I went into "Grindhouse" expecting nothing. Honestly. I've become less and less inclined in my college days to get out and see movies as they hit theaters, what with Jones Media Center right down the street and the Hop playing most of the big hits on the cheap. But when I do manage to make it to the local cinematheque, I almost always have some preconceived notion of what the movie I'm seeing is going to be about. There are the previews, which almost always misrepresent the movie they're promoting, and then there are the reviews, which are almost always written by pompous ex-film majors (no offense, film majors, I'm just saying). Between all that and what your friends tell you, it's damn near impossible to form independent opinions about a movie before, or even after, you see it.
When I heard about "Grindhouse," I thought, great, this is gonna be like "From Dusk 'Til Dawn," but twice as long. I went out of my way to avoid trailers, I burned any kind of preview article I came in contact with, and I smacked my friends if they started talking about it. I really didn't want any of that "Awesome!" factor to sneak in to my consciousness. The "Awesome!" factor is that little voice in your head that says, "Who cares if the movie lacks cinematic value? It's freakin' awesome!" I walked into "Grindhouse" expecting to see two movies that were devoid of any artistic value whatsoever.
Boy, was I wrong.
Now don't misunderstand me; "Grindhouse" is awesome. It's way more awesome than I ever imagined it could be. It's "Oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-they-just-did-that-on-film" awesome. But it's more than that as well. The two full-length feature films that make up "Grindhouse" are rewarding and entertaining in their own right, however one feels about their uber-violent tendencies. They also manage to subtly thumb their noses at the way movies are made today without letting that message get in the way of having an old-school good time.
The first feature is Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," a zombie-cannibal-action extravaganza with Rose McGowan as the eventually-one-legged heroine and Freddy Rodriguez (of "Six Feet Under" fame) as the improbably skilled killing machine/ex-boyfriend. It also features Naveen Andrews (from "Lost") as the greedy, testicle-collecting scientist responsible for the outbreak of zombifying gas, and, of course, Bruce Willis.
The movie has everything a good zombie-action movie should: explosions, gruesome dismemberment, survivors holing up in burning buildings besieged by zombies and so forth. But it also has some of the best make-up work done in recent years, and the design is spot-on. "Planet Terror" tries very hard to seem like an old-fashioned B-movie, and oddly enough, it succeeds, while somehow maintaining an engaging plot and implausibly believable characters. It's a genuinely good movie. Crazy? Yeah, I thought so, too.
The "trailers" that separate the two features are, in a word, incredible. Guest directors like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie among others created premises for other B-movies that, if they were ever made in to real films, I wouldn't hesitate to see. But I'm not going to spoil them for you here.
"Death Proof," Quentin Tarantino's directorial contribution and the second half of the double feature, is an homage to the old-fashioned stuntman work that Hollywood just doesn't see anymore. Kurt Russell plays a deranged ex-stuntman who is fittingly called Stuntman Mike. He uses his "death proof" stunt car to hunt down attractive young women and kill them with horrifically inventive auto accidents. This we learn in the first half of "Death Proof," and while the exposition slows down the narrative a tad, it's a necessary and creative plot device. Rosario Dawson shows up in the second act as the friend of two stuntwomen who are unfortunate enough to become the targets of Stuntman Mike's devious automobile.
The movie features Tarantino's typically wordy-but-gratifying dialogue and fine acting from all those involved, even real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell, who worked with Tarantino coordinating stunts for the "Kill Bill" movies. Russell manages to chew up his fair share of the scenery without coming off as campy. And the high-speed car chase in "Death Proof" was the best that I have ever seen on film, period. It must be seen to be believed.
Now, to compare the two movies, as many reviewers have done, would be folly. They're entirely different, and while they are both working towards the B-movie aesthetic, they use different means and achieve different ends. Both movies are similar to spoofs in many ways; they draw from action/horror stock heavily while aiming to send a different message than the ones sent by most movies of this ilk.
But "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" are not actually "spoofs" in any traditional sense -- far from it. What the filmmakers are saying to the audience, as well as other filmmakers from the action/horror genre, is this: "Look at what we can do, without even really trying that hard -- we can make these totally kick-ass movies, and make it clear that we're kind of fed up with the general nonsense that's been coming out of Hollywood recently."
We should listen to these men. They're on to something.
