I love Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and I will pretty much see anything they make. The idea of Grindhouse made me wiggle my toes I was so happy, and unlike a lot of other people, I was toe-wiggling happy with how it all turned out.
Grindhouse is a great tribute to the old exploitation movies of the 60’s and 70’s. It starts up with a couple of grainy trailers, which I just loved (and to be honest I can’t remember them all now). Enter then Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez’s installment. What more could you want- poison gas, flesh-eating zombies, strippers, and machine guns? After a gas is accidentally released near a military base in Texas, people start turning into crazed, brain-eating zombies. An rag-tag group of people, Cherry Darling, a local pole dancer, her boyfriend mechanic, the sheriff (Michael Biehn – woot!), a crazy doctor, his assistant wife (who has Fergie as a lover, thank you), and a group of others have to fight off the zombies, crazy military men, and all the rest to get to safety. I can’t even list how many familiar faces are in this movie: Marley Shelton, Michael Biehn, Rose MacGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Fergie from the Black-Eyed Peas, Tom Savini, and more. It’s awesome. Of course, I love zombies, so naturally I would love this half of the Grindhouse.
After a few more trailers, we get to see Quentin Tarantino’s half: Death Proof. Here, Kurt Russell plays a crazed stunt man who has a special car, a “death proof” car. He has an affinity for pretty girls, which he likes to dispatch via stunt car driving. He’s a bit kooky and over the top. Soon he meets a group of ladies who won’t take his crazy and dangerous driving lying down. They fight back, and that’s where the great car chases and action begins. It’s fun with some really awesome car chases and stunts. Zoe Bell is not a great actress, but you can tell she’s pretty excited to be doing what she is doing.
Overall, Grindhouse is everything I could have hoped it would be. Unfortunately, I had to buy 2 different DVDs to get the movies, and they are missing all of the very funny trailers that accompanied the movies the first time around. Each film has the touches of their directors, but neither one is at their best. Grindhouse isn’t for everyone, but if you like the nostalgia idea, see it for the fun.
Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs for well, everything. I mean zombies and chicks driving stunt cars. Come on!
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