A little bump and grind…house
There is something about seeing Grindhouse in a movie theater at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night that gets me even more hyped. Gone are the noisy kids and background commentary. People respectfully turn off their cell phones. The mood is something special, a late show at the Cinerama, arguably Seattle’s best movie theater in. The scene was set, the lights were dimmed, and the audience was off for a ride through the minds of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
Tarantino and Rodriguez have been buddies since they met at the Toronto Film Festival in 1992. Both were new undiscovered talent there to showcase their indie darling films: Reservoir Dogs and El Mariachi respectively.
This movie bases its star power on its directors. Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez are “B” listers at best, one being the third sister on Charmed and the other, a funeral home guy from Six Feet Under. The directors are the real stars of the show. No one saw E.T. for Henry Thomas (Elliot), they saw it for Spielberg.
The title is misleading. The film is an experiment in movie-genre revival, namingly, 1970’s exploitation films.. Grindhouse was a nickname used to identify theaters that would play “B” movies rather than blockbusters. The evening’s presentation is a double feature of Planet Terror, and Death Proof.
The first helping of movie goodness, Planet Terror, comes with a healthy helping of exploding body parts and zombies served by the deft hands of Rodriguez. The story follows Cherry (McGowan) and Wray (Freddy Rodriguez, no relation) as they shoot, hit, and cut their way through an army of zombies. The movie has intentional holes in its plot, even a much riled about “missing reel” containing what can only be an important part of the plot, as well as a steamy sex scene. To say much about this part of the movie is to ruin it. If you saw the trailers on TV, or online, yes, the machine gun leg is awesome.
Before the second part of the double-feature, we are privileged to see trailers for fake (hopefully) movies by Rob Zombie (House of the 1000 corpses) and Eli Roth (Hostel).
In my opinion, there isn’t really anybody who is more of a movie lover in Hollywood today than Tarantino. One would think by now he would have been bought off by the industry giants, and directed some awful Christmas Walt Disney sap-fest starring Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins. His present to us was Death Proof, in which he does not ripoff the 70’s style as much as give homage to it. The story revolves around ex-stuntman, Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) as he hunts down women who work in the media industry. Why? Not important apparently, it’s just the way it is. Tarantino makes numerous movie references to films such as Vanishing Point. The car chases are excellent and do not miss the hood surfing scene by stuntwoman/actress Zoe Bell.
The thrill of this movie for me was half what was on the screen, half of what happened in the audience. The gasps, the laughs are as much a part of the movie watching experience as the movie itself. Don’t miss out.