Grindhouse

An homage to the old style of cinema…sort of

DETAILS:
Released - 6 April 2007 (USA)
Certificate - 18
Running Time - 3 hours
Director/Screenwriter - Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez
Producers - Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein
Cinematography - Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez
Editing - Sally Menke and Robert Rodriguez
Music - Robert Rodriguez
Theatrical distributor - Momentum Pictures
Country - USA

SYNOPSIS:
Two feature length B-Movies are combined into one double bill to replicate to modern day audiences the experience of the old 70’s Grind House style.

In the first film Death Proof Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is an ex Hollywood stunt car driver with a sick obsession for young women. In his customised ‘death proof' car he relishes in arranging murderous car crashes and walking away unscathed. Although whilst preying on a group of women in Tennessee he meets his match in the form of stunt woman Zoë Bell (herself), fellow stunt woman Kim (Tracie Thoms) make-up girl Abernathy (Rosario Dawson) and B-movie Actress Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

Then in the second feature Planet Terror when an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released from a remote military base into the local Texan town, many are infected turning them into flesh eating zombies. A group of survivors led by mechanic El Wray (Freddy Rodríguez) which include his machine gun legged stripper girlfriend Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), Doctor Dakota (Marley Shelton) and the hard boiled Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn) fight to survive and save the rest of the world from such a mass epidemic.

REVIEW:
As soon as Tarantino and Rodriguez fans heard they were both collaborating to make two separate films as part of a joint project mouth’s watered with anticipation. So much hype dominated their cult following that Grindhouse merchandise was bought under the assumption that such a film was guaranteed to be a masterpiece. However, after a surprisingly disastrous performance at the U.S. box office the hype soon died down when the Weinstein brothers chose to separate and lengthen the films into two separate pictures to make up for such a loss. Worldwide fans were in disarray, pleading to see films as one collaborative project.

Eventually when Tarantino’s Death Proof reached our screens it soon became apparent why Grindhouse was such a flop. It was not due to America’s misunderstanding of the homage, they were just unimpressed with this boring film and rightly so. This is by no means a revisionist exploitation picture but simply a very poor Tarantino film. Just by filling the film with deliberate mistakes such as the Technicolor changing to Black and white and a car abruptly disappearing from the screen due to a dodgy reel for no apparent reason does not make it an exploitation picture. These little ‘gems’ are neither amusing nor integral to the film. Under the false pretence of being a b-movie this just seems to be an excuse to show the carnage of a car crash annoyingly from several different angles.

At two hours this film is far too long and drawn out. As a single feature it definitely does not hold its own and does not feel like a film in its own right. Every character seems to talk like Quentin Tarantino. Spouting constant bullshit at an incredibly fast rate the women lack any charm and are not likeable let alone believable. Death Proof had the potential to be observant of a female culture but the entirety of the film sets up a group of women wanting to do some bizarre stunt with a car.

The last couple of action scenes at the end are mildly entertaining and Zoë Bell’s stunt work is far more impressive than her acting. But these brief scenes do not save this film from being an utter bore. Not scary, gory or remotely funny this is not a worthy homage to a dead and forgotten form of cinema. The only reason worth watching this extended version would have to be Vanessa Fertilo’s lap-dancing which was cut from the original. It seems Quentin has run out of material to steal from others and has started borrowing from his previous work. In one particular scene when the group of women are talking round a circular table his camera movement is exactly the same as the opening scene from Reservoir dogs. By relying on his old techniques with nothing new to observe about our culture Quentin has well and truly sold out. Good at writing gangster films and directing action Tarantino should stick to what he does best as he is not a versatile filmmaker at all, especially when it comes to horror.

After the utter shambles that was Death Proof I was initially a tad reluctant to see Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Although when I actually got round to seeing this film I was pleasantly surprised at how Rodriguez’s efforts seemed to lift the whole Grindhouse experience. Whereas Tarantino took his work far too seriously Rodriguez has successfully made a film with an upbeat tongue and cheek feel to it. A true homage to b-movies Rodriguez seems to understand how poor grind house techniques can be used integrally to the film. A hot burning film strip during Cherry Darling’s saucy go-go dancing and lost footage containing important plot information enhance the cinematography and keeps focused to a consistent storyline. Similarly, by dealing with the outbreak of a lethal disease, the military and a reference to Bin Laden Rodriguez has successfully updated the genre into a modern day context with a whiff of political significance. Instead of failing to set up a story he has created an over the top hilarious action horror romp. In the same vein as the Evil dead and Bad Taste this is generally entertaining. Some parts are genuinely gory and scary but always amusing. Whereas most of Death Proof should have stayed on the cutting room floor this does feel like the full film Rodriguez originally intended to make.

But despite the fact it ticks all the boxes as a revisionist exploitation piece Planet Terror is certainly not without its flaws. The film as a whole is not a terribly original concept and the over the top action scenes do become rather tiresome towards the end.

TO SUM UP:
Overall there is a feel to these films which is ostensibly fake. An attempt to bring back a genre that nobody really wanted it all seemed fairly pointless really.