GRINDHOUSE

GRINDHOUSE by M. Jarvis

The Geek-verse had been drooling for months in anticipation of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Valentine to the old 60’s/70’s/80’s low budget drive-in sleaze and cheese films lovingly referred to as Grindhouse cinema. When it landed on the scene, those said geeks were exploding with approval. As for the rest of the world…not so much.

Grindhouse was, for lack of a better way of putting it, a bomb. It’s rather un-Grindhouse budget which was north of $55 million dollars didn’t help things out. All the online Monday morning quarterbacks and industry wags scratched their heads and wondered why it wasn’t the next Pulp Fiction. The only theory I can offer is that while all the hipsters know about the Grindhouse cinema, it’s still a bit of a fringe thing. Those not in the know probably looked at the ads and said “Grind-what?”

No matter. The film may not have been top of the charts in the cost vs. profit scenario but it did succeed at doing what it set out to do. GRINDHOUSE lovingly recreates the experience of going to a double feature of 70’/80’s trashy films back in the old days of a pre-Disney 42nd Street.

The first film of the double feature is Rodriguez’s PLANET TERROR about chemical warfare enhanced zombies running amok who meet their match at the hands of bad boy Freddy Rodriguez and his machine gun for a leg stripper girlfriend played by Rose MacGowan. Not counting Sin City, this is the first film I’ve seen by Rodriguez that doesn’t seem obsessed with childish (melting testicles aside) sick violence. Great casting all around including some great turns by 80’s cult vets Michael Beihn, Jeff Fahey and SIN CITY vet Bruce Willis.

While, PLANET TERROR succeeds as an ass kicking little zombie vs. human war picture, the second half of the double feature is a little more problematic. Tarantino’s little nod to “Vanishing Point” and half a dozen other good girl/bad girl/bad guy flicks of days gone by like DIRTY MARY AND CRAZY LARRY is a little too talky for a bit too long. While I’m sure the pacing of this entry is identical to those films it is modeled after, what you can excuse in a cheesy film is a little harder to sit through in a modern film. Especially when you are used to and expecting the snappy patter you always get from QT.

That said, I enjoyed DEATH PROOF. Gotta love Kurt Russell as a psycho stunt car driver with a taste for vehicular homicide. And gotta love that whacked out Kiwi Zoe Bell and her auto antics. Or not…I guess it’s all an acquired taste. You either like it or you don’t. I’ve heard passionate arguments for both points of view. I’m sort of in the middle.

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the fake trailers sprinkled throughout the film kick ass. Top marks go to Eli Roth’s THANKSGIVING, which felt so real it was unreal. Runner-up to Edgar Wright’s DON’T. Also present are Rodriguez’s should be made Danny Trejo revenge fest MACHETE and the also should be made WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS from Rob Zombie. As there will likely be no Grindhouse 2, one can only hope that perhaps there will be films spawned from these trailers which seem so real that they should be.