Grindhouse

Synopsis:

Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino and Sin City director Robert Rodriquez join forces to offer a cinematic tribute to the blood-soaked exploitation epics of yesteryear with this hyper-violent coupling of two 60-minute features punctuated by a collection of outrageous trailers. In "Death Proof" -- director Tarantino's take on the slasher films of the 1970s and '80s -- Kurt Russell stars as an engine-revving psychopath who prefers to take out his victims hit-and-run style. Rodriguez's segment -- entitled "Planet Terror" -- details the violent struggle between a ravenous army of zombie-like humanoids who have taken over a planet not so different from our own, and the remaining survivors who refuse to go down without a fight. Its tantalizing title borrowed from the term frequently used to describe the seedy, 1970s-era inner-city movie theaters that screened excessive, low-budget independent films containing copious amounts of violence and nudity as a means of offering counter-programming to the decidedly more restrained big-budget studio films, Grindhouse takes its love for these unabashedly sleazy efforts one step further by offering an intermission which showcases a jaw-dropping collection of fake exploitation trailers. (all movie guide)

3 hours and 25 minutes (including the real trailers) of over-the-top guilty, guilty pleasure with a large portion of the time spent laughing. I'm a little twisted, so I had an absolute blast. Rodriguez's sci-fi/horror fest (Planet Terror) was reminiscent of the 70's zombie films, but funny intentionally, and Tarantino's turn (Death Proof) proved to be equally funny with a psychopath in a muscle car up against tough girls with good dialog. The most brilliant part of the combined experience was the fact that each movie had a "missing reel" around the halfway point - meaning there was no real boring part because the perfunctory explanations, dramatizing and hypothesizing were skipped.

All of the actors involved seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their roles which means there were a lot of actors having a good time. It was great to see Naveen Andrews (Sayid!!) having fun along with Bruce Willis , Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Freddy Rodriguez and Michale Parks in the first segment and then getting to watch Kurt Russell play the kind of guy he's probably been wanting to play for so long that he did this movie for next to nothing. For me the standout performance was that of Rose McGowan and while she was a primary character in Planet Terror, she also had a significant role in Death Proof playing an entirely different type of character and doing it well.

If you're familiar with the 'Grind House' type of movie and an excess of really fake gore doesn't bother you - this might be right up your alley. One piece of advice - if you can't make it through the entire show without a restroom break, watch the fake trailers online so when they come on between 'movies' you'll have the opportunity for a quick relief.