The phrase “movie of the year” gets kicked around a lot by the media, but for once I saw a movie that I could attribute that phrase to: “Grindhouse.”
Grindhouse comes from the mind of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and is in the style of the exploitation movies of the 1970s. The movie gets its name from the theaters that showed cheaply made, violent, sexual and highly explicit content, for a low price. The audiences of these movies tended to be of the more sleazy side of humanity, and the theaters were run down, neglected and decrepit. Both highly original movies, Rodriguez takes a new spin on the idea of the zombie movie, and Tarantino’s movie was about a serial killer, stunt man.
Both movies have an all-star cast, featuring many of the stars from past Tarantino and Rodriguez movies. Of course Samuel Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman aren’t in the movie, but they are replaced by Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell and Rosario Dawson.
The first movie was Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror,” which was more visually like the exploitation movies, of the original grindhouses. The grainy camera effects made the movie look like it was a cheap zombie flick. Rodriguez really put a different spin on the zombie flick by making the zombies, townspeople that are suffering from all sorts of diseases at once. Naturally they get the disease because of a toxin released into the air by way of biological weapon.
Danny Rodriguez and Rose McGowan pair up, to defend the few people who didn’t get infected, while most everything else in everyone’s lives goes as usual, except with zombies all around them. For a movie with an actual ending, there are a lot of things that are never resolved for the viewer, they get resolved within the movie, but the audience will never know the reasoning for the resolution, because Rodriguez wanted it that way. In a way it adds to the comedy of the movie.
The movie only gets funnier from the end of Planet Terror. In between Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof, three fake trailers were made, there was also one shown before Planet Terror. The three in between, were made by friends of Rodriguez and Tarantino, people like Eli Roth (Hostel), Rob Zombie (House of 1,000 Corpses) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). The trailers were hilarious and a good way for the audience to get geared up for the serial killer car movie that came up next. The only downside is that trailers were fake, hopefully the success of the movie will get the directors to actually make the trailers of, “Machete,” “Don’t,” “Werewolf Women of the S.S.,” and my personal favorite, “Thanksgiving.” The trailers were completely swarmed with one liners that you will find yourself repeating forever. My personal favorites were “White meat, dark meat, all will be carved,” and “It’s blood. Son of a bitch.”
After the faux trailers were completed, Tarantino’s movie, Death Proof started. I couldn’t even begin to contemplate how his movie could be better than Planet Terror, and for the first 25 minutes of it, I can honestly say I was bored. Tarantino took the time to introduce his killer, Stunt Man Mike played by Kurt Russell, and for a time I was entertained by the typical Tarantino dialogue, harkening back to the roundtable discussions of “Reservoir Dogs,” and “Pulp Fiction.”
Death Proof is simple to describe, basically it is about a stunt driver that likes to kill women with his car. The car is every bit as important as the women and the driver, and it makes for good watching. The wrecks are amazing to see and the dialogue even better.
Tarantino’s camera work wasn’t edited into that grainy look that Rodriguez had, and aside from a few purposefully, hacky edits, the movie looked rather polished. However, Tarantino focused on another portion of the exploitation style movies, “black-sploitation.” Two of his main characters were two female black women, one of which had some semblance of an afro as well. Tarantino as always, made good usage of profanity in a way that it enhanced the dialogue.
After the first 25 minutes, the movie picks up immediately, because that is when all the violence starts. It was even more entertaining because the violence is all between attractive women and one old guy. I mean how could you not resist watching Rosario Dawson, Marcy Harriell and Zoe Bell driving an awesome car, it’s a car enthusiast’s wet dream.
Both halves of the movie are masterpieces and deserve all the praise in the world. If it were up to me this movie would get the academy awards for best picture, most original screenplay, best editing and best musical score (written by Rodriguez). If there is one movie that you have to see this year, I recommend you spend your $10 on this, three hour and 15 minute, work of course, bloody, and sexual work of art.
