Just saw this tonite. I'm not so great at doing film reviews because i'm not a truly serious student of film the way that i am of music-i just can't play "six degrees" as thoroughly in the film universe. But i know a little bit, and i know what i like about the directors i admire, so i think i can wax philosophical about this one for a bit. "Grindhouse" is two films billed together, being R & Q's love letters to the silly gore/exploitative films of an era gone by. Total trashy drive-in fodder done with the eye of an auteur. The two films are actually quite different from one another. Rodriguez's film is called "Planet Terror" and it's pretty much just a zombie gorefest filled with violence and gross outs everywhere. The frames are filled with blood, and it's very very reminiscent of "From Dusk Til Dawn." He's not treading any new ground here, but it's definetely fucking cool, shot to be amateurish (the film is super grainy and out of of focus and there are missing reels and the camera movements are shaky) and the acting is ridiculous in every way. Very hammy and over the top. And oh, the violence-so much beautiful beautiful pointless violence. On the bad side, the movie wears thin kinda quick and it gets very redundant towards the end, and it also becomes very convoluted. Things get hard to follow but i think it's more a case of the story just being really flimsy-which could also be part of the joke.
After the film ends we get hit with three previews for "coming attractions", which are pretty fucking hilarious, directed by Rob Zombie ("Werewolf Women of the SS"), Eli Roth ("Thanksgiving') and someone else who i forgot. There's also a preview right before "Planet Terror", called "Machete", that i wish were getting made into a feature, cuz it looks fucking awesome. Also sad that Roth's movie isn't getting made, cuz it looks as good as any premise he's made. Anyways, on to Tarantino's film, "Death Proof." It's pretty much a car chase film, with plenty of death and adrenalin fueled moments. It features a fabulous Kurt Russell as a washed up stuntracer who is also a stalker/murder of young Hollywood starlets, and he kills them with his fucking car-and the deaths are pretty damn awesome. The high point is the auto duel that compromises the last thrid of the film, but all the other Tarantino trademarks are here-smarmy homages to older films, tons of foot fetish shots, inside jokes galore and of course his amazing dialogue-bordering on inane but always fascinating-i'd say there's more dialogue in this film than action, which is perfectly fine by me. And the ending is one of the best i've seen in a long while-i won't spoil it but it's hilarious. So whose film is the better of the two? It's hard to say, but i'm more of a Quentin kinda guy, so i'd have to go with his contribution. It's definetely a must own, and as a love note to trash film, it works well beyond well. I wish more people were making films like this. What i really wish is that we'd be getting Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving"-but i guess i'll just have to wait for "Hostel-Part II"-coming in June!!!
1 comment:
Man, I think you could write for Vita-Min or CityPages, man. this is good stuff!
Post a Comment