Rodriguez tributes the zombie apocalypse genre; Tarantino pays homage to himself

Rating: 5/10 (23 April 2007)

The concept of Grindhouse is superb. Take short exploitation style films from two highly admired directors, mix in some mock trailers and whackiness, and you could have a delightful night of entertainment.
For me, Rodriguez's installment was very enjoyable. There are a few obvious inconsistencies with characters randomly resurfacing, but the draw of this feature was never meant to be a deeply developed plot or dialogue. "Planet Terror" works exactly on the level it is supposed to, as a witty half-serious zombie horde shoot-em-up. Everyone I was with seemed to have a good time during "Planet Terror", a nice mix of laughs to compliment the groans elicited by some of the gallows humor.
Unfortunately, I felt the effort involved in "Death Proof" was not quite worthy of the Tarantino legacy. Love him or hate him, QT typically brings something unique to a picture. This time around, not so much. A significant amount of the footage in "Death Proof" is used as a platform for Tarantino to pay homage to himself. If you've seen Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and other previous works by QT you will recognize the dialogue references, and there are many of them. The first few instances of QT-tributes-QT made me laugh, but eventually the extent of the self adulation just seemed annoying. Certainly it took a skillful eye to recreate the camera shots of R.D.'s diner conversation so faithfully in "Death Proof", but I longed for more of the clever and original dialogue that is usually present in a Tarantino film. Nobody walked out at my theatre, but the audience certainly wasn't as involved in "Death Proof" as it had been for "Planet Terror".
The two-for-one special and the great fake trailers make me hesitantly still recommend "Grindhouse" as an enjoyable detour, but Death Proof seems like it might have missed the exit sign.