Just saw a pre-screening of the new Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature Grindhouse. I spent the first half fervently wishing I'd stayed home, but I'm okay with having gone in the end, just because I would've wanted to see it without knowing any better.
It opens with a terrifically funny trailer, then goes into Rodriguez's painfully horrible zombie flick "Planet Terror." If you liked Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, and if you laughed at the pudding scene, then you will like this movie. If, like me, you are disgusted and turned off by really disgusting infectious diseases, pulsating pustules, and profuse vomiting, then you will not enjoy it. I walked out on it twice for a few minutes each time just to take a break or when I sensed something really revolting was coming up.
The one good part of "Planet Terror" was Rose McGowan. She's sexy, badass, funny, and well-written. The movie opens with some really sexy go-go dancing by her, and she kicks major ass as a very Rodriguez heroine. If the movie could've spent more time on her character, it would've been better. But I really didn't like it, overall.
When it FINALLY ended, there were several more mock-trailers. A couple were funny, the rest were not. Rob Zombie's was pretty good. K liked one that I found disgusting, so again, you may like it more if you enjoyed Dead Alive, which I believe Rodriguez must have watched several times before engaging in this project.
So after the trailers, it goes into the Tarantino movie, "Death Proof." After the Rodriguez yuck-fest, I was ready to go hang out in the lobby until everyone else was ready to go; typically I like Rodriguez's style better than Tarantino's nowadays, and I figured if Rodriguez was that gross then Tarantino would be worse. But K reminded me that Tarantino would be more into dialogue than gore, and he turned out to be right. "Death Proof" starts out really slow but gets much better. There is one very long, VERY intense action sequence that is everything a nail-biting action sequence ought to be. The character, a stunt performer playing herself, shows great acting chops while doing her own really intense stunts. By the end of the movie, the audience was cheering. Of course it's mainly Tarantino masturbating to his favorite old movies, which is pretty much all he does these days, but I found it entertaining and it took the bad taste of "Planet Terror" out of my mouth.
It was not, however, worth the price of a movie ticket in my opinion, and it DAMN sure wasn't worth sitting through "Planet Terror" for. So overall, I'm not recommending Grindhouse, unless you are one of the people who laughed through Dead Alive and The Hills Have Eyes. If you didn't like those movies, then you'll hate this one.
And if you're a Rodriguez/Tarantino fan, as I generally am, you still probably won't like it.
Thumbs down from me.


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I was so excited about this




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