Grindhouse trailer

Welcome to the Grindhouse!

First, I need to say “Go see it, go see it in a theatre before its gone and you have to watch a DVD copy”. Grindhouse is an experience in retro cinema, a retro cinema that I still reveal in today.
Grindhouse refers to a type of theatre and not so much to a genre of film. But the Grindhouses of the seventies and early eighties did specialize in genre pics. Films of all kinds that likely could be referred to as exploitation film. Lots of sex, violence and shock. Much of the fare that played at a grindhouse also made it’s way to the drive-in, and the experience would be similar. Trailers, ads for the concession, homegrown horror and hippy culture and repackaged euro shock cinema.
“Grindhouse” reproduces this experience, at least as best as I can imagine. I took in a few Drive-in pictures in the late eighties, when the drive-in was on the decline. But a kid from the prairies never had a chance to get to the urban grindhouse. The closest I got was a double bill of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back”.

So with out much more ado about nothing here’s my experience with “Grindhouse” the double feature.

We get a trailer for “Machette”. The tones right, the scratching and film dirt is heavy and artificial, because under that the picture still feels clean. But it’s entertaining. I hear Robert Rodriguez plans to release a feature (straight to DVD). Funny because the plot resembles “The Shooter” with Mark Walberg only with a Mexican flair. I think I’d rather see “Machette”.

PLANET TERROR

It’s a zombie film. You’d think I’d love it. Well truth be told, the zombie film as a genre is pretty hit and miss and “Planet Terror’s zombies are akin to Bruno Mattei’s “Hell of the Living Dead”; bio-zombies, not very Romero –esque. Rodriguez does deliver an entertaining over-the-top film. Written like a Robert McKee study is screen plotting, Rodriguez puts a band of outsiders into and incredible situation. All the setups are there and they all pay off later in act three. The plots in Grindhouse films are paint by number (as are most films. “Back to the Future” is ridiculously over constructed, and I should know I’ve seen it a billion times). And this one is so formulaic that when Rodriguez pulls a reel out of the film, it still works from a plot perspective.
So I liked “Planet Terror”, but I don’t need to watch it again (actually I have and it’s aging better for me), but I always have mixed reactions to Rodriguez. He makes Hollywood-style films as an independent. There is little complexity to his films, and more than a hint of juvenility to them. Maybe that’s why I think “Spy Kids” is one of his better works. His segment in “Four Rooms” is another highlight in his career for me. I thin his influx of Hispanic culture and experience is what really makes his films a cut above other low budget action fair.

In “Planet Terror” the well aged film, idea is utilized well. The spliced film and scratching occur during heightened moments, much as most old film prints are. Projectionists watch the gore and sex over and over. It’s pretty pronounced and played for effect. My biggest issue with it is it feels contrived. The “film gunk” is there for effect. The rest of the film, and the stuff under the film gunk, is to clean. Likely this is because Rodriguez tends to his films digitally and adds to them. I felt it. Most people in the audience won’t.

I hate Robert Rodriguez too!!! But that’s strictly out of jealousy. He pens, shots, edits and directs his films in a very auteur-style. It’s what I’d like to be doing.

MORE TRAILERS FOLLOW

Rob Zombie’s “Werewolf Women of the S.S.” kinda' blows, even though he’s got Udo Kier, werewolves and T’n’A. Maybe it’s because he stuck Nicolas Cage in there?

Edgar Wright’s “Don’t” is a very funny concept but it goes on just a bit to long. It does get to the too long funny stage though. I saw a trailer on TV the other day for a straight horror film and they used the “Don’t” campaign.

Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving” hit the 80’s American slasher flick on the head. Best of the bunch.


On to…


THUNDERBOLT

Er—I mean “Death Proof”. Everything’s been so “hit you over the head”, “over the Top”, “Blammo!!!” that the first 10 minutes of “Death Proof” take you completely off guard. Four girls in a car talking ‘bout stuff Quentin Tarantino thinks girls talk about. I had to hit the lil’boy’s room, but didn’t want to miss anything, so I was a bit distracted.

But that how double feature’s go. The films weren’t always paired well. You weren’t watching a sequel to the first (well I was in the Star Wars double bill). And Tarantino’s film is a very different beast. While Rodriguez was riffing on the action/horror films of the eighties, Tarantino was sampling the seventies.

“Death Proof” spends a lot of its running time setting up its action. The rehearsal to the lap dance proposal is where I stopped fidgeting and clicked into the flow of the film. And what a film it is. The Tarantino dialogue is as good as any thing he’s done. All eight lead women in the film deliver enthralling performances (with the exception of the ninth Rose McGowan, she was far more captivating in “Planet Terror). And a huge kudos goes to stuntwoman Zoë Bell for her performance. I was transfixed by the featured. They were all gorgeous women in there ways sure, and Tarantino fetishizes then, but they were very well realized characters.
Kurt Russell is perfect as Stuntman Mike. I saw an interview clip with Russell before I saw the film. He was talking some crap about Tarantino being real and kinda’ down playing “Planet Terror”. I though it was crap talk at the time. I think I agree with him now.

Loved it. Loved this film. This was a bit of a filmic religious experience for me. I haven’t been this charged up by a film for quite a while.

Tarantino is stuck in the films he loves, and if you don’t have a fondness for those films, you won’t get it. I think that’s why there have been so many reviews that dislike “Death Proof”. But I think this is one of Tarantino’s best films. It, unlike Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, is his most cohesive and uniform films. I think it’s a constraint that helps Tarantino.

Now he still messes with form. Delivering a film that is real cut straight down the middle. The first half could be delivered in ten minutes in another film. But it’s the setup that makes the first car crash impact the audience so strongly.

He’s also melding genres. “Death Proof” is a slasher film / car flick / rape’n’revenge film, without the rape (Tarantino delivers that in “Planet Terror”).

Tarantino also dispenses with a lot of the scratches and junk, but delivers the film in an over-exposed, low saturation imagery. A sharp contrast to “Planet Terror”.

The biggest let down for me is the finale. It just ends, like a Jackie Chan film. I wanted some denouement.