get ready to overdose on fun

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2007)

Planet Terror, the first segment of Grindhouse, is without a doubt the goriest thing I've ever seen. I also can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at the movies. It's the most gleefully over-the-top spectacle I've ever witnessed. As the heroine, Rose McGowan is precisely on director Robert Rodriguez's wavelength, and Michael Biehn makes excellent fun of the type of character he's played in a dozen 'C' movies. This succeeds everywhere From Dusk Til Dawn failed.
Maybe I would've appreciated Death Proof more if it had come first. For the first time, Quentin Tarantino's love affair with talk grates a little as you wait for his movie to get into gear. After the adrenaline shot of Planet Terror, it's hard to slow down to a crawl for half an hour while this segment sets itself up. It's as though he couldn't give himself completely over to the grindhouse aesthetic - he had to try to be clever, and that makes some of the dialogue stick out like a sore thumb. That being said, though, there is plenty of fun and edge-of-your-seat suspense to keep you interested.