It was a moral and ethical struggle to build up the motivation to see the latest double-feature movie from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse.

On the one hand, I've enjoyed Robert Rodriguez' previous work, and the trailer looked like a preposterous zombie/comedy that I might actually enjoy. On the other hand, I've wanted my money back from every Quentin Tarantino movie I've ever seen. In the end, I decided to go because my friends were going, and to gather some good material for the blog. I tried not to let the machine-gun prosthesis keep me from changing my mind.

For the most part, the movies were made up to look like poor quality film reel movies, and the only notable CGI effects were aged-film effects like scratches and hair on the film. Between the two 'features' were several trailers for movies that were really funny. "Machete", "Don't!" and "Thanksgiving" had the audience rolling with laughter, and the trailer for "Werewolf Women of the SS" (By Rob Zombie) was probably the funniest part of the entire movie. Rob Zombie's feature films are completely awful tasteless shit, but for ridiculous movie previews, his was top-notch. Looks like he found his calling.

Planet Terror - The first part of the double-feature was Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror, a blood-soaked zombie rampage of gross fun. Rodriguez made great use of the aged-film-effects throughout the movie, and introduced a film burn and jump to the next reel at a perfect spot that was very funny.

The music (Mostly done by Rodriguez himself) was great, lots of grungy low-strung guitars.

The writing was good, although it didn't have to be. The story kept moving with good pacing and almost nonstop action. The machine-gun prosthesis was preposterous, but so was everything else about the movie.

Death Proof - The second part of the double-feature was Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof", a boring homage to old-school road movies like Vanishing Point. The best way to describe it was to take all the things that made Planet Terror good, and remove them.

Tarantino really should be creating Radio Plays, because he doesn't understand what the video is for. Very much like "From Dusk Till Dawn" Tarantino's writing is Overdone Unnecessary Dialog followed by a bloody crescendo of ultra-violence, at which point you realize that all the dialog and character development throughout the movie was pointless. Throughout the dialog, he points the camera at smokin-hot babes who jabber on endlessly until the audience is screaming "We Got The Fucking Point Already! Move On, Please!"

While Planet Terror and Death Proof were about the same length, around 90 min, Planet Terror FELT like an hour long, and Death Proof FELT like three hours by itself. Many people were yawning and taking bathroom breaks during Death Proof, and they didn't miss anything.

Tarantino wasn't able to incorporate the aged-film effects into his movie very well. He put them in at first, and during some transitions, but they seemed to get lost or forgotten a few minutes later. One 'missing reel' during one of the few 'action' scenes of the movie only moved the plot from Unnecessary Dialog to More Unnecessary Dialog. The trailer for Grindhouse showed Action/Adventure/Excitement, but it looks like the only parts of the trailer were cut from Planet Terror, because there was very little Action/Adventure/Excitement in Death proof; its a Chick-Flick with a car-chase ending. Look, if I wanted clever dialog, I would have rented one of Kevin Smith's movies.

As in all his other films, Tarantino tries to impress us with his eclectic knowledge of music, giving entire songs cameos in "Death Proof". I'm sure he is very impressed by his own music selection. I'm also sure the audience could do without ten minutes of actors headbanging and singing along to his selection of Quentin's Kewl Tunez, which do nothing to advance the plot or the characters. Again, I suggest he work on Radio Plays instead of wasting the entire visual element of the media he is working with.

I'm glad I saw Grindhouse, it did help me solidify what I don't like about Tarantino's films by putting his movie right alongside a movie from a good writer/director.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: anti, movie reviews