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Tarantino spends a considerable amount of time setting viewer expectations for what type of movie they're watching, only to pull the rug out halfway through. However, at the conclusion (and especially clear in repeated viewings), the structure is kind of brilliant in its way.
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Here's the thing about it: On a first viewing, the movie can feel incredibly frustrating in the way the story is laid out. I wonder how they would have reacted had the order been re-arranged? On the other hand, 'Death Proof' builds to an incredibly rousing finale that sends the double-bill out on a high note, and seems better positioned at the back-end for that reason.Īlthough I realize that I'm in the minority with this opinion, I prefer 'Death Proof' by wide margin. Many of them leveled some downright scathing criticism on Tarantino's entry. When they played together as part of the double-feature, the majority of viewers preferred the Rodriguez half. But there's no denying that 'Planet Terror' sets a certain expectation that 'Death Proof' more or less deflates. B-movie double-features of the 1970s often paired together such radically different films that had nothing to do with one another. Conceptually, the two features were actually well-matched in 'Grindhouse'. It's also very tonally different than 'Planet Terror'. Like most Tarantino films, 'Death Proof' is extremely talky, complexly structured, and takes its time building up steam. And when he's done with them, he'll move on to stalking an entirely new group of girls. They may not give him a lot of thought when they say their goodbyes and head out for the next leg of the night, but Stuntman Mike has his own plans for their evening. Eventually, they meet Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a middle-aged hanger-on who's both strangely charismatic and kind of creepy.
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On a languid, hot summer night in Austin, a trio of young babes trawl bars, get drunk and smoke weed, all the while endlessly talking about the sort of things that Quentin Tarantino characters usually talk about – pop culture touchstones that are both meaningless and deeply imbued with personal relevance at the same time. While 'Planet Terror' is a goofy B-movie that's action-packed from start to finish and never takes itself seriously, co-feature 'Death Proof' is… well, it's a Quentin Tarantino film. It's filled with gratuitous sex and violence, juicy gore, ridiculous stunts, and plenty of babes in skimpy outfits carrying machine guns. The picture is unapologetically silly and fun.
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Only a small band of survivors led by go-go dancer Cherry (Rose McGowan) and tow truck driver Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) are immune from the contagion. When rogue military commandoes release a biological agent into the air, almost the entire populace of Austin, TX turns into psycho mutant freakazoids that crave human flesh. To summarize: 'Planet Terror', the opening volume by Robert Rodriguez, is an old-fashioned monster movie cheesefest.
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For the last three years, 'Grindhouse' remained a memory shared only by the few who saw it during its original run.įor the full details on each mini-feature, be sure to read our original reviews of the extended versions of ' Planet Terror' and ' Death Proof'. Until now, the Weinsteins kept the movies split apart. Sadly, that didn't exactly work out either. The directors no doubt assumed that viewers would be able to pick their favorite viewing method on home video. They claimed that 'Planet Terror', 'Death Proof', and 'Grindhouse' should be thought of as three distinct experiences, each with its own merits. Publicly, Rodriguez and Tarantino tried to be diplomatic about the deconstruction. In the process, almost all of the fake trailers were jettisoned. For the overseas theatrical run, 'Planet Terror' and 'Death Proof' were released separately, each padded with some extra footage to expand the running length. As a result, 'Grindhouse' flopped.īlaming the double-feature format, producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein decided to dismantle 'Grindhouse' entirely. Everyone else made the mistake of waiting for DVD. Unfortunately, the average teen theatergoing audience had no idea what a grindhouse was and little concept of why they should sit through a three-hour tribute to bad moviemaking. For those who got what the directors were going for, the experience was a total kitschy blast. The 2007 theatrical release of 'Grindhouse' gave audiences two 90-minute features – 'Planet Terror' by Rodriguez and 'Death Proof' by Tarantino – and a smattering of spoof trailers in between.
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After the success of their previous genre homages like 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and ' Kill Bill', best buds and B-movie enthusiasts Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino decided to team-up for a two-punch double-bill of '70s-style exploitation fun.
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