Grindhouse (Spoilers Ahoy)

In order to fully enjoy this double feature you need to be in the right mood and mind set. First of all you need to be willing through two average length movies. This is strangely the most commonly heard complaint. It’s too long. I have to disagree. Not only are both movies worth seeing as long as you are a fan of Tarantino, but you’re paying for one movie. Who cares if it isn’t normality, I think of it as a good deal.

The movies really take the 70’s motif seriously and use them to their advantage. The picture quality is a little blotchy as if it were recorded with old fashion tapes, though this doesn’t take away anything from the movie, it adds a nice setting outside of the movie. It’s a unique experience to say the least. In both films there is a part where the movie claims that a reel is missing. This is rather humorous, both times, and the aftermath of the misplaced reel is rather interesting. It allows time to pass, so a lot has happened and the viewer has to take a second to figure out what all has changed. In “Planet Terror”, the first movie, the missing reel scene appears right before what the viewer is led to assume would be a slightly hardcore sex scene, after the quick notification that the reel is in fact gone it goes back to the movie. The building they were in is now on fire, more characters are inside the building, and some of the characters have new injuries. It’s interesting and used to the movies advantage.

The plots in both movies are rather off the wall, but this is a very good thing. In “Planet Terror” a virus has been released upon their fair town and is turning most of the inhabitants into freakish zombie like abominations. Most of the characters are rather strange and surprisingly have quite a lot of depth to them. In the end only a select few live, and they leave their destroyed city behind to begin anew in an ancient Mayan temple in Mexico. Its plot moved along at a fair pace and there was plenty of action and comedy to keep the viewer entertained throughout. “Planet Terror” also had a lot of over exaggerated violence which is to be expected and fits the movie.

While the plot in “Planet Terror” was engaging through out, the second film “Death Proof” has an incredibly lengthy and rather boring introduction. The first third of the movie involves introducing the first group of girls that a crazed stunt man kills in a car accident. Half an hour wasted on watching four girls get wasted and shit faced. The second third showed him kill the first group, and introducing the second group. The first death scene was actually rather interesting, but then it went back into an introduction of new girls. Luckily this scene didn’t last nearly as long. The last, and best, third of the movie has the stunt man attemping to kill off the second group of girls. However, they’re crazier and kill him, I think overkill him is actually more proper.

Overall “Planet Terror” was by far the better movie. “Death Proof” had it’s moments but you had to wade through all the seemingly pointless introductions to get to the good, juicy, death filled ending.

One of the most unique features in this movie has to be the fake trailers. Tarantino and Rodriguez hired a few other horror writers to make some trailers for fake trailers. Most all of these were funny and I would gladly pay to see some of them, mainly “Thanksgiving” and “Machete”.

So, is this movie worth seeing in theatres? Well that depends. Are you a Explotation movie fan? A Tarantino/Rodriguez fan? A horror film fan? If the answer to any of those was yes, get off your ass and go see this movie.