Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2007 > April > 06 > Entry
‘Grindhouse’ excessive in thrills - and length
(A spotty film reel crackles as it spools through the projector. Begin manly, boisterous voice-over.)
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are BACK - back to back - in GRINDHOUSE!
MARVEL at Rose McGowan’s bodacious bod in Robert Rodriguez’s PLANET TERROR!
RECOIL at the testicular gore!
THRILL at thousand-rounds-per-minute shoot-em-ups as only Robert Rodriguez can make them!
CHECK your watch and wonder why there are too many lulls in the action!
LOOK OUT for McGowan’s gun-toting gam in the wildest gun battle of the decade!
LAUGH at the fake trailers!
ANTICIPATE Quentin Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF!
WONDER when the movie will ever get past the long dialogue sequences!
GIVE THANKS when Kurt Russell arrives, back in butt-kicking form!
DELIGHT in the charms of spunky newcomer Zoe Bell, the fearless Kiwi!
GAZE in concern as impatient people walk out before the 3-hour movie ends!
CHEER at the most heart-pounding, bone-rattling car chase in years!
ONLY at the GRINDHOUSE!
(Film crackles and pops)
Now, for those of you who prefer a more narrative approach…
Rodriquez and Tarantino’s double feature of schlock theater represents the best and worst of both directors. At best,their odes to the exploitation cinema of yesteryear pack enough energy to power a metropolis. At worst, neither Rodriguez (Sin City) nor Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) knows when to say when. Their labor of love gets a little too laborious sometimes.
Grindhouse consists of first, Rodriguez’s zombie/sci-fi thriller Planet Terror, followed by Tarantino’s hell-on-wheels chase flick Death Proof, both of which are scratched and purposefully clumsily edited. Fake trailers for other grindhouse movies are interspersed, making the whole package a bloody Valentine to those movies that were as sleazy as the floors of their movie theaters were sticky.
Planet Terror, about a group of Texans fighting off zombie hordes, works like gangbusters when the action scenes are going full blast, but Rodriguez overstuffs his script, resulting in too many characters and too many slack patches. The use of digital effects and all the modern technology on display makes Planet Terror seem less like a real grindhouse movie than a direct-to-video cheapie with grindhouse techniques applied.
What holds Planet Terror together more than anything else is McGowan, who plays stripper/heroine Cherry Darling, and not just because she’s one hot mama. The actress is also quite funny as she gradually discovers that her various “useless talents” come in quite handy when the living dead are closing in. And when she gets a machine gun/rocket launcher for a leg, McGowan is not just a firecracker - she’s a full-on fireworks show.
Among the trailers between the features, my favorite was Don’t, directed by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead Fame. It’s a hilarious spoof of “don’t go in there” horror flicks. The gleefully sick Thanksgiving by Eli Roth (Hostel) tells me that Roth works best in small doses.
When Tarantino’s Death Proof comes next, it feels more authentic than Rodriguez’s entry. Outside of the use of cell phones, the movie looks like it was made in the 70s, and the director’s mismatched shots and bad splices with repeating dialogue heighten the wayback effect.
Still, one may wonder if the movie will ever shut up. Tarantino’s catchy dialogue is his specialty, but this time too much of it adds nothing to the story, making the talky stretches feel like deleted scenes on a DVD.
Then Kurt Russell shows up, giving his best performance in years as Stuntman Mike, a homicidal stunt car driver with a taste for the blood of sweet young things. When he targets a trio of stuntwomen/actresses (Tracie Thoms, Rosario Dawson and Zoe Bell), the movie puts the pedal through the metal.
Tarantino’s excesses prompted some impatient viewers to walk out of the movie early. I ended up feeling sorry for them because Death Proof concludes with one of the best car chases I have ever seen in the movies. This one ranks right up there with the famous pursuits in The French Connection and Bullitt. Their hair sufficiently raised, the audience that remained burst into applause.
Just as Planet Terror benefits from McGowan, Death Proof also gets a boost from one actress in particular: Zoe Bell. You don’t know her name, but you may have seen her before as Uma Thurman’s stunt double in the Kill Bill movies. Bell turns out to be a charming, gutsy, vibrant actress as well, more than holding her own even when she’s not hanging on to the hood of a car racing at 100 miles an hour. I want to see more of her.
Obviously, Grindhouse is not for everyone, and even those who love cheap thrills may find their patience tested after more than three hours. Had the directors stuck to their original plan and made their movies about an hour each, rather than 80-some minutes each, this omnibus would be leaner and meaner.
For better or worse, Grindhouse ends up as a B-movie in every sense of the word, with boosts from McGowan, Russell, Bell and especially that car chase. It’s worth every minute of this long ride.
(Insert title card: Have a good time. Go to a movie.)
GRADE: B+
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Reviews
Comments
By Sir Critic
April 6, 2007 11:21 AM | Link to this
Actually, Kim, if there is any movie this year that should be seen in a the theater, it’s THIS one, for a number of reasons. A) Since the theaters were part of the lore of grindhouses, it only makes more sense to see it there. Today’s megaplexes may not be all that sleazy, but an appreciative crowd will help. B) I’m not sure the ratings cuts make all that drastic of a difference. Rodriguez and Tarantino are both on record saying they’re suprised they got away with as much as they did. As usual with the MPAA, I think the cuts were more for sex than violence. C) In its theatrical cut, the movie’s overlong as it is. A director’s cut might be even more indulgent and even less fun.By SRCputt
April 6, 2007 11:18 AM | Link to this
There’s a lot of good moments in the film(s), but it is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. Planet Terror takes too long to get going because it has too many plot threads. And Death Proof has too much dialogue in the first half. But that is an amazing car chase. I was reminded of Danny DeVito’s introduction to the laserdisc of War of The Roses, when he explained before the deleted scenes that there was nothing wrong with them, just at 112 minutes the film was already longer than he wanted. Grindhouse would have been much more effective if it were a half hour shorter.By Kim S.
April 6, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this
I’m going to pass on this one in a theater. After all of the hullabaloo about the NC-17 vs. R ratings and the cuts that had to be made, I think I’ll wait and see the “unrated Director’s cuts” that I know are coming. Also - when referencing car chases, what happened to the one in “Ronin”? I do think that my fiancee is in though, strictly because Zombie not only has a fake trailer, but I think the real trailer for Zombie’s “Halloween” comes before the features, but good things come to those who wait. :)By Zack
April 6, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this
I loved almost every minute of PLANET TERROR. The only bits I could’ve done without feature Tarantino; no complaints beyond that. The trailers were great. You’re spot-on about DEATH PROOF: It’s too talky. Tarantino has often said how his trademarked dialogue is easy for him, and here it sort-of feels like he’s coasting. At the same time, he does succeed at lulling us into some sort of false sense of security before springing those AMAZING final scenes on us. That said, I had such great FUN watching this movie unspool in front of me, I’d easily rank it as one of the two or three best movies I’ve seen all year. And I have to get in a plug for the Little Art in Yellow Springs, where it’s showing with a built-in bathroom break (intermission) right after PLANET TERROR and before those awesome trailers.