Grindhouse: Death Proof

Release Date: April 6th, 2009

Click here for the Death Proof Trailer.

If you read my previous post, then you know I saw the first Grindhouse double feature entitled Planet Terror directed by Robert Rodriguez. Well, I just recently saw the second movie in the pack called Death Proof.

Quentin Tarantino works his magic in this movie about a veteran stuntman with a wicked passion. In Death Proof, a man, simply called Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, is a veteran stuntman who drives a vintage stunt car which he calls death proof. Stuntman Mike seems normal until he is revealed as a terrible killer. Mike likes to do one thing: stalk beautiful women in his car and run them off the road to a grizzly death. Everything goes as he plans until he picks a fight with three tough girls, played by Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, and Zoe Bell. It is soon to be found that this fight will be his last. When he thinks he finished off the three beauties, he goes in to see when he is shot. Mike takes off only to have the tables turned, Mike is now the hunted. The girls finally get Mike's car to crash violently. When they get to him they rip him out of the car and mercilessly beat him to death.

I really like the way this movie is shot. Since the entire Grindhouse double feature is a homage to the classic B-movies of old, it would only be natural that it look and feel like an old theater movie. Well thats exactly what Tarantino did. The visual concept looks like a theater. It has the same old grainy lines and is kind of fuzzy at times, not to mention a spot or two where the reel just completely cuts off and starts a new scene.

Like all of Tarantino's other movies(Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) Death Proof is violent and bloody. The violence in Death Proof is very graphic which will make people who are faint of heart a little queezy but will thoroughly entertain the fans of slasher films, Tarantino films, cult films, or anything gory.

Overall I thought this movie was o.k. It started off slow for me and was a little boring in the beginning. The action, however, picked up when Rusell started chasing the girls. The scenes here were done really well and the stunts were great. If I had to pick a favorite between Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof an Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror I would have to pick Planet Terror. Death Proof just didn't do it for me like Planet Terror but I still give Death Proof 6 Crazed Stuntmen out of 10.

Grindhouse: Planet Terror

Release Date: April 6th, 2009

Click here for the Planet Terror Trailer.

The first flick in the double feature created by acclaimed directors Quentin Tarantino(Pulp Fiction) and Robert Rodriguez(Sin City) falls under the name Planet Terror. In the double feature, each director contributes a movie giving homage to their favorite B-list movies.

Rodriguez starts it off with Planet Terror. This movie sends a shout out to all the zombie movies out there. When Cherry(Rose McGowan, Charmed), a go-go dancer from Texas finally decides to start a new life, her plans get screwed when a mass of ravaging, man-eating zombies is let loose from a military base in Texas. When an attack leaves her beaten and missing a leg, her old flame Wray(Freddy Rodriguez, Six Feet Under)shows up. Together they team up with the local sherrif's department and some locals not affected by the virus to take down this zombie plague.

This movie is anything short of celebrities. It stars, among the forementioned cast, actors such as Josh Brolin, Naveen Andrews(Lost), Quentin Tarantino, and the ever popular Bruce Willis. Another aspect this movie has is gore. If there is anything we know about a Robert Rodriguez film its that its going to be filled to the brim with over-the-top violence and gore and Planet Terror is no different. Around every turn someone is getting shot, stabbed, eaten, or blown up and an explosion of blood follows right after.

The acting and the writing in this movie is, shall we say, cheesey. But, that is the entire point. Since it is a tribute to B-list movies all the corny dialogue you would expect from them is in Planet Terror. Overall the movie was good. It was nice to see A-list celebrities play in a not-so-elaborate movie and have a little fun as aposed to their oscar winning serious movies. In the end, Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror gets 7.5 One-legged Go-Go dancers out of 10.