Grindhouse (2007)

Grindhouse (2007)

Dirs. Robert Rodriguez + Quentin Tarantino

If you're aware of what the Grindhouse pairing was and just want to read thoughts on the films themselves, then you can skip direct to the text below the cut. For anyone else, I'll attempt to give some background on the genre and project.

The term 'grindhouse' is believed to have been coined in America to describe a movie theatre that screened mainly trashy B-Movies and exploitation flicks, a no frills venue that might have less than stellar hygiene practices. It was the hooker-and-motel for 'cult' film lovers, or even the equivalent of a quick grope behind the diner with the local skank. But sometimes that skank was all you really needed from life.

Directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino each made a film in the spirit of those cheap exploitation flicks and screened them as a double feature back-to-back. Well, in the US they did. In Britain they were split up and to see both we had to buy separate tickets. It sucks, but in reality I don't consider either film worth seeing. The real downside of the split is that we were denied the fake trailers for nonexistent films that were shown between the two flicks.

Planet Terror (2007)

Dir. Robert Rodriguez

Rodriguez uses a ton of post-prod tricks to make it look like his half of the $53 million joint project was made for a fraction of that cost.

A filter makes it look like it was shot on super-low grade film stock, which was then stored in a dust-hole where it picked up all kinds of grime and filth. The lighting, contrast and colour grading are intentionally bad. So too is the editing, framing, and characterisation.

The music, composed by Rodriguez, has a home-made quality, reminiscent of early John Carpenter works. I love John Carpenter's atmospheric music, so that part of the film made me smile more than any any other part.

Rose McGowan stars as Cherry Darling, a smoking-hot go-go dancer. The frequently unlucky Cherry gets caught up in what's basically a gory zombie flick with a length that overstays its welcome long before the end.

My favourite cast member was Marley Shelton as an anesthesiologist. Married to an abusive Josh Brolin, Marley gets most of the best scenes and arguably has the most to lose.

Of the two films, I consider PT to be the better one, but it's still not very good - outside of purposefully trying to be not very good, if you know what I mean. Still, it's more competently made than many of the clones that followed in the mini-scene that it helped give rise to.

Death Proof (2007)

Dir. Quentin Tarantino

Does QT think that everyone loves lady-feet-fetish-porn as much as he does? If so, he's mistaken. I've no doubt that he could use his celebrity status to convince a legion of female fans to let him make some CU home movies of their trotters, but there's no need to subject the rest of us to such things. It was bad enough in Kill Bill (2003); it's worse in Death Proof.

However, many of us do love movies as much as he does; good movies, bad movies, cheesy movies, etc, but not worthless movies. No.

DP is an example of the latter. While watching PT you get the feeling that there's as much a sense of fun behind the lens as there is in front of it. But DP takes itself more seriously. It feels as if the fun that should've been there was forced to give way to a domineering ego.

The majority of the film is as fatuous as the feety beginning. The dialogue-heavy method that he's well-known for is prevalent, but while there are a lot of words, nothing interesting is ever said. I'm not exaggerating; there's nothing memorable said whatsoever. And most of the characters are either lifeless or annoying.

The exceptions are, first and foremost, Rose McGowan as Pam, who's like a shining light in the blandness. Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike is okay for a while, but any depth that he could've had is absent. And finally, Zoë Bell, a stunt double that QT gave a starring role to. Zoë's not as experienced or as convincing an actress as the other women are, but nor is she annoying or mouthy or self-obsessed. Her stunt credentials are given a thorough workout, too.

The fake-dirt filter is at a more believable level than it was in PT, but as time goes on it fades completely, until we're left with a startlingly clean image, as if the quality of film stock has gone from dollar store to Hollywood boutique. The feeling that we're watching a 'grindhouse' flick evaporates, and from a viewer's POV that's a failure with regards to the project's original goal.