Thoroughly Entertaining, Even When it Fails

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2007)

'Planet Terror' takes the splatter genre as its primary inspiration. I wanted to see Rodriguez channeling Lucio Fulci, and instead he channeled Romero and Carpenter. For all its CGI dirt and scratches, however fun they may be, the movie never feels like real Grindhouse. It's just too big, with the kind of elaborately designed sets and massive explosions that real Grindhouse movies could only have dreamt about. The whole thing comes over as a parody, as though the genre is being played for laughs; a little too ironic and knowing.
'Death Proof' brings together the speedracing genre and the feminist revenge genre, two unlikely bedfellows that ultimately prove to be incredibly compatible. 'Death Proof' is, in itself, split in to two smaller stories, each starting out slowly and building to incredible set pieces. Stuntman Mike (a stand out performance from Kurt Russell), connects the two halves and really holds the whole thing together. The fact that both his character and the scenario are played straight makes it far more frightening that 'Planet Terror's pantomime horror. Mid-way through we see a truly spectacular and jaw-dropping head on collision that beggars belief. And the latter half of the movie features one of the best car chases ever committed to celluloid leading to a roll-reversal finale that had the audience cheering.
For me, 'Death Proof' was the more satisfying experience. I'm a huge fan of low-budget gut-munching zombie flicks, but Rodriguez just failed to deliver. He seems to have swapped out all the shocking, watch-between-the-fingers violence, and replaced it with in-jokes and comic asides. Some might like that. I didn't. Tarantino, however, combines two classic Grindhouse genres in to something fresh and thoroughly modern.
The only three minutes of the entire double bill that feels like it really came out of 1973, though, is Eli Roth's 'Thanksgiving' trailer. It's sick and ugly, with dark and grungy photography and appalling editing, and really captures the no-holds-barred nihilistic ugliness that personified so much real Grindhouse.
On a final note, the music throughout is excellent. Whether it's the Carpenteresque minimalist synth score or the sleazy faux-jazz, it's authentic, funny and sounds great.