Check Out the Trailer

More than just one movie, but a movie experience, GRINDHOUSE gives movie fans a double bill with Robert Rodriguez’s PLANET TERROR and Quentin Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF. This celebration of 1970s and 1980s exploitation cinema embraces the no hold’s barred attitude of those films, playing many conventions for laughs. At over three hours, horror fans really get their money’s worth with two solid entertaining films as well as some nice fake trailers from directors Rob Zombie (DEVIL’S REJECTS), Eli Roth (HOSTEL) and Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD).

The experience kicks off with a Rodriguez directed trailer for a film called MACHETE starring Danny Trejo. It nails the low-budget revenge flick vibe perfectly and starts off the night with a bang. With the line “They messed with the wrong Mexican,” the trailer felt like a Latino version of the blaxploitation hit, THE MACK or SUPERFLY. Then we move into the first feature, PLANET TERROR. Rodriguez’s zombie epic finds solider Muldoon (Bruce Willis, SIN CITY) unleashing a disease on a small Texas town when a deal with the scientist Abby (Naveen Andrews, TV’s LOST) goes wrong. On the run from the “Sickos” go-go dancer turned wannabe stand-up comedian Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan, TV’s CHARMED) loses a leg, but in the process rekindles her relationship with her tough as nail boyfriend El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez, TV’s SIX FEET UNDER). The survivors along for the ride include syringe-gun toting anesthesiologist Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton, THE LAST KISS), Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn, TERMINATOR), the sheriff’s bbq chef brother J.T. (Jeff Fahey, THE LAWNMOWER MAN) and Dakota’s father/ ex-sheriff Earl McGraw (Michael Parks, KILL BILL, VOL. 2).

Between the two features we get Zombie’s too slick trailer for WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS, Wright’s Hammer Films inspired trailer for DON’T and H Roth’s trailer for THANKSGIVING, which gets the elaborate kills and look of ’80s slasher films down perfectly. As for Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF, the car chase/ slasher film influenced picture follows Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) as the aging stunt actor gets his kicks terrorizing and murdering young women with his death proof car. The women that fall in his path include the cocky Austin radio DJ Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier, NINE LIVES), Julia’s NYC friend Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito, 25TH HOUR), Julia’s dimwitted friend Shanna (Jordan Ladd, CABIN FEVER), drug dealer Lanna Frank (Monica Staggs, stunt woman), lonely hippie Pam (McGowan), daredevil stuntwomen Zoe Bell (Zoe Bell), stunt driver Kim (Tracie Thoms, RENT), make-up artist Abernathy (Rosario Dawson, CLERKS II) and dim actress Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, SKY HIGH).

Both films aren’t perfect, but they sure are a good time. Rodriguez goes for broke with PLANET TERROR throwing in everything including the kitchen sink. In addition to the other characters mentioned before there’s also diseased and vengeful husband to Dakota Dr. William Brock (Josh Brolin, INTO THE BLUE), stranded driver Tammy (Stacy Ferguson, aka singer Fergie), Deputy Carlos (Carlos Gallardo, EL MARIACHI), Dr. Brock’s first infected patient Joe (Nicky Katt, SECONDHAND LIONS), the Brocks’ young son Tony (Rodriguez’s son Rebel), Deputy Tolo (Tom Savini, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN), the babysitter twins (Electra Isabel and Elise Avellan) and the rapist soldier (Tarantino). For fans of the filmmakers, seeing all the regulars is fun, but it bloats the story. There are four plots running throughout. Cherry and El Wray is the main one, which is the most interesting. Then we have the marital battle between Dakota and William, which has its moments, but seems to disrupt the flow at times, distracting from the central story. Then we get the bickering between Hague and J.T., which is developed just enough for supporting characters. Finally there is the struggle between Abby and Muldoon, which initiates the plot, but never takes off as it should.

What saves the film from being totally weighed down by too many characters is the icon cool of it all. One can forgive the length of some of the B storylines because they provide nice visual and iconic moments. One can tell that Rodriguez loves all his character because he brings them all along for the ride even when they aren’t needed. However, unlike Rodriguez’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, which also lost its central story in too many characters, all the parts are fun, compelling and entertainment. It fits the saying that you can’t have too much of a good thing. Narratively the film suffers from it, but the exuberance for which Rodriguez embraces the over-the-top vibe of exploitation horror films makes for a badass and humorous good time. He pushes every moment as far as he can both in content and stylistically. The rough scratched look and “missing reels,” which were common in Z-grade grindhouse theaters in the ’70s, are used for perfect affect, making comments and jokes about the entire experience. It’s in the absurdity of it all that Rodriguez finds brilliant moments. Cherry’s machine gun leg is unforgettable.

As for Tarantino, he takes great risks with DEATH PROOF. His story plays in two parts, developing two separate groups of women for us to care about. It’s the talkiest slasher film you’ll ever see. DEATH PROOF is actually more akin to car flicks like TWO LANE BLACKTOP and VANISHING POINT than FRIDAY THE 13TH. Tarantino works his magic again with his dialogue to create a nice vibe between Jungle Julia and her friends. He then slowly weaves the disgruntled Stuntman Mike into the story until we reach the vicious conclusion to the first section. After the bloody ending to the first part, we gain an instant tension for Zoe and her friends as Stuntman Mike watches them from a distance.

It’s not Tarantino’s best dialogue, but he still does a great job of developing his characters fully with seemingly casual conversation. What is remarkable is that he is able to keep our attention when it moves from the first part to the second. But what is interesting is how he switches genres from a slasher film to a revenge flick. DEATH PROOF ends strong with the more compelling group of women at the end. The first part seemed choppy at times like big parts were cut… and I’m not talking about missing reel moments. I will be interested to see if Tarantino’s longer Cannes Film Festival cut of the flick will fix those issues.

As a whole, GRINDHOUSE kicks off with a bang. PLANET TERROR is like fireworks. It’s a celebration of the lurid, ridiculous, over-the-top cheesiness that was exploitation cinema. DEATH PROOF closes with an experiment on genre convention. Tarantino combines his distinctive dialogue with slasher plot conventions then flips the whole thing in the end, turning the film into a car chase revenge flick, which has a girl power message. Ironically, GRINDHOUSE ends by undermining the misogynism that was prevalent in many of the exploitation genres. Rodriguez and Tarantino have both done better. But in celebrating bad cinema, both have found ways to play on and off conventions ultimately making good and highly entertaining films. What Rodriguez and Tarantino exploit are all the daring and all or nothing enthusiasm for pushing buttons that those “bad films” had. For good and for bad, grindhouse films weren’t playing by conventional cinema’s rules. That’s what Rodriguez and Tarantino want to celebrate.