Two For The Price Of One

I'm sure everybody has seen the advertisements for Grindhouse by now. You know the ones, where Rose McGowan's got a machine gun for a leg. Yeah, those. For the uninitiated, the idea behind Grindhouse is that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez each directed a movie in the style of '70s exploitation movies and put them together with some fake advertisements as a double feature. I caught it today, and I have to say that I was satisfied.

The first half of the bill, Rodriguez's zombie movie Planet Terror, was boatloads of fun. I'd have gone to see Planet Terror even without the whole grindhouse concept, but the gimmick only makes it that much more entertaining. The acting is engaging, the effects are disgustingly wonderful, and Rodriguez's direction is well-done, so I'll give Planet Terror a thumbs-up.

However, I don't know if I can say that I had the same enthusiasm when it came to Tarantino's Death Proof. Maybe it's because all my energy had been spent on Planet Terror and the mock trailers, but I thought the majority of Death Proof was kinda boring. I mean, there are good things about it. Tarantino's direction was great, and Kurt Russell was awesome, to the extent that whenever he isn't on the screen, everything else seems like it's lacking. I guess I went in expecting people getting run over in every scene, and got a 45-minute car chase and Rosario Dawson and some other actresses sitting around talking about their love lives and some random car chase movie only Tarantino has heard of. Death Proof does have some very exciting stunts, I'll give it that. But I'll also give it a thumbs-in-the-middle. I might end up liking it more when I get the chance to watch it by itself on DVD in a few months, but right now, I putting it as the lesser of the two movies.

And let's not forget those mock trailers. With Rodriguez's Machete at the beginning and Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the S.S., Edgar Wright's Don't, and Eli Roth's Thanksgiving during the intermission, the trailers just might be the best parts of the movie as a whole. And I know they're not for real movies, but I hope they all do get made eventually. Maybe if there's a Grindhouse 2 and Grindhouse 3?

At just over three hours long, Grindhouse is going to be a taxing experience if you don't like sitting in a theater for a long period of time, or if you just don't like (or get) the concept. And though I was worn out after just one movie, I still had a lot of fun with both movies and the experience as a whole. So I'm going to give Grindhouse four stars and a recommendation to those who are in the movie's target audience. And it's a definite DVD purchase for me, for sure.