Half a good movie (sort of)

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2007)

I'm not exactly sure why I went to see "Grindhouse." I tend to admire Tarantino's movies, to an extent, but I also find them rather too gross and vapid to be genuine film classics; Rodriguez, for his part, has directed some of the very worst action movies that I've ever seen ("From Dusk 'Til Dawn" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" leap to mind).
But hey, this has been a boring month for movies, and I guess I counted on "Grindhouse" to liven things up a bit. And it certainly did jolt me, so for that reason at least I enjoyed it.
The first segment, directed by Rodriguez, is mostly mediocre. It's pretty much just a lame zombie movie, with a minimal plot and poorly developed characters. It's so violent that it has impact, but there were a few too many moments of "penis horror" (so to speak) for my tastes. If you enjoy constantly squirming at revolting scenes of bodily mutilation, then yeah, I guess this segment might float your boat. Me? I'm sick of gross zombie stuff - but I did enjoy seeing Michael Biehn in action again.
Tarantino's segment is better, but not perfect. I loved watching Kurt Russell's performance as a grizzled stunt driver (was he really not the first choice to play the part? That's strange - he's perfect for it). Thankfully, Tarantino actually reins in the violence a bit, which is nice after Rodriguez's endless splatter-fest; he also serves up one of the more exciting car chases in film history.
Even the Tarantino segment has dead wood, though. He introduces us to two virtually interchangeable groups of young women, who all speak in that ultra-cool "Tarantino Talk" that is supposed to mirror real-life speech (but doesn't). Frankly, I found it hard to relate to these pop-culture-referencing, pot-smoking, potty-mouthed and generally surly females, but I suppose Tarantino meets people like them all the time. Anyway, their endless yakking was not particularly interesting to me, and I found myself longing for Kurt to show up more often.
Still, "Death Proof" is cool overall.
Easily the most fun part of the movie is the fake trailers - they're pretty much all hilarious. Interestingly, at least two of them seem to be based closely on real movies - "Werewolf Women of the SS" is almost certainly inspired by "Isla: She-Wolf of the SS," while "Don't!" looks a lot like "The Legend of Hell House." Incidentally, there's a simply awesome cameo in the Werewolf Women trailer.
So yeah, I kind of enjoyed "Grindhouse," on balance. But the main thing that's sticking in my head is the gross images, not the ideas or the characters or the dialog. Once again, I must conclude that critics and film enthusiasts have overrated a bizarre product from two very bizarre directors...but at least it provoked me (a little).