Planet Terror — A balls to the wall zombie flick, complete with tongue pustules and lots of hypodermic needles — my preferred of the two films, and I dare say its Robert Rodriguez’s best film as well. Perhaps the OTT factor here works because Grindhouse in general announces itself as something not to be taken very seriously. Though I’m not sure how much of a Grindhouse film this is, more like John Carpenter with cooler effects. Basically the same film as Rodriguez’s earlier From Dusk Till Dawn, but paced infinitely better and its result is less trite due to the fact that its part of a double feature (not sure how I would feel about Planet Terror if it was released just by itself). Casting is pitch-perfect (including some classy, lock-jawed turns from Josh Brolin and Michael Biehn — geez its been a while since I’ve heard those names) with the exception of Bruce Willis, his large presence kind of takes us out of the B-Movie ambience.
Deathproof — like one of those odd Monte Hellman flicks except with more chicks and dialogue. Not as immediately satisfying as Planet Terror, but its clipped, bizarre structure lingers in your head. My biggest problem with this is the same problem I had with Kill Bill: Tarantino’s vapid, roundabout dialogue. This is a girls movie, but Tarantino seems to have some problems with this concept — the endless quips and dreary lists (”I’ll give you four reasons why I’m not going in that car! 1. your a bitch 2. We don’t even own the muthafuckin’ thing 3. Blah Blah Blah 4. Dude, save my seat I’m going to go grab a drink”) only sound good when they’re coming from the mouth of Mr. Samuel L. Jackson. However I did kind of like the film’s thrown together feel — its cheap thrills and lack of character development approximates the old drive-in cheapies pretty well, and less annoyingly than the bombast of Kill Bill. I wouldn’t complain though if Tarantino wakes up from his “shitty is cool” phase and make a real goddamn movie.
Special Note: my favorite parts of Grindhouse were the fake trailers shown before and in between the films (Rob Zombie’s “Werewomen of the S.S.” is a highlight), though I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them become real movies in due time.
Rating 7.5/10
Planet Terror (8)
Deathproof (7)
check out this article over at Film Brain.
“Simply stated, Tarantino can’t write dialog for women to save his life. Listening to the palaver of the two disparate groups of women in the film – be it about making out or muscle cars – you’d think the screenwriter had never actually spent time with women. This isn’t Quentin trying to write intentionally bad dialog, à la The Cheerleaders – the style is identical to that of his earlier films, except that unlike the nameless hoods of Reservoir Dogs, or the multitude of characters in Pulp Fiction, the women in Death Proof aren’t characters at all, they’re merely character types; agents for Tarantino’s excursions into violence and vengeance.”
my sentiments exactly!