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New Releases with Cyrus: "Grindhouse Two Disc Collector's Edition"
Do you remember all the fanboy freakouts going on when Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's theatrical double feature in 2007 was announced to NOT be coming out glued together in it's DVD release? The horror. I wasn't in love with their modern attempt on the classic Americana that is exploitation drive-through fare, and was only mildly flirtatious about the spin-off that came out this year, "Machete", based on one of the fake trailers that aired at the beginning of the original double feature, but at least all those fanboys can finally stop bitching right? Right? What, because this doesn't change out the original theatrical version of Quentin's "Death Proof" feature for his 37 minute longer (kill me now) director's cut, somebody out there is going to bitch? Well, of course they are.
Divided up by a series of fake trailers for silly looking horror films directed by a trio of the friends of the director pair (Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Rob Zombie), the two films featured in the "Grindhouse" set are remarkably different in more ways than not. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" is a study in splatterhouse horror comedy, a zombie film that goes so completely over the top, both in the bizarre characters populating its soon-to-be-post-apocalyptic-world and in the surreal and excessive violence, that it actually becomes a hoot to watch. Fans of films like "Dead Alive" and "Feast" will likely get into the calculated and constant gross-outs and who doesn't like seeing a hot chick (Rose McGowan) with a functional assault weapon for a leg? I found myself rather surprised to have to admit that of the two films, I liked Rodriguez's entry much better, even while conceding that their 'reel missing' joke towards the end of the film, where an entire sequence of the story has been cut out, completely undercut the pacing of it.
"Death Proof" doesn't fare nearly as well, seemingly only gaining affection amongst the die-hard Tarantino fans (of which, there are legions). Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike, a relic of a bygone Hollywood era who hunts, stalks and kills gaggles of the most irritating girls on the planet with his stunt driving 'death proofed' muscle car. Fully half of the film is spent getting to know the first group of self-involved bitches (and I don't use that term lightly...these are bitches) only to find that, as far as character development time spent goes, it was a waste of it. The second group are even worse, made watchable only by the impressive skills and rough affability of Zoe Bell, who got her first big role featuring dialogue here, playing herself. She manages to make the whole thing at least somewhat worthwhile when she hangs onto the swerving hood of a Dodge Challenger in the exciting (but way too long) car chase at the finale of the movie.
No matter how I might feel about the films, what they've put together in this long-overdue theatrical representation of the two films is a nice set for its fans. At least, other than the audio, which is surprisingly NOT in lossless audio but is merely DVD quality (much has been made of this on the more techie oriented forums out there). Pretty much all the bonus features from the separate DVD releases of the two films has been ported over here with some brand new extra features. I'm not going to list through the sizable list of old features, but added into the new HD version is: A new episode of Rodriguez's 'Ten Minute Cooking School' about Texas BBQ; practical F/X master Greg Nicotero on the effects of "Planet Terror"; a look with Tarantino at the cars and chases of "Death Proof"; a feature on the production design of "Death Proof"; longer versions of the trailers for "Werewolf Women of the SS" and "Don't"; multiple commentaries for the trailers and 'making of' featurettes; an hour long interview with Rodriguez and Tarantino on the history of their friendship and the project with a q&a at the end; the Comic-Con 2006 panel on the film; and the much ballyhooed on the internet, "Hobo With a Shotgun" trailer, which was originally the winner of a contest to make your own Grindhouse trailer connected to promotion of the film and which now is being turned into a movie of its own featuring Rutger Hauer as the double-barreled derelict.
I certainly admire the attempt to bring back the fun and silliness of the classic exploitation films of yesteryear, and despite a general sense of affection for the first film, there's something hollow about "Grindhouse" and its associated features. Those classic films were the works of people outside of the system because the system wouldn't let them in. They had to work with micro-budgets, amateur actors, and use mediocre writers to cram together features that delivered the kind of schlock that would sell to drive-in movie theaters and teens looking for simple thrills that they wouldn't feel too bad about missing if they crawled into the back seat. Tarantino and Rodriguez seem like they're merely pandering by making these, perhaps even being just plain lazy, what with them being in the positions they're in. A much more interesting goal would have been either to set for themselves a firm and low budget cap, or to have only produced these films, giving some young up-and-comers a chance to show what they could do while slapping together the fake trailers themselves to rope in a bigger audience. As it is, "Grindhouse" feels too manufactured and calculated to have the desired effect, that thrill that came from experiencing the wonder of discovering tiny, obscure little b-movies that end up actually being worth watching despite everything working against them. Too much was working for "Grindhouse" for its bad to be much good.
--CLICK HERE TO BUY Grindhouse (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]
Comment
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Comment by The Film Vigilante on October 11, 2010 at 2:00pm -
Hobo With a Shotgun I think will be closer to the old explotation movies because of it's smaller budget and effects.
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Comment by Mr. Jeri NoVa on October 11, 2010 at 1:35pm -
Death Proof is one of my favorite movies. Yeah its wordy in Q.T. fashion, but chicks usually are. Stuntman Mike fared much better when he did more listening!
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Comment by Dr. Detfink on October 11, 2010 at 1:15pm -
more importantly, this double shot of cinema blend featured the trailer of Machete! :D
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Comment by metalraygear on October 11, 2010 at 9:45am -
@anoyster
The shorter theatrical version takes out the lap dance and set up of the girls at the convenience store.
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Comment by Liquid on October 11, 2010 at 9:15am -
I liked Deathproof way more than I liked Planet Terror. Unfortunately the extended cut doesn't add anything to the movie except for dragging things out way too long. The original cut was better and more to the point.
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Comment by John Killion on October 11, 2010 at 7:15am -
Was anyone really demanding a LONGER version of "Death Proof"? That movie alone felt like 3 hours!
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Comment by Travis Pickle on October 11, 2010 at 4:30am -
I really enjoyed the car one but not the other one
;(
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Comment by Joseph Casterline on October 10, 2010 at 11:59pm -
In the Q&A session for Grindhouse Tarantino comes across as a complete tool. His fans claim he writes such great dialog and characters but the women talked about pointless crap for sooooo long I started playing games on my cell phone to try curbing my annoyance... Death Proof should have been a 45 minute movie. MAX. Don't get me wrong, I like character driven movies (Legends of the Fall and such), but this movie was just plain pointless and stupid with only a few moments of actually entertaining material.
Planet Terror, however, I found at least entertaining. No gem by any means, but it still provided a fun distraction while it lasted.
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Comment by Ryan42790 on October 10, 2010 at 11:44pm -
I'm one of the very few that absolutely loves Death Proof, but hates Planet Terror. I love the setup, I thought it was quite refreshing to see women translated differently on screen, sure they aren't women you see everyday, but don't we watch movies to encounter character's we see everyday (well maybe depending on the story being told, but I think Tarantino likes to invent new types characters). Yeah they don't have as much clever dialogue in Tarantino's past efforts, but they still have a zing, that you don't hear in any other movies. I love the long scene in the begging, it sets up Kurt Russell, to the point were we kinda like this guy, but then the long wait is all the more shocking when we really get to see him explode. The long wait for the girls is mostly to help us paint a picture of who they are, and it's all the more emotionally engaging to see what becomes of them. Same can be said about the girls in the 2nd part of the movie. Plus the car chase scene at the end was just plain awesome, it was nice to see a car chase that was carefully planned, and not just shot with 4 cameras rolling continuously and just cutting them later, and hope the audience finds it exciting.
Planet Terror is just a joke that I just don't get. It never did anything original. To me robert rodriguez's career is like one big mid life crisis, in thinking that he will just show off what he loved when he was a kid and just dong it again hoping to capture that feeling again of being young. I don't find it entertaining, it's more annoying because I think he can possibly do good things because he does have a visual flare.
Overall, Death Proof is great, while Planet Terror barely tries.
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Comment by NotTheWhosTommy on October 10, 2010 at 11:07pm -
If I may be controversial... I hated Planet Terror and found Death Proof to be at least mediocre. I think waht did it for me was how overly bad Rose McGowan was. She was probably trying to be bad, but it worked way too well, resulting in a grating performance in Terror and a extra half star to Proof for killing that bitch off early on.
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