The movie I *really* want to see is "Machete"

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2007)

"Grindhouse' loses a little momentum in the 2nd half, but it's still a wonderful conceptual package. Rodriguez and Tarentino must have slaved away like mad bastards for months on end to get all the little details right, and the results show - this obviously a labor of love and a paean to the idea that the movies belong to the people, and the movies should make people happy. Yes, there is room (and a definite need) for "art" in cinema...but stuff like this is equally valuable in its way.
*spoilers follow*
It seems to me that "Planet Terror" is a stronger entry than "Death Proof" because it just jumps right in and does the zombie thing and builds to a climax in a straightforward fashion. "Death Proof" has real structure and momentum problems. It noodles around for a long time, has a horrific crash that kills all the sympathetic characters that we spent so much time with in the first half and then essentially starts all over again with a 2nd group of characters for what is almost an entirely different movie. It seems to me to be an awkward choice to spend so much time with the putative "star" of the segment (Rosario Dawson) only to kill her off abruptly. Having her live through the experience and then hunt down Stuntman Mike with the new group in the latter part of the film would have been much more in keeping with "grind-house" conventions.
The other problem with "Death Proof" is that the characters deflate the primal grind-house experience by by explicitly discussing films like "Vanishing Point" and "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" and how much they liked them. It seems to me that true "grind-house" characters would no more be aware of the movies the directors wanted to emulate than fish would be aware of the water they swim in. (No one in "Planet Terror" ever mentioned George Romero). The screenplay came off as an adaptation of a novel George Pelcanos, Jr. never got around to writing instead of a real exploitation flick done with modern production values and real acting. I love Pelecanos, and would love to see someone adapt "King Suckerman" or "Shoedog" to film....but that's not what this project was supposedly about.
And while "Planet Terror" is very much of a piece, "Death Proof" seems to try to do too many things in the course of its story. It joins "swinging chicks" and "Hal Needham" films at the hip with a "serial killer" film and then turns into "Faster Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!" at the end. That's not to say that there wasn't some great dialog and some wonderful performances...it just wasn't as much fun.
*end of spoilers*
The "fake trailers" segments were a wonderful touch. I swear that watching Danny Trejo as "Machete" for two minutes in the opening trailer was worth the cost of admission. Trejo is perhaps the scariest looking actor currently working. Watching him jump a motorcycle off a ramp while firing a handlebar mounted mini gun was both the silliest and most awesome thing I expect to see on screen this year. If Rodriguez actually makes "Machete", I will be first in line to see it on opening night.