Double the pleasure and double the fun

I went to see Grindhouse this past weekend, which was a bloody great way to spend 3 hours for a movie-geek like me. The film is a double feature of two exploitation style movies (completed with distorted film-damage effects and fake trailers) directed by two other bona-fide movie-geeks, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The whole experience was pretty much as it should be - sleazy, gory, trashy and fun. The directors obviously had a blast with the premise and much of it translated to the big screen. If anything, the film confirmed two things to me - Robert Rodriguez is a great action film director and Quentin Tarantino is a great director, period.



Rodriquez' Planet Terror was the first film - a pretty straightforward genre piece about zombies invading a small town. Despite some far superior splattery effects, the film definitely felt like an old fashioned 80s zombie movie. Even the cheesy synthesizer soundtrack felt like something out of Dawn of the Dead or one of John Carpenter's horror flicks. Lots of gross-out scenes too - definitely not for the faint of heart.

Rose McGowan gave a terrifically campy and sweet performance as Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer who loses a leg to a zombie attack. The film also features lots of familiar faces to fans of the genre (anyone else remember Michael Biehn from Aliens and Terminator?) plus an unbilled Bruce Willis as a tough army general.



Tarantino's Death Proof was the second film. Kurt Russell plays a sadistic ex-stuntman serial killer who uses a Cheva Nova as his weapon of choice. It was nice to see Russell playing a badass again; lately many of his performances have been feel-good roles like befuddled fathers or inspirational coaches. I suppose that's what living in Vancouver and being married to Goldie Hawn does to you. With his leathery scarred face and greasy shelf of hair he was perfect for the role and clearly had a lot of fun doing it. There's a great moment where, just before climbing into the driver's seat to pursue some fresh victims, he stops, looks straight at the camera and gives a killer smile.

Tarantino's love for long scenes of dialogue got a little frustrating at times. At some points you felt like saying 'Just get on with it!' Ultimately though, the character-driven scenes worked in the movies favor, setting you up for the action sequences. By the time the shit finally hits the fan, the movie goes full-throttle. The final scenes (and especially exhilarating final frame) were probably the most exciting I've seen for quite some time. Tarantino definitely knows how to wind up an audience.

Special credit must also be given to the directors of the fake movie trailers in the intermission. Rob Zombie tackled a trailer for 'Werewolf Women of the SS' (starring Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu!). Eli(Hostel) Roth directed a trailer for 'Thanksgiving', a depraved throwback to the slasher films of the 80s where every killer seemed to base his murder spree around a particular holiday or toolbox implement. The funniest though, was probably Edgar (Shawn of the Dead) Wright's trailer for 'Don't'. "If you're thinking of going into that castle... Don't! If you're thinking of going down those stairs... Don't! If you're..." Well you get the idea.

Seems like everyone involved in the film were movie-geeks like me. Thanks guys.