Outrageous, Offensive, and Hilarious!

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2007)

I had the privilege of viewing "Grindhouse" twice at the Austin premiere and I must say, it's one of the funniest, most repulsive, irreverent, and off-the-wall movies I've ever seen! It's actually two movies: Rodriguez's bizarre zombie movie homage "Planet Terror," and Tarantino's crazy high-speed chase flick, "Death Proof." Being 42, I can remember going to movies as a kid and seeing crazy trailers, usually screenings at drive-ins for movies like "Grizzly", "I Spit On Your Grave", "Zardoz," or other B- movies... much like the Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature. Only "Grindhouse" is both a salute to these ridiculous movies as well as a parody. One of the best and funniest scenes is at the climax of a sex scene in "Planet Terror." Suddenly the film begins to mess up in the projector, then it begins to burn... followed by an apology from the theater management. When the movie resumes, it's clear that a whole section is missing and the audience is left wondering what else happened... Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" is a non-stop adrenalin rush of the grotesque, absurd, and everything in between while Tarantino's "Death Proof" is more 'Tarantino' with long scenes of ridiculous dialog and less of the grotesque elements of the typical "Grindhouse" genre. In the final moments of the segment, however, it transforms into an adrenalin rushing revenge flick, replete with crazy, high-speed chase scenes. Kurt Russell's performance as a psychotic, stunt-car driver is classic! Not for the faint of heart, "Grindhouse" makes "Sin City" look like "The Sound of Music," but it's so funny (complete with movie trailers that echo back to that unique time of cheesy, exploitive, cinematic history) that the violence (and there is A LOT of it!) is absolutely cartoon-like. If you are too young to have any knowledge of this genre of movies, you might be a bit confused (or appalled), but otherwise it's an entertaining roller coaster ride through a film-making period that's been all but forgotten.