Starts out hot, ends lukewarm

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2007)

Grindhouse is a movie that needs to be analyzed as two films, because well, that's what it is. In the tradition of the Grindhouse double features from the 60s and 70s, this film features "Planet Terror" by Robert Rodriguez, and "Death Proof" from Quentin Tarantino. The film also features four fake trailers.
First up is a fake trailer for "Machete", which is very fun. Then Planet Terror comes on. It's gory, it's hilarious, it's outrageous. It is pure grindhouse. It features Freddy Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, and Michael Bein, among others, fighting against a plague of biochemical zombies. If you want gore, you won't find many movies gorier than this(this is coming from a guy who's seen Ichi the Killer and Braindead). I give it a 10/10.
Then three more trailers play, with the highlight being Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving". Death Proof starts out with a bunch of girls talking about their evening and going to a bar. For about 30 minutes, we hear nothing but talking(some of it painful) about pointless things, but the films redeems itself when psychopath Stuntman Mike(played by Kurt Russel) crashes the evening. After a truly chilling and exhilarating encounter that sadly lasts only 10 minutes, the girls end up pushing up daisies. Then Stuntman targets more girls, and more talking occurs for 30 more minutes. The film however takes a gooey and cheesy turn after a chilling first half. it ends up falling short with a ridiculously stupid revenge scene. I give it a 6/10 Overall, as a whole i give grindhouse an 8/10. Death Proof could have been so much better though.