All Pulped Up

Late Night Double Feature Picture Show -- Picture courtesy Rollins Stone.

by blogSpotter
Over my vacation break, I saw the "must-see" movie of the year -- Grindhouse. Created by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Grindhouse is a terrific homage to B-movie exploitation flicks of the 60's and 70's. It's offered as a 2-for-1 double feature, much like you might have at a drive-in or a "grind house" theater showing B-movies at a reduced ticket price. The two movies are only 1 hour 15 minutes in length, interspersed with bogus ads and trailers.

Where to begin? "Planet Terror" gives us a small town invaded by flesh-eating "sickos" -- people who have succumbed to a bizarre virus and turned into zombies with bubbling boils. I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that a stripper named Cherry (played by Rose McGowan), who has an automatic machine gun for a prosthetic leg, saves the day at the end of the movie. This week's Rolling Stone magazine features the Grindhouse ladies in its cover story. "Death Proof" gives us Kurt Russell playing totally opposite his usual wholesome hero type. Russell plays a mentally depraved stunt man who seems to get a sexual thrill out of vehicular homicide -- killing women with his car. In this movie, he picks the wrong group of 'bitches' to terrorize -- a trio of stunt women who know how to kick a man's ass without ever uttering the word "victim". There was so much adrenaline flowing at the end of these two movies, I can only imagine that everyone had to go work out their aggressions at the gym after leaving the theater.

What does this movie call to mind? It has Night of the Living Dead, Thelma and Louise, Smokey and the Bandit all as influences. Mix in a little Big, Bad Momma and bring to boil. Voila -- you have the best movie so far this year. To capture the total experience, Tarantino and Rodriguez added cheesy faux film trailers, snack bar commercials, obligatory scratches and lines (mimicking poor quality grind house film stock) and missing reels in a couple of strategic places. When Machete and Thanksgiving trailers were shown, people were practically rolling in the aisles with laughter.

Is there any downside at all to this wonderful film? It was a disappointment on the opening weekend -- only 11.6 million dollars brought in. I figure that's due entirely to its 3 hour length and the fact that theaters can only schedule it for half as many show times. The other drawback could only affect a car enthusiast like me; in the movie, they destroy a Cadillac Eldorado, Chevy Nova, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger all from the golden early 70's era. Blasphemy! And yet, as you walk out of the theater you'll be drying your eyes from laughing so much -- maybe the supreme car sacrifice is worth it.

© 2007 blogSpotter