Grindhouse

MARCH 24, 2007

GENRE: EXPLOITATION, SLASHER, ZOMBIE
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (PRESS SCREENING)

My ass hurts. Make sure you see Grindhouse in the most comfortable theater you know of. Or just leave for about 20 minutes when Tarantino's film begins.

I assume that its because Tarantino has more geek appeal that his movie plays second. Had it played first, I think it would play better. The problem is, Rodriguez' is so nonstop, so gloriously gory and violent, that when Tarantino's comes on, it's like the movie grinds to a halt, even though technically it has just begun. Not that its a bad film, not at all, but when you see something as amazing as a guys dick melt off and Bruce Willis turning into a giant Pizza the Hutt type monster (after revealing that his soldier character has indeed found and killed Osama Bin Laden!), suddenly watching 3 girls sit around and talk for 20 minutes straight about obscure bands and how they can obtain some pot just isn't very exciting.

Even by itself, the pop-culture talk in this goes beyond excessive. In Pulp Fiction it was hilarious and fresh, and just plain interesting, to think that even lowlife hitmen talked about hamburgers or whatever. But these girls are regular folks, so it doesn't serve much purpose other than reminding us how much QT knows about obscure bands and 1970s cinema/TV. Once it gets going, it's great, but it takes some patience to get to, and since you've already been in the seat for close to 2 hrs at that point, it's asking a lot of the audience.

It's common knowledge that Kurt Russell's role was originally to be played by Mickey Rourke. It remains unknown why Russell wore Rourke's hair.

The fake trailers are fun, tho Rob Zombie's is by far the weakest. I guess he was too busy trying to figure out the best way to film Michael Myers pissing on a corpse. Edgar Wright's, on the other hand, is worth the price of admission alone.

Also, earlier in this blog, I bemoaned the lack of Jeff Fahey in modern cinema... he's here! He plays the brother of Michael Biehn in Planet Terror, and he's great. He also appears in Rodriguez' fake trailer for Machete, which apparently will now be a real film. Hopefully Fahey will be in the real one as well.

Anyway, the film is a blast, and even if I said it was one of the worst movies ever made it wouldn't stop anyone from seeing it. So ill just remind everyone that Dark Ride is in fact, one of the worst movies ever made.

What say you?