Gore Mongral's Movie Review: Grindhouse (aka A Tale of 2 Movies)

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2007)

For awhile now I have missed the grainy look in horror movies. There is something to these films that brings a greater feeling of dread and gloom whenever the terror hits. Apparently Rodriguez feels the same way as his entry Planet Terror adds the grain, the maimed and the insane to make one of the finest throwback style films I've seen since...well...throwback horror films.
Planet Terror is one part horror and gore, one part fine grade cheese and one part B-Movie goodness to create one of the most entertaining flicks to come along in quite awhile. The story more or less is about a botched attempt to create a biological weapon that turns those around it into zombie-like puss bags. Rose McGowen looks very scrumptious as Cherry a Go-Go Dancer who just wants to become a stand up comedian. Along the way she is assaulted by a gang of infected beings and looses her leg in the process. That however comes to be a major plus as the movie progresses.
Not only do we get a nice turn in from Rose but a whole freaking cast of awesome B-Movie stalwarts such as Jeff Fahey, Josh Brolin and Micheal (Cor. Hicks/Kyle Reese) Biehn who turns in a nice performance as the town sheriff. Throw in Tom Savini,Freddy Rodriguez,Bruce Willis and a rather "revealing" cameo by Tarantino and you have B Movie greatness.
On top of the cast and the great B premise the music and ambiance is pure old school greatness. Rodriguez gets the music perfectly and fans of the Carpenter sounding scores and late 70's/early 80's soundtracks in horror movies will have a blast with this one. There really isn't anything "bad" about this movie that I can think of unless you do not have a tolerance for cheese. In that case you mileage may vary. However if you are like me and like a perfect mix and just want to be entertained this is the ticket so far this year!!! Fans of bloodshed, castrations, blown off heads, limb ripping, finger munching, needle stabbing, puss popping,eye gouging and Bar BQ'ing need not wait run to see this flick. Planet Terror is the king of throwback film-making and deserves the score of: 9/10 future classic of the genre. Rodriguez set out to pay tribute and actually upstaged MANY films of the era he so loved....if I had a Cowboy Hat I'd tip it to you my friend...excellent work.
In the middle of these 2 were some entertaining trailers which due to letter limits I cannot comment on here: go to the Chief Goremongral My Space Site for their full review: Overall score on all total Fake Trailers: 7/10. Now onto act 2, Death Proof.
Deathproof tell the tale of Stuntman Mike (played by genre stalwart Kurt Russell) who seems to have a fetish for killing PYT's (pretty young things for the 80's unaware) with his stunt cars. From inside or out he sure does know how to make a mess of things....when we get to see it. Unfortunately Tarantino decides to bore us to death with far to much dialog and not enough Stuntman Mike as we get to watch not one set of girls jabber their jaws but 2 sets of woman jabbering their jaws for nearly its entire running time to make for a movie with a few bright spots but a lot of sleep inducing segments.
Russell's character is cunning and sinister for the first segment as he decimates our first crew of woman but when the second crew comes into play he turns into another character all together making any coolness portrayed in the first half seem like a totally different character and turns a psycho into a sissy. Tarantino has stated that he misses Russell in the more B-Action movie and horror scene as do I but this movie does him an injustice as oppose to focusing more on Russell's character and what makes him what he is we focus on annoying female leads that are not interesting or fun to watch at all.
Like a prior movie I reviewed, Penny Dreadful, I wanted the main characters (especially in the second act) to be vehicular or any other way man slaughtered by Russell and his muscle cars. From long lulls in action to dialog that seemed to only exist for Tarantino to educate the uneducated in 70's cinema and female conversation to the misuse Kurt Russell and his character I can only give Death Proof: 4/10 Below Average, Other than a rather cool crash and chase scene this movie misses the mark that it was intending to hit. Sorry Quentin maybe next time.
In the end the overall product was very solid. With a better handling of the last act this would have been an amazing double feature treat. Instead we get a must see started and some cool fake trailers but be warned as the last act is a bore.
Score: 7/10: Good, this is the overall package but if you only see it for the first movie it alone would be worth the price of admission.