GRINDHOUSE: Death Proof

This is the 2nd half of Grindhouse and the the only part directed by an Academy Award Winner-Quentin Tarantino. How is this slasher with a car? Awesome as well? Yes, but not as awesome as Planet Terror, or the fake trailers for that matter.

The story really needs to be devided into 2 parts. The first part focus on Jungle Julia and a group of her friends getting drunk at a bar, when they run into a man named "Stuntman Mike." Jungle Julia promises whoever recites this poem to her friend, will get a lap dance from her friend, and Stuntman Mike, who has a car that is "100% death proof" is the man that knows the poem. That night he gives a girl a ride home, and sends 4 others home... IN A BODY BAG! The second half of the story is about a group of four girls who are on the set for a movie when they decide to play a came with a car like the one from The Vanishing Point. During this game, Stuntman Mike shows up and the fun begins...

Kurt Russel plays Stuntman Mike, and god damn is he great! He is such a cool collected character, but he gives an extremely creepy feeling off any time he is on screen. From this character who harkens back to his days of being a total badass in John Carpenter movies he totally switches roles and becomes down right terrifying in one exchange of dialouge that begins like this. "Which way is your home?" "Take a left." "Ah, that's too bad, you have to get scared now..." While it seems a bit cheesy there, the rest of the dialouge is crazy and fun and everything one would want from Taratino film.

Directing wise, this movie was very good, but not great. Most of the movie is talking, and while Taratino is great with dialouge, it seems like he is going back to the well. Seriously, there is one conversation in the 2nd half that was just him re-using his shots from the opening dialouge of Reservoir Dogs. Let me tell you this though, this has the greatest, greatest car chase/car crash ever. So much excitement so much pure adreniline. It is simply a work of modern pop-art.

My one problem with this movie is that it didn't feel as if it was a genuine "grindhouse" flick. It seemed like Taratino wrote one of his basic scripts with a scary character and a cool death scene and made a great movie with it. It was way too much talking for a real "grindhouse" movie, and even though we got a lot of clothed shots of T&A, with all these hot chicks in the movie, we should have seen some bare flesh. Usually I don't judge a movie on nudity, but this is a movie called GRINDHOUSE for heaven's sake.

In the end, this is a great movie but the least enjoyable part of Grindhouse. It has great direction, and acting, but gets too talky at times.
My Rating: 4.5/5

GRINDHOUSE: Planet Terror

Ever since I have started watching horror films, I have wanted to see a double feature. When you do research on horror films (as well as other types), you hear about these mythical double features. Also, if you are a fan of horror, you probably love the movie From Dusk Til Dawn which was written by Quentin Taratino and Robert Rodriguez. 2 of the filmmakers that came out of, what I like to call, the "American New Wave." Last year I got the news that these two directors, who had been so influential in the 90's and now 2000's with Rodriguez's Sin City were doing a double feature called Grindhouse and not only would it be a double-feature, but a horror double feature with FAKE TRAILERS by Rodriguez (YAY!), Rob Zombie (YAY!), Edgar Wright (YAY!), and Eli Roth (Yea...). Well I saw it two weeks ago and can't stop thinking about it so here is my review.

PLANET TERROR:
Rodriguez had this idea when he was doing the under-whelming The Faculty. It is brought to life, and let me tell you, it is one hell of a ride. When a zombie epidemic sweeps a town, many different walks of life have to collide to save the world including a Go-Go Dancer, a member of some secret society, and a sheriff. There is not one moment of this film that is not incredible.

Rodriguez's directing is what makes this movie simply a heart pounding action ride. He begins with the movie with the dead sexy Rose McGowan, playing Cherry the Go-Go dancer, working her body on a stage. Hell, I would have been happy if that was the whole movie. Anyways, this man knows how to gross you out and make you go "AW SHIT!" With the missing reel that he took out from the film, which takes you to a point in the story where you have no idea what is going on. It is incredible. I can't say more good things about this movie.

But I will, because the acting is great for what they were trying to accomplish. Everybody is perfectly cheesy, but not too over the top. Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez take control of this movie. McGowan plays a woman who is unhappy with her job as a go-go dancer and wants to be a stand-up comedian. She is extremely hot and really kick ass when she gets her machine gun leg. I mean, it is a FREAKIN' MACHINE GUN LEG! Frddy Rodriguez plays El Wray, who "never misses." He is a total bad ass, but only the 2nd most bad ass person in this double feature (the 1st is coming up later). He slices, he shoots, he does everything. I hope to see more from him in the future.

In all, this was my favorite out the two movies and I give it a 5 out of 5.