[MOVIE] Now who wants to see Grindhouse?

[Guest Yveva]

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2007/03/fughouse.html

[Guest Emperor]

Alright, this is a perfect intro for my Grindhouse Promo....

 

I will start working on it now.

[Guest Emperor]

Grindhouse, first post will be the details.....

 

Release Date: April 6, 2007

 

Director: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez

 

Starring: "Death Proof" - Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Marley Shelton, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Bacall, Eli Roth, Omar Doom; "Planet Terror" - Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Michael Parks, Josh Brolin, Michael Biehn, Carlos Gallardo, Tom Savini, Naveen Andrews, Marley Shelton, The Crazy Babysitter Twins, Stacy Ferguson

 

MPAA Rating: R (for strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use)

 

Run time: 3 hrs 5 mins

 

Trailers:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/grindhouse/t1_large.html

http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/grindhouse/t2_large.html

 

SYNOPSIS - Grindhouse – noun – A downtown movie theater - in disrepair since its glory days as a movie palace of the '30s and '40s - known for "grinding out" non-stop double-bill programs of B-movies. From groundbreaking directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez comes the ultimate film experience: a double-bill of thrillers that will recall both filmmakers' favorite exploitation films. "Grindhouse" will be presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Tarantino’s film, "Death Proof," is a rip-roaring slasher flick where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife, while Rodriguez's film explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours in "Planet Terror." Welcome to the Grindhouse - it'll tear you in two

[Guest Emperor]

The fundamental thing is that Grindhouse is a beautifully recreated atmospheric revisiting of the world of scuzzy B movies of the '60s and '70s, complete with scratches, dirt, sound pops, cheesy trailer lead-ins, and all the low-rent touches that make you feel as if you're watching the film in some sorry-arse cave in some skanky section of Oakland or Cleveland or Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1971. It's a high-tech recreation of an analog, low-tech movie world that no longer exists.

 

Plus it has three (or is it four?) fake trailers for three or four other fake-scuzzy films, directed by Rob Zombie, Shawn of the Dead's Edgar Wright and I forget who else.

 

Planet Terror is a bloody, gutsy slime-gore piece about zombies stalking and devouring a small Texas town. It's Dawn of the Dead with gobs and gobs of yellow pus and karo syrup and animal guts, but without the class or the wit or the quiet character moments. It doesn't advance the zombie genre one iota -- it's a total cheeseball retread.

 

 

Take away the car-chase finale and the Tarantino flick is almost all sublime, groovy-chick dialogue. This is Tarantino amblin' country, all right -- a place where very cool people (i.e., '70s "street" archetypes) talk and talk and say it just right while sipping a Corona or smoking a Red Apple cigarette or eating a Big Kahuna burger. And yet Death Proof is not, to put it mildly, concerned with notions of unity. It's a scattershot thing that's basically two short films in one. Two separate moods or tones and two separate female ensembles linked by Kurt Russell's "Stuntman Mike" character.

 

It starts out as a cruising-chicks-in-a-muscle-car movie, then it turns into a hanging-around-an-Austin-juke-joint, Eugene ONeil/The Iceman Cometh piece with Stuntman Mike putting the zen moves on a Hispanic hottie (Vanessa Ferlito) as her friends offer snappy commentary. Then it suddenly shifts into a supernatural-psycho-killer-after-hot-girls movie ending in a major wipe-out/head-on collision sequence (with individual death-and-dismember- ment shots thrown in), and then finally a hot-chicks-get-even film ending with that balls-out country car-chase.

 

It's a foxy, half-crazy, smirky B-movie wallow with nary a thought or a theme of any kind, but it's a complete pleasure to just rock and ride along with, and the car-chase finale is the absolute sh... well its awesome.

 

I do not suggest this to anyone that does not like blood, guts, gore or gratuitous nude scenes, because this is what these two movies are trying to recapture. If you do see it, please post your review here so we can get more feedback.

[Guest Emperor]

Good review, but gives away a little of the plot, so I whited it out

 

The first trailer starts and it is immediately grainy like it has been shown a thousand times. This sets the tone for the entire film which I wasn't at all expecting. The trailer for the first for a film is called "Machete." This trailer is hilarious and obviously paying homage to those seventies gore fests. Danny Trejo plays a hired assassin who gets framed for a crime and then goes after the bad guys. The plot seemed similar to that new Marky Mark flick (Shooter?) and although I haven't seen it yet, the trailers do seem similar. Picture Trejo driving a motorcycle with a large machine gun canon mounted between the handlebars. The Audience is cheering and clearly ready for more.

 

Robert Rodriguez's feature "Planet Terror" is next and this one pays tribute to early zombie flicks. I really enjoyed Freddy Rodriguez in this one. He is so talented and gets the best lines in the film. Rose McGowan didn't really do it for me, although she is really hot, even with one leg. There is anappearance by John Mclaine, I mean, Bruce Willis and he is essentially playing the same tough guy from all of his tough guy movies. Nothing to impressive really. The overall plot was fairly predictable and I found myself getting bored with parts. One memorable moment happened right before Freddy and Rose's characters were about to have sex, the scene changed to a message saying "Missing Reel" which had us all laughing because we missed a memorable sex scene. I guess this was a common thing back in the seventies when reels went missing. Wow, that must have been frustrating. There were some very gross scenes which had us all cheering and some very cool action. After this one ended, the audience buzzed for a bit and then a few more trailers.

 

Only one of the trailers really stood out for me. It was called "Thanksgiving" and was about a guy who chops people's heads off during Thanksgiving. There were scenes with cheerleaders about to make out with their boyfriends and their boyfriends get their heads chopped off. In one scene a cheerleader goes down on a guy in the back of a car and then looks up to see his head missing. It had the audience roaring with laughter. The final scene (i swear to god) had the killer having sex withsome one's decapitated head in the SNL "dick in the box" way. I couldn't believe this movie wasn't rated X. I looked over and Kurt Russell was laughing pretty hard, so I guess it was okay.

 

The final film and the highlight for me was Quentin Tarantino's film "Death Proof." This one had Tarantino's name written all over it. Its about a former stunt man who kills people with his car. Tarantino sets up the victims in great Austin locations with dialog reminiscent of Pulp Fiction and really gets us to like them before they are killed. And when they are finally killed, boy do they die violently. He definately didn't hold back when doing the death scenes and had all of us holding our hands to our faces like "did that just happen?" I was really pissed off actually when the first batch of victims die because Tarantino spent so much time making us like them and then so quickly kills them. This ended up being great for the revenge that takes place later and I really give Tarantino props for doing a good job playing with our emotions. Kurt Russell's performance was spot on and I really enjoyed watching him work his magic. Apparently he enjoyed watching himself too because every time I looked over at him he was laughing and smiling. The other performance that stood out for me was Zoe Bell who played this Australian stunt driver who ends up in the most ridiculous car chase scene while she is holding on to the hood of a car. She had a really likable personality, great lines and by the end of the film, I was cheering really loudly for her. At the end of the film, the main characters get revenge and I've never heard a movie theater audience cheer as loud as they did that night at the paramount. It was the most satisfying ending of any movie I've ever seen. Better than Darth Vader admitting toLuke that he was his father, better than Old Yeller dying, better than Gweneth Paltrow's head in a box from Seven, ... you get the picture.

 

I was really surprised that Robert Rodriguez (whom I really like) agreed to do a double feature with Tarantino. Quentin's film was much stronger and I enjoyed it so much more that I kind of felt bad for Rodriguez. Rodriguez's movie on its own would've been fine, but back to back with Tarantino, he's out matched.

 

I would highly recommend Grindhouse.