Though its box office numbers have been somewhat disappointing, the new double-feature movie Grindhouse, featuring segments from legendary directors Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), hit theaters last Friday. Grindhouse provides a one-of-a-kind movie-going experience for those who made the commitment to the three-hour, 20-minute-long film. Each film is about an hour-and-a-half long, beginning with Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, followed by three fake trailers and concluding with Tarantino’s Death Proof.
The name “Grindhouse” is derived from rundown theaters, popular in the 1970s, that would show multiple films for one ticket. The types of films shown included horror, car-chase, blaxploitation, kung fu and sexploitation, and would sometimes even be a combination of genres. In these films, the direction was poor and the acting and scripts were often horrid. A typical experience at a “grindhouse” would include scratched prints and missing reels, among other things.
Actor Freddy Rodr?guez (Bobby, HBO’s Six Feet Under), who plays El Wray, the hero in the Planet Terror segment, often frequented grindhouse theaters as a kid growing up in Chicago. “I saw bad karate movies for two or three bucks with my dad,” he said. He says that Grindhouse takes all of the aspects that made grindhouses cool back in the day and infuses it with true film quality.
Planet Terror, which deals with a zombie outbreak in a small town in Texas, serves up plenty of gore, humor and action. Viewers know that they are in for a treat when a group of zombies feast on Fergie (Poseidon) in the opening scenes. This, of course, brings a completely new meaning to the term “Fergalicious.”
The movie lacks a cohesive story, but that’s irrelevant. Any movie featuring a go-go dancer (Cherry Darling, played by Rose McGowan of TV’s Charmed) who ends up with a machine gun for a leg doesn’t need much else.
Marley Shelton (The Last Kiss), who plays Dr. Dakota Block in Planet Terror and Death Proof, said that there was definitely some influence from the Romero Dead films, as well as the Italian horror films Zombie and Escape From New York, but the high level of humor puts it into its own “goreball” genre.
Shelton, who normally works in romantic comedies, said that she was “delighted to have the chance to do Grindhouse,” especially since she is “obsessed with suspense, and I love old Hitchcock films.” She claims that it was unnerving working with guns but that the whole experience was a lot of fun in the end.
Overall, Planet Terror delivers a bloody good time, and is definitely worth the price of admission, though seeing it on a full stomach might not be a good idea.
After Planet Terror, viewers are treated to three trailers for fake horror films. This may have been the best part of Grindhouse. The previews, along with the one for the fake film Machete preceding Planet Terror, pack in a ton of laughs into two-minute segments. Werewolf Women of the SS, Don’t and Thanksgiving are the three trailers, directed by Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Eli Roth (Hostel), respectively.
Next up is Tarantino’s entry, Death Proof, starring Kurt Russell (Big Trouble in Little China) as Stuntman Mike, a homicidal maniac who kills women with his car. The movie starts off fairly slowly, with well over half an hour of dialogue before any action happens, but it delivers in the end with plenty of humor and one of the most intense car scenes in recent memory.
Jordan Ladd (Cabin Fever) and Vanessa Ferlito (Man of the House) play Shana and Butterfly, two of Stuntman Mike’s early victims. Ladd describes her character as “more of an extrovert” than many of the roles she has played in the past, and was thrilled at the opportunity of working with Tarantino. She said that Tarantino “doesn’t follow all the traditional rules of filmmaking” and also discussed how humorous Death Proof was.
Ferlito discussed the challenge of doing a good job at “bad” acting: “It was hard to act bad because [Tarantino’s] writing is so good . You can tell his dialogue from a mile away; it’s hard to be bad with his kind of dialogue.”
After the prolonged intro that establishes Stuntman Mike, the movie focuses on four girls: Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Black Christmas), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson, Clerks II), Kim (Tracie Thoms, Rent) and Zo? (Zo? Bell, who is a stuntwoman in both real life and the film), who are working together on the set of a fictional film. Looking for some thrills, rough girls Kim and Zo? decide to test drive a car that looks like the car from the movie Vanishing Point and take it on a wild ride, playing a game that involves one girl riding on the hood of the car while the other drives at high speeds. Abernathy, who is normally left out, goes with them, leaving Lee, a movie star, with the car’s redneck owner. During their joy ride, Stuntman Mike comes out of nowhere, leading to a high-tension chase and one of the funniest plot twists in recent memory.
Thoms was ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with Tarantino in Death Proof. “He really is [infectious]; he really loves what he does and tells everyone to do their best.” She was also enthusiastic about the role of Kim: “It’s a role I had to do. I got to play a badass with a great humanity to her.”
Winstead was also excited to work with Tarantino, saying that she loves the Kill Bill movies and loves Uma Thurman and how strong her character is. “Grindhouse had a unique energy about it. No one was ever in their trailers; [everyone] always had a good time.”
Grindhouse is one of the most exciting and amusing movies this year. It is truly more of an experience, compared to watching a normal film. It is the first “must-see” of the year, and fans of both directors will be gratified.
