Okay, so this past Sunday, Jason, Lisa and I went to go see Grindhouse at the sweet Ballston Mall Regal Cinemas. I recommend seeing movies there, almost completely empty theater on opening weekend, almost.
The movie itself was pretty darn good. It didn’t hurt that we had pre-gamed a little before the show. We were in that theater for three and a half hours, and it felt long only at certain points. There were four trailers made especially to be used with the film, directed by Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, and Edgar Wright. These “mini-movies” were as entertaining as the feature films themselves.
Planet Terror had a “Dawn of the Dead”/“Caged Heat” feel to it. The action was intense and graphic, and the dialogue was hoaky yet believable. This would count as one of those guilty pleasure movies. Unfortunately, I missed out on a couple of parts of the film because I had to go to the bathroom, but hey what can you do? One of the great qualities about the film was that they really took it to “over the top” extremes. Things you take for granted in standard “horror” fare are fair game in this film. I won’t spoil it by telling you, but you will know. And you don’t have to wait for it to happen, pretty much as soon as it is brought up in the dialogue, it happens.
Another great thing is that Rodriguez follows the improviser’s credo in that no matter what you need, or no matter how unlikely it is that somebody will have the skills needed, you’ll get it almost immediately. Just like all those old school blaxploitation films, there is always somebody who knows just what to do.
Deathproof was a more “thinking man’s” flick. Heavy on the dialogue, using it to set up the events to come. Deathproof definitely had a “Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill” quality about it. Lower on the action end than “Terror” but the story was intriguing. This was almost like two movies in itself. The first half is really an introduction to Stuntman Mike. A look “at him.” The second half delves deeper into the subconscious of Stuntman Mike. The interesting thing about this film is how little Stuntman Mike is actually in the film, and how when the film ends, there is an eerie since of approval for what occurs, tinged with remorse.
I think that if I were in charge of this film, I would have swapped the two out and had “Deathproof” play before “Planet Terror.” Going from such intense action to loads of dialogue can be kind of jarring, but maybe that is what the two of them wanted.
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