Too referential; too long

Rating: 7/10 (19 April 2007)

First, it was too long. My bladder was too insistent and I had to leave in the middle. I hate that. I usually adjust my liquid intake to avoid any interruption. Three hours plus, without an intermission, is too long. I'm sure the length of the movie turned people off. Second, the plot of the "Planet Terror" sequence was nonsensical. I know it was meant to emulate the plots of the type of movie that was shown in the grindhouses in the 1970's but they were lousy movies to begin with. I got the reference five minutes after it started then I was pretty bored for the rest of the movie. It was not a very good movie. A homage not only references the parent material but it has to be entertaining for itself. "Planet Terror" was not entertaining enough for me. If I had watched that movie at home I would probably had been reading at the same time. There's not enough there to keep your interest. OK another zombie gets blown away, big deal. There was lots of action and hot babes but not much else. "Death Proof" was a much better movie. The references were there but the movie stood up by itself. There was the obligatory missing reel, an over told joke, that really didn't detract from the story much, and the Tarantino touches like the extended dialogs and the cursing. I found the dialogs, with the cursing, to be a bit over the top. I thought the information imparted by the dialog meant little to the plot and that the dialog was just a stylistic flourish, too much of a flourish. The beginning of the story was a bit slow. Luckily there were enough hot babes to sustain one's interest until the action started. The action was great. Zoe Bell was okay as an actress but as an action star she was great. The car chase scenes were nicely done. It just seems so satisfying to see vintage muscle cars in a car chase being wrecked. The acting was decent and there were a multitude of good performances. Rose McGowan looked better in "Planet Terror", maybe it was the stump. Overall "Grindhouse" was an OK movie. "Planet Terror" could be improved by missing a couple more reels. Its plot is just repetition anyway. "Death Proof" was a much better sequence. I think it needed more plot and less characters. I have to get involved with the characters and care what happens to them. With multiple characters I cared more for the Dodge Challenger than the drivers. Kurt Russell was despicable enough to want to see him get his comeuppance but the women, the many women, were too interchangeable to care about. Maybe it was meant to be referential but I thought the women characters, at least the first bunch of women in "Death Proof", were nothing more than sexual poster girls to sustain your interest until something else happened. The turn around in the second half of "Death Proof" was refreshing. I enjoy strong women characters in movies, like Pam Grier in Tarantino's "Jackie Brown". Too bad Hollywood just churns out hot babe movies. I guess the supply of young women willing to be exploited is endless.