Time To Get Real

Grindhouse: Exploitation at it's best

If you know anything about Quentin Tarantino and Alex Rodriguez movies is that the director's try their best to make good movies. The casting is excellent, the locations are breathtaking whether it's inside a nightclub or in the desert, and the acting is exactly how they want it to be: over the top and subtle in all the right places.

Grindhouse is no exception. Tarantino and Rodriguez have put together a near perfect homage to the exploitation genre by creating Grindhouse double feature. They even included fake trailers for cheesy B-movies that don't exist just to give you the feeling that you are in some third rate cineplex watching a third rate double-feature. An extra special surprise is in each of the movies, but I'm not going to spoil it for you. Ah, the authenticity.


Grindhouse is two movies shown one after the other, starting with Planet Terror, Rodriquez's movie. To put it bluntly, this is a gore fest, a tribute to 70's movies like Dawn of the Dead. There is a crazy scientist who collects the balls of those who cross him, in sickening detail. There are strippers and lesbians. And guns. Lots and lots of guns. But to sum it all up like that is not giving Rodriquez his due. There are several subplots going on. The man who tries to kill his cheating wife with comedic results, the on again/off again relationship of a stripper and and her mysterious boyfriend, and two brothers fighting over the family BBQ recipe.

Rodriguez managed to take the usual zombie movie and give it a little bit more flavor. The overacting is hilarious, just what you'd expect from a B-movie(and Rose McGowen). Planet Terror is not a movie that's going to win an Oscar for it's acting. But that's exactly the point.

Death Proof is everything Planet Terror is not. which is a slow-paced thriller. This could be a good or bad thing depending on whether you like your action gory or suspenceful. I like both, but someone could easily dismiss either based on their own horror preference.

All the women(Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell, Vanessa Ferlito,etc.) in Death Proof have a girl next door quality. You get the feeling that you've met them somewhere, or seen them in a bar, or at the checkout counter. They could even be your friends, the one you have explain everything to because she's clueless. The opinionated one. The tomboyish one. The star. These actresses play their parts to a T.


Don't get me started about the car chase scene. It's one of the best I've seen in years. Imagine having your best friend on the hood of your car while some psycho is trying to kill you! Take a minute. Yup, that's exactly the feeling Tarentino brings you in the car chase, and he doesnt let you go.


Well, that's what I thought of Grindhouse. Sure it's long, but it's two movies by two great directors for the price of one! When do they ever have double features as good as that?