Review: Grindhouse

April 4th 2007, 12:00am

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino re-create the exploitative movies of the old 60’s and 70’s “Grindhouse” experience where excessive gore, violence and sex were welcomed and expected. The first story, PLANET TERROR, begins with a small town, in a fight-for-your-life zombie flick. In the second story, DEATHPROOF, we get to see first hand a re-invention of a slasher flick with a pscho stuntman who stalks and kills hot young women with his car. And for a little added pleasure, we get four inventive sneak movie previews before and during the two flicks. Zombies, fast cars, action, hardcore violence, wicked gore, very funny dark humor and most importantly…very hot chicks all ensue!

I loved this movie!! Obviously, you can’t take it all too seriously, but that’s the point. These flicks were 100% pure unadulterated fun! Rodriguez and Tarantino have created something that’s inventive and makes going to see movies fun again. I’ve never seen a “Grindhouse” flick before, but now I want go out and rent a bunch of them. These guys have stumbled upon something that could easily be turned into a franchise. Good for them for having the balls to take a chance on creating or re-visiting an old genre.

This is one of those rare movie experiences where you’ll get a lot of value in one sitting. Yes, it is long, about 80 minutes per flick plus the intermissions and previews in between, but it will be a well invested three hours! As short as the flicks were, one thing that really stood out from all the craziness going on were its main characters. They were all well developed and engaging. You could probably go back and do individual movies with each of them.

In PLANET TERROR, Rose McGowan, who plays Cherry, was ridiculously hot and spectacular in the opening credits! CRACK-BOOM! For a chick who has a machine gun for a leg, she re-defines what a hot badass woman is! Move over Sarah Connor and Ripley ‘cause Cherry is the new action girl on the scene! Freddy Rodriguez plays Wray, a man with a secretive violent past and Cherry’s ex-boyfriend. He was a lot of fun as the guy who seemed to know what was going on and knows how to handle himself in a throw-down when the going gets tough. Bruce Willis, Michael Biehn, Tom Savini, Josh Brolin and Jeff Fahey (where have you been, buddy?) were all frickin’ great and clearly showed that they still got “it”!

In DEATHPROOF, Kurt Russell was perfect (I’m a big, big fan of Russell) as the psychotic and very charming Stuntman Mike. Russell couldn’t have picked a better role to play! He really has this sophisticated coolness that very few can even touch or come close to. The rest of the chicks were all hot and easy to look at and more importantly they weren’t stereotypical “ditzes” like girls you see in most slasher movies. They were way more developed and interesting to watch…plus…they were hot!! One of the female characters named Kim, played by Tracie Thoms, really stood out for me; she was like the female version of Samuel L. Jackson. At one point during the story, she was having a conversation with Zoe (a stunt woman) and it felt like I was watching a conversation between Jules and Vincent Vega, but as women. Weird, eh?

Robert Rodriguez really knows how to action a movie up. He doesn’t screw around with useless filler, gets right to the point and gives the viewer one hell of a ride. Rodriguez didn’t really create anything new with the Zombie genre — he might have bent a few rules — but it didn’t matter because the bottom line was that he made a great flick that was fun to watch. It was pretty much action from beginning to end! I loved how the screen began to bubble and melt when someone was turning into a zombie. My favorite line (and there are a lot of them) “I’m going to eat your brain and gain your knowledge”. Classic!

Quentin Tarantino, on the other hand, made something completely different and in my humble opinion, he re-invented the slasher flick. His villain wasn’t supernatural and you end up wanting to have a beer with this guy and shoot the shite with him. You couldn’t do that with Freddy or Jason. No frickin way! But Tarantino created this character where you’re kinda rooting for him the whole time as well. Some will probably argue that DEATHPROOF dragged on in the beginning and had too much chit-chat. But that didn’t bother me, I actually liked that part as it took time to really define the characters, plus I always enjoy the conversations between Tarantino’s characters. Despite the slow build-up, it really came together with the car scenes. The stunts were insane and I was at the edge of my seat the whole time.

GRINDHOUSE is a great flick. You’ll definitely enjoy it a lot more if you don’t take any of it too seriously though. The movie really captures the essence of what the “Grindhouse” experience is supposed to be even down to the little details of the scratchiness and overexposure of the film. It was just a well-made film that most will enjoy! Go see it now!!