See This Movie!

Grindhouse. A 3 hour roller coaster ride through some of the most gory and cheese ridden scenes one can possibly imagine. I can’t wait to see it again. At 10pm on Thursday night the Grauman’s Chinese theater opened its doors for hundreds to laugh, scream, clap and gasp (the entire audience, myself included did all of these, and more). I shit you not, this is probably the best movie going experience I’ve had since I’ve been able to remember.

Rodriguez’s film, Planet Terror starts the first game of the double header. My mind still swims from the canvas of imagery painted from his hell-flavored palate. The cheese is stacked high and deep. The gore is like nothing I’ve ever seen, and all of the sudden I found myself leaning over to my theater neighbor and whispering, “Man, Rose McGowan’s hot.” Never before did I think I’d speak these words, let alone say them out loud, and in public none-the-less. Trying to tackle one of the thousand images still hammering inside my brain, I’m forced to just shake my head and smile. I dig it.

Tarantino’s Death Proof won the second game of the double header, but just barely. If Planet Terror was a blow out (18-3) then Death Proof was more like a 4-3 victory. But as I’ve said before, a win is a win. I stand by my statement that Quentin Tarantino hasn’t made a movie up to his own standards since Jackie Brown. I didn’t care for Kill Bill, and Death Proof is slow, and shitty dialogue ridden (not shitty like cheese or just plain dumb, but boring, drawn out meaningless dialogue). It didn’t help that it played after Rodriguez’s jaw dropping masterpiece (would I consider that a masterpiece? not really), but getting that off my chest, it was entertaining. Kurt Russell aka Jack Burton aka Stuntman Mike made this movie. Without him I might very well have written the entire flick off. But, everybody has one, but, there is a badass (by badass I mean probably the best I’ve ever seen) car chase scene involving 2 Dodge muscle machines, a Charger and a Challenger. Death Proof can’t help but be compared to Planet Terror, but like most things I find myself into for the long run (those things of pop culture significance) a second viewing may be required in order to accumulate the proper respect that Death Proof deserves.

Death Proof teetered more on the reality line, while Planet Terror was balls-to-the-wall (and balls in the bag) cheese. I respect both of these magnificent filmmakers and their craft, and I tip my hat to what they’re attempting to achieve. This is the first movie I’ve seen in theaters all year, and I might go see it again tomorrow.

2 thumbs up, 4 out of 4 stars, 10 out of 10; whatever your rating system is, Grindhouse will put it to shame.