Grind, baby, grind! RR & QT's valentine to '60s/'70s exploitation fare is a giddy, gleeful, gorefest and one of the year's best!

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2007)

GRINDHOUSE (2007) **** Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Naveen Andrews, Stacy Ferguson, Nicky Katt, Tom Savini, Carlos Gallardo, Electra Isabel Avellan, Elise Avellan, Michael Parks, Bruce Willis, Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell, Michael Bacall, Eli Roth, Monica stags, Tim Murphy, Marta Mendoza, Kelley Robins, Danny Trejo, Nicolas Cage, Sybill Danning, Marcy Harriell, Udo Kier, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Tom Towles. Slam-bang retro valentine to exploitation flicks spooled on the titular type of movie palaces during the '60s & '70s features two-for- the-price-of-one offering from maverick filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino with gleeful, giddy, gore-galore gusto. First up: "Planet Terror", Rodriguez Gran Guignol ode to John Carpenter, focusing on a sleepy Texas town suddenly thriving with a plague of zombies and the rag-tag motley crew assembled to save the world including go-go dancer McGowan as Cherry Darling, who is essentially sex as a weapon: when she loses her right leg to the ravenous horde after a car accident she's fused to a machine gun from her lover, anti-hero Rodriguez (that would be Freddy, not the director)  making for a truly iconic character for the 21st century. Buckets of blood by the gallon, with some inventive make-up by vets KNB EFX  and a nifty homage to guru Savini as a hapless town deputy too boot; a killer score and sharp trademark editing by Rodriguez (now you can say Robert!) and a tongue-thru-cheek send-up of all the genre flicks hitting all its marks perfectly. Next up, the closer: "Death Proof" from QT (who appears in both films in cameo roles), getting in touch with his inner Roger Corman, is homage to the slasher film with a twist: instead of a knife, the killer uses a souped-up muscle car stalking young, nubile women. Russell, as Stuntman Mike, is perfectly cast as the scarred and scary sociopath who comes upon two sets of a quartet of babes in his line of sight. The women in peril are all equally cool, sexy and do their best with QT's foot fetish in full bloom, and, admittedly chatty sequences which actually slows things down to a taut razor-line of menace but succeeds with the breathless car chases and the one crash has the gut-wrenching, squeamish tone of a snuff film; 'nuff said. Kudos to QT for using Jack Nitzsche's "The Last Race" theme from '60s sci-fi teenager junk "Village of The Giants" and inserting the love theme from "Blow Out" as well! Now if they only could get the sticky, tacky feel of the floors of yore, you'd swear it was 1979 again! Oh and the faux trailers inserted throughout by Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rodriguez - (respectively, "Werewolf Women of the S.S.", "Thanksgiving", "Don't Scream" and "Machete  are worth the price of admission alone; pricelessly subversive.