Despite not being able to make a screening of it last Friday night with some friends, I took in a matinee of “Grindhouse” over the weekend which was more than a little amusing.
In a nutshell, “Grindhouse” is a 3 hour, 15 minute salute to ‘70s schlock cinema by Robert Rodriguez (“Planet Terror”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Death-Proof”).
Of the two films (complete with "missing" reels), I would argue that Tarantino’s works better.
Despite being relentlessly chatty—even by Tarantino standards--for its initial 2/3s runtime, once it gets rolling, “Death-Proof” is great action with a great girl-power ending.
As for Rodriguez, he shapes the spirit of “Planet Terror” (a gory zombie flick) more like the original work that inspired it (including providing a great score, and lots of severed limbs). But Rodriguez’s effort of the undead bogs down toward the middle, and reveals star Rose McGowan can’t carry an entire project herself.
Still, what I best enjoyed about “Grindhouse” is that it’s an acquired taste, something extremely rare in Hollywood’s current climate devoid of any original thinking. Sure, most people (born after 1985) probably won’t get what the project’s about. But quite frankly, that’s their problem.
1 comment:
Chris, I have to disagree. I was bored by Tarintino's effort. I was glad with the first group of chicks were killed.
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