Grindhouse

I mentioned in my review of 300 that it felt like “an exercise in excess rather than a rollicking journey into depravity.” I suppose the best way to truly explain that statement is to encourage people to see Grindhouse. It’s vile, repulsive, nauseating, shocking, depraved, and the most inventively entertaining movie I’ve seen in years. If you can’t handle extreme gore (and there must have been at least ten people walk out of the theatre when I saw it) then this movie isn’t for you. Yes, I know it’s two movies side by side, but for some reason I don’t know if either one would work without the other. The manic passion of Robert Rodriguez’s splatterfest Planet Terror helps ignite the simmering fire of Tarantino’s deliberately paced, sledge hammer of a movie, Death Proof (which by far has the most intense ending). I’ll try and review them separately though…

Planet Terror – Finally, Rodriguez lets loose with a balls to the wall (quite literally at times) comic gorefest. I’ve been waiting for him to make a movie as chaotic and bizarre as From Dusk Till Dawn for years (yeah, Sin City was pretty cool, but just didn't have the same rush for me), and Planet Terror answers the call.

After some toxic zombie gas is unleashed on a small Texas town, the locals start to get a bit bloodthirsty. It’s up to the local, recent amputee go-go dancer Cherry, her gun loving, knife wielding ex-boyfriend El Wray, a sedative obsessed doctor Dakota, the local sheriff, and Texas’ best barbeque chef to take care of business. What follows is a mind numbing array of hideous visceral gags, hilariously clichéd character arcs (the secret recipe!), and a script that moves from one location to the next with astounding speed and ferocity. It’s the kind of movie that finds time for a sex scene in the midst of a zombie siege.

Now, in these kinds of movies I’m constantly looking to see if it can possibly surpass my gross out quotient. I have a fairly high tolerance level for gore, so something has to be pretty disgusting in order to make me squirm. Well, I’m pleased to report that Planet Terror has some nice little tricks up its sleeve that made me wince (oh man…that broken wrist).

And all of this action is supported by characters who, even in their two dimensions, are interesting and unique. The eclectic cast is ready for anything, playing each ridiculous moment as seriously as possible, with the occasional knowing wink. I mean, how do you play a scene where your ex-boyfriend rigs together a machine gun leg for you?

Planet Terror is a brutal blast of goofy energy, that only lags a bit at the ending when the plot kicks in. Otherwise, it’s a fantastic bit of gore cinema that keeps topping itself with one bizarre set piece after another.

Death Proof – After an intermission with some fun fake trailers (Eli Roth, you are a sick man!), Tarantino unleashes Death Proof. After the rollicking fun of Planet Terror, it takes a pretty long time to get used to the slooowwww pace employed in this movie. A group of girls plan a night out at a bar, go to said bar, and meet a former stuntman (Kurt Russell) who may have an ulterior motive. There’s a lot of flirting, dancing, and drinking…there’s also a lot of dialogue, so much so that I was starting to get antsy, wondering why I was being tortured to sit through one more conversation.

And then Tarantino shows his hand. Death Proof is the most manipulative film Tarantino has devised thus far. While Rodriguez tries to fill all ninety minutes of his movie with jam packed entertainment, Tarantino is working on creating a cumulative effect. In a way, Death Proof is a redneck version of Psycho…or…maybe because of the level of homage at work here…a redneck version of Dressed to Kill (I mean there are numerous De Palma references). I got the feeling that Death Proof was trying to be boring; spending so much time in the mundane lives of these characters, that when the film strikes back, it’s not just a simple moment that washes away quickly.

When the film finally kicks into gear (about forty minutes in), the effect is incredibly intense. The kills in Death Proof aren’t just tossed aside; they are brutal, emotional, and not easy to shake. There aren’t a lot of surprises along the way, but I do have to say that I certainly haven’t gripped my armrest that tightly in a long time.

The last twenty minutes are insane….

And I couldn’t do the film any justice without talking about Kurt Russell who gives one of his most exciting performances to date. Without saying too much, his character change at the end is a brave, unconventional choice, and Russell dives right in, unafraid of looking foolish. It makes the last scene, in particular, ten times more brutal.

Overall, Grindhouse is one of the most exciting movie going experiences to hit mainstream cinemas in a long, long time. By diving headfirst into exploitation filmmaking, Tarantino and Rodriguez haven’t changed the face of cinema, but they certainly have put most modern American horror flicks to shame.

Star Rating **** out of 4 stars