If you’re following the story of “Grindhouse,” the double feature (“Planet Terror” and “Death Proof”) from Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino then read this. If not, don’t. I’ve read executive producer Harvey Weinstein thinks this lowbrow movie was too smart for some people. He may be right. I saw it on opening night and enjoyed it very much for the most part. However, half of the theater was empty, and some folks even walked out during the fake trailers. I’m not sure they understood these were fake.
Grindhouse is a parody of bad “B” exploitation films from the ‘70s and ‘80s. In NYC’s Times Square (and I guess elsewhere) they would pair bad action movies and show them as double features for less than the price of regular admission. The movie had a strong buzz among film buffs, and was anticipated to be a top grossing film, but the opening was disappointing. I guess most people didn’t get the concept- that it was bad on purpose.
The Weinstein Company decided to release the films separately on DVD. Tarentino’s flick dropped first, and then the Rodriguez zombie movie. The trailers are gone from the home release. Well, with the exception of the faux trailer for “Machete,” which created so much buzz that rumors had it that they were going to shoot the film. The other fake trailers have not made it on either of the DVD releases. Both DVD releases feature limited bonus material. The Planet Terror DVD features a great extra, the ComiCon (comic book festival) panel featuring Rodriguez, Tarentino, and the female cast of both films. Here you can watch Tarentino declare that he and Rodriguez are great directors. And, he gives advice to new directors such as “make a Resevoir Dogs” as your first movie if you want to be successful. This kind of arrogance would normally angry fans, however, since it’s Tarentino, we don’t take offense.
Overall, Grindhouse is an interesting case study on doing new things (or in this case old things) with film and the marketing of film. There’s a niche for these old, bad, “B” movies. However, most current action movie fans prefer their movies just bad, not pretentiously bad.
Now are the films good or bad (meaning bad)? I think they were mostly good, but could have been better if a few things would have been done. For example, “Death Proof” contained too much banter that went nowhere. This long, pointless dialogue was wrapped around two extremely high-powered car chase scenes. The stunts were awesome, but the endless talking made you forget what you were waiting for. Tarantino could have edited this down to 45 minutes. Or, at the least, in the theaters, they could have put “Death Proof” before the adrenaline packed “Planet Terror.” Speaking of that, “PT” was also a tad longer than it should have been- but it worked.
Overall, the entire experience (theatrically) would have been much more enjoyable at about two hours total, as opposed to over three. On DVD you have the luxury of watching these as you like. My complaint is that they should have released them as a double feature with the faux trailers placed before and between the films, just like in the theater. I could have watched two hours of these types of trailers (look out for Tim Roth’s movie of just that). Regardless, “Grindhouse” as a whole is a winner. One last thing for Rodriguez- shoot “Machete.” -IV
