.

I concede that I'm much more familiar with the zombie movies that "Planet" drew inspiration from than from whatever movies Tarantino tried to work with in "Death Proof", but the concept fell totally flat for me. I didn't particularly identify or care about any of the characters and there was no consistency between the first and second halves of the movie. I did not need the introduction of five characters over an hour of movie to learn that Spoiler: Kurt Russell's character is a psycho who can't blow his load without killing cute girls in a car crash only to have all five of them die instantly and horrifically. The movie then suddenly moves to a whole new place with four whole new people that I care and know nothing about just so they can encounter the same creepy dude but emerge victorious instead of ending up roadkill.

I think a lot of what Hal said about Tarantino being too smart for this genre is true, only it worked for him and didn't work for me. The movie wasn't really much of a knock off of an exploitation movie, nor was it fully conceived enough to be a solid actual Tarantino movie. I thought the punch line flopped, if it ever came. So it goes.

The one thing about both movies that my brain was never really able to wrap around was the fact that they tried SO hard to make them grounded in the 1970s, but then everyone had cell phones and sidekicks. Why?!? Those yanked me out of the moment and the ambiance and I still now can't imagine why both directors decided to go with leaving them in.

I felt the same way about Death Proof, though I have read many comments (on other sites) where people felt the opposite. Death Proof is deliberately slow paced and builds up to the action like a slow grind, as Planet Terror is more Night of the Living Dead. If I were to change anything, I would put Death Proof first, as it is more dialogue driven and Tarantino takes his time with character development.

Well, the style in grounded in the 70s, not the setting.

Overall, I enjoyed Grindhouse. Planet Terror was definitely my favorite of the two. Having already sat through the first movie, the slow buildup of Death Proof was just too much for me. First I started getting bored, then the boredom turned into irritation, and at some point I just stopped listening because it all started sounding like mindless chatter.

other way around for me.. planet terror was just laughable in its exploitative nature, I couldnt help but laugh at some of the random violence..

death proof tho, fuckin amazing. I started to feel like I knew the second set of those girls.. they didnt seem like they were acting at all..

Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez' half of the movie, was absolutely spectacular. Continues to prove himself as one of Hollywood's best directors.

What in the FUCK was with QT's half???? It was boring as shit. The overbearing and overly long dialogue wasn't even witty, thought provoking, or funny. His half, titled Death Proof, was just not fun at all. I don't know what he was trying to do there. QT is one of my favorite directors, too. Very different than his usual work. I can see myself getting to like it after a while, but it was awkward in the theater. It may take me a while to warm up to QT's half. I think he knew what he was doing, and made his half like he did on purpose (he wanted a change of pace), but coupled next to Rodriguez' zombie movie, it was too much of a change of pace, I think.

I highly recommend the movie, worth the price of admission, but don't expect the usual Tarantino antics in the second half. The 2nd half is an experimentation. RR does the usual great Sin City/Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico stuff in the first half; Tarantino changes his entire style of directing in the second half.

I think you need to review what the word "style" means.

que?

I enjoyed both movies but I definitely liked Planet Terror more. It was more of a true grindhouse movie/tribute than Death Proof was, DP felt like a regular old Tarantino flick except with more pointless dialogue. The end of Death Proof almost made up for the first 2/3rds, I was laughing and cheering. Almost but not quite, the conversations had some mildly amusing bits occasionally but as a whole didn't move the movie forward or flesh out the characters. Kurt Russel was awesome though, got to give him that.

I enjoyed Planet Terror the whole way through, plus I was glad to see Naveen Andrews as one of my favorites from Lost. With the cheese and excessive gore, I was laughing the whole way through. Especially Spoiler: that little kid, everything he did was hilarious from his "I will eat your brains and gain your knowledge" quote to the way he died. I'm sure it was making fun of all the horror movies where the kid lives through the most improbable stuff. Any other movie would have had that kid shoot 6 zombies and live to the end.

The fake previews were awesome as well, my favorite is easily Thanksgiving. There was one point in it when the whole theater went "Agh!" and cringed. People who saw it know what I'm talking about. Machete takes a close second though, I love Danny Trejo.

Either way, this double feature comes highly recommended if you're a fan of cheesy, gory, violent movies!

Tarantino didn't change his style. Many of his style elements were there: dialogue which doesn't move the plot forward, references by title to other films, strong female characters, characters putting music on, extreme and sudden violence...what else do you want me to cite that shows his style is still his?

This was the best time I've had at the movies in a LONG time. Both movies were awesome in totally different ways. But I wanna see Machete dammit!

Lucky for you, IMDB says Machete is going to be a straight to DVD release in '08!

I echo what most people are saying, that I loved planet terror, but after 2 hours I was not in the mood for Tarantino's dialogue. I firmly believe that it would have been better to put Death Proof first, then show Planet Terror. Regardless, Planet Terror was pretty much my idea of a perfect movie.

I loved Planet Terror. It was pitch-perfect.

Death proof was an exciting car chase scene with over an hour of banal dialogue tacked on in order to call itself a movie (for a moment, when Russell first shows us his bad side, I thought it was going to get good, but then it passed).

I've gotta be honest, these were brilliant films. Except for the part where Spoiler: Quentin's zombie penis fell offI couldn't look away. Planet Terror had a slow star but very quickly turned into one of the best zombie movies I've seen. Freddy Rodríguez, who I only new from Scrubs (Carla's brother), carried the entire movie without any sign of problems. As a matter of fact, I look forward to his next film. Rose McGowan (from Charmed...ugh) was way better than I was expecting. Robert Rodriguez is fracking talented.

As for Death Proof? Awesome. Zoe Bell is absolutely gorgeous, and my only complaint would be that she was only in half the second movie. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I loved Kurt Russel's Stuntman Mike. Awesome.

Zoë (the blonde kiwi) wasn't, she was playing herself, a professional stuntwoman. She was Uma Therman's stunt double in Kill Bill.

He deviated from his style by making a genuinely boring movie...

Usually his style is to have a movie with any particular order of plot elements and sequences and no matter what, it still pulls you in to where you don't want the movie to end.....even the dialogue is mesmerizing.....

In Death Proof, I was just 100% bored. That's how his style was inconsistent. If that makes sense. All of this is subjective, of course.

Quick fact: out of approx. 50 people in the theater, nearly half had walked out before the ending of Death Proof. That's not good, whether the audience "got it" or not.

If I had released this, I woulda flipped the films.

I liked both for their own reasons. I love car stunts though, and Death Proof had some phenomenal cars and action. I was near tears watching Kurt Russell at the end. Planet Terror was hilarious as well.

First film I have EVER found myself applauding at 'The End', and I didn't even realize I was doing it.

I think I found a new best friend.

I was so annoyed during Death Proof that I really felt like getting up and walking out of the theater. Tarantino's dialogue in Death Proof sucked. It was horrible. If there is one thing that I do not find entertaining, it is a bunch of unattractive women sitting around talking aimlessly and SCREAMING, SCREAMING all the fucking time at each other and at Kurt Russell. The stunt man mike character sucked too. I hated the way Death Proof ended. For me, nothing short of having each one of those girls burned to death in a firery crash would have been satisfying.

I was laughing almost non-stop during Planet Terror. I thought this was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The interaction between all the characters created a completely sureal ambience. The little kid was fantastic as was every other character in the movie. After such a terrific movie and even more hilarious coming attractions I seriously wanted to kick Tarantino in the nuts for putting me through Death Proof.

Just so you know I do love Tarantino and I was expecting his movie to be the much better of the two. I don't think I've ever been so let down by a movie in my life. The most agervating thing for me is that so many people don't see a difference between the quality of the dialogue between Death Proof and Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. Tarantino was also the weakest part of Planet Terror. I really think he lost whatever he had.

So surprising to me.. everyone describes the dialog of Death Proof as banal or boring, but it was one of the best parts of the movie for me. It was amazing acting to me, because the actresses seemed to be having a normal conversation. So often conversations in movies are cliche as hell, with predictable dialog and "oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-they-said-that" types of things. Never do people screw up what they're saying, hesitate, or ramble. I love dialog that accomplishes that, because it gives the movie a much more real feeling. Life isn't scripted nearly as well as movie dialog.

Just curious: did Pulp Fiction bore you?

I haven't seen the movies yet, but isn't Rosario Dawson in Death Proof? If she is and you said she is part of the "bunch of unattractive women" then your opinion is completely invalid to me. :) Also, from the commercials, it looked like the girls were at least fairly attractive, not like that makes any difference to the quality of the movie. So, maybe you missed the whole point.

I don't think I missed the whole point. Yeah, a few of the girls are mildly attractive. I know they would be considered beautiful if you saw them on the street, but in a grindhouse film I expect to see extremely attractive girls dressed in ridiculously slutty outfits. Planet Terror did this perfectly. My point about the girls in Tarantino's film was that they were way too understated (and some of them were just downright unattractive) for such a boring, boring movie. I think he missed the point when he was writing the script and casting the characters.

The idea wasn't necessarily to have beautiful super models because the original grindhouse style movies suffered from extremely low budgets. The quality of beauty in them was directly proportional to the women that the casting director knew in his or her immediate circle, and among them the actress also had to be willing to work for a very low wage. That shrank the pool to draw from considerably. That being said, I think that all of the women in Death Proof were at the very least moderately attractive, and several of them were drop dead gorgeous (Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Rose McGowan, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell).

Are you kidding me? I loved the ending to Death Proof! To me it was only way to end that movie, a fiery car crash would have been boring but Spoiler: having them beat him to death and then "The End" pops up was perfect. Remember Badass Stuntwomen > Psycho Stuntman. .

And who was unattractive in Tarantino's movie? Maybe they aren't all smoking hot super models, but unattractive? And really should they be? Taking into consideration this isn't supposed to be a Hollywood star filled movie, it's supposed to be a cheap thriller. Besides by having a real stunt women as one of the stars (who was damn hot) it saves money just like a real grindhouse movie.

great post, this convinced me to watch the movie(s)

posted a review in the "review the last movie you watched" thread.

nothing to say

nope, Pulp is one of my favorite movies. The dialogue was genius. Every single sentence each character said was meticulously scripted to be 100% perfect and right at the time they said it, and they made complete sense in every thought process they said outloud. Many lines were laugh out loud funny, and I didn't want the movie to end.

Death Proof just had long, boring, drawn-out conversations that were meant to mimick "everyday convo" but ended up just being boring. It reminds me of highschoolers filming themselves in their own cool "home video" that seems cool at the time, but would be the most boring video ever made if they showed it to others. The dialogue had a couple of nice parts to it, but overall, it just couldn't keep me enjoying the movie. I was able to keep attentive, just because I'm at the movies (what else are you going to do), but it was mentally draining - by the end of the movie I felt like my mind had a workout, just to keep paying attention to the boring dialogue. It was like a hugely long joke that your grandpa tells and then fucks up the ending.

Saw Grindhouse last weekend and loved it. Planet Terror was nearly perfect in every respect. Death Proof had a slow start ... a very slow start, and Tarantino's dialog was not at it's usual level. But, the payout car chase made up for it. I found myself holding my breath several times.

But, what ruined the enjoyment of the movie for me was that a couple had brought their young child (pre-school age, 4 or so) to the movie. It was a bit off putting since the movie didn't even start until 9:30, so it was late for a child anyway, let alone the film being a "hard R". When the child started crying, they didn't even leave or take the child outside. They just shushed it.

I've been at other more straight horror films in the last year that couples brought young kids to. what's wrong with these people?

Well, this shitpile of a movie goes down as one of the biggest box office disasters in the history of motion pictures, far outdistancing stuff like Cleopatra, Waterworld* and that quasi-western made by the guy who directed Deer Hunter.

Both Rodriguez and Tarantino have killed off their careers thanks to this steaming shitheap of a movie. All of the usual mookish spazzoid dorkoid fanboy crowd were bleating and shrieking about how the movie RULZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and how it would make $300,000,000 by the end of it's run.

It isn't even going to make back 1/2 of it's production costs.

It is the very definition of suck.

while i don't think it sucked donkey balls, i don't think it was the best thing going. both planet terror and deathproof seemed to lag a bit too much for my sesame street trained a.d.d. yes, they were trying to build suspense and capture the "feel" of old zombie movies, got it. now move the damn plot along. bit slow. deathproof was a bit better, but it had it's "i got the point, move on" moments. the car chase at the end redeemed the movie, the music throughout the movie was great, as usual, the dark humor was good, cinematically, good. i liked the extras between the two "movies."

a movie you have to see on the big screen, but i would have rather been able to rent it.

Hi, I'm new to TFP, but I just have to say having watched Grindhouse, and then watching the movies after they were split up (Box office results being what they were), Deathproof is a much better film when watched solo. It's not great, but it moved up in my book from garbage to watchable. The extra reel didn't change my opinion. It added fluff. It was just this time, I wasn't on an adrenaline high from the previous movie. The movie you watch before Deathproof actually makes a huge difference. I watched Meet Joe Black before I went to see Deathproof, and it helped. Deathproof was actually exciting! So, if Tarentino was smart, he would of had Meet Joe Black playing in his Grindhouse double-feature not a movie that dominated his attempt at a car chase, action movie.