Enjoyable Present Made From The Past

Rating: 8/10 (25 April 2007)

This film is a remarkably entertaining film. Or should I say films and other non-film elements? From the opening "Prevues of Coming Attractions" bit, through the trailer and the movies and ads and other randomness, I found myself laughing at ridiculousness present and at the same time, enjoying the very thrills I was finding ironically humorous. What a weird combination of sensations.
The opening prevue is for a Rodriguez revenge film called "Machete" starring Danny Trejo, about a Mexican immigrant to the US who gets set up and goes for revenge. This is a great way to open up the Grindhouse film because the idea is pretty damn ridiculous: Essentially, Machete is one helluva bad ass and the trailer is filled with awesome money shots, including attaching a chain-gun on top of a motorcycle and firing it while doing a jump into a group of his enemies, Machete getting revenge and showing off his seductive manliness (rival: "where are my wife and daughter??"), and a mob scene where a bunch of Mexican immigrants get rallied by the titular character, armed with Machete's. This is an exploitation film that I would actually watch, if they made it, because the trailer is so over the top I can already imagine how ridiculous it might be.
And after another cheesy intertitle, we hit the first feature, "Planet Terror". This is essentially a zombie movie with extra sex and violence and grossness. Imagine taking your average zombie picture and taking everything up a notch in those regards, to the point that it's unbelievable, and yet believable within the context of the film. The film opens with Rose McGowan performing as a go-go dancer. The camera, over the course of the film, will occasionally lose track of the action and focus on a nearby "hot" woman's assets. But we start with Rose's Cherry Darling as precedent.
Through the film, some of the things you will see include severed gonads, severed limbs, zits from hell, syringes, tons of gunplay and knifeplay wreaked by the little powerhouse and love interest to Cherry named Wray, BBQ recipes, dismemberment, Bruce Willis, and plenty of moments where you go "did they really do that?" The film has no hesitation to use pyrotechnics, even when it doesn't make sense. And with every blood geyser, insane comment from a character, the film just gets funnier and funnier, but since it's done with all sincerity within the film, it doesn't "distance" the viewer. When a very convenient reel goes missing and the film "burns up", and you see all the scratches and specks in the print, you really do sort of feel like you're watching a real cheapie. But this is a cheapie filled with action and fun. When Cherry Darling gets her machine-gun-grenade-launcher leg replacement, things just get even more ridiculous. It's great fun throughout, although the real weakness is Quentin Tarantino's overlong cameo, which should've been reduced and a haphazardly followed story.
In between the two films are three trailers and a couple other intertitles, including an advert for a "Mexican restaurant next door" which doesn't exactly come across as appealing. The trailers include Rob Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the S.S.", which is really a two joke sketch, with the concept joke followed with some silly casting. It was amusing enough for what it was. Edgar Wright's "Don't" is a one joke trailer that starts off well, but quickly loses steam because it has exactly one joke repeated ad naseum and even though the imagery is spot on, there's nothing resembling a story to hook us. Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" is perhaps the most straight of the trailers, advertising a slasher film like Halloween, but with the violence made ridiculously over the top. It's not laugh out loud funny, but gasp-and-cringe worthy, and yet the situations are also set up to be quite funny. This could also make for a really good cheapie feature, I think.
Tarantino's "Death Proof" is a completely different beast from "Planet Terror". Whereas Planet Terror is a straight-up send-up of generic expectations, Tarantino takes some inspiration from some classic car-violence/race films and makes a rather Tarantinian film from it. The film is segmented itself into two separate stories, the first being of a group of girls, including radio DJ Jungle Julia and the second involving a bunch of industry women, including a pair of stuntwomen, a make-up artist and an actress. The stories parallel each other in the both open up as a gabfest, with just a lot of talking about various subjects. The talk is fairly believable, and Tarantino throws some silly "emotional asides" in as well. The first segment is pretty weak for a while. I think if there were less random chatting in the car (which wasn't exactly brilliant) and get to the exploitation faster, it would've been better. The girls encounter Stuntman Mike who proceeds to use his car as a lethal weapon and grotesquely end their lives. The second set of girls have a much livelier and enjoyable conversation, with the personalities all being more vibrant and alive. And when they finally encounter Stuntman Mike, while doing some stunts themselves, the ensuing Dodge Charger/Challenger battle is perhaps one of the greatest car-battle/stunt sequences I have ever witnessed. After taking his precious time in getting to the good stuff, the pay-off is very very high.
I think Grindhouse is a very enjoyable endeavor, if you can handle all the exploitative sex and violence that occurs. It can be laugh-out loud hilarious at times and the post-modern winking doesn't get too distracting, but rather seems to be woven into the very spirit of such an effort. And c'mon, two movies for the price of one? Just go in expecting a pair of movies that exist as tributes to the trash films of the past and I'm sure you'll have a good time. 8/10.