[Grindhouse]
Plot:Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez will each present a horror tale with trailers in between for movies that don't exist. Quentin Tarantinos entry will be a slasher titled "Death Proof". Robert Rodriguez's entry will be a zombie film called "Planet Terror".

Cast: Kurt Russell, Michael Keaton, Tom Savini, Danny Trejo, Alicia Rachel Marek, Marley Shelton, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Dean Fernando, Michael Biehn, Freddy Rodriguez, Woody Harrelson, Michael Parks, Emmy Robbin, Rose Mcgowan, Jeff Fahey, Lucy Lawless, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Stacy Ferguson, Michelle Rodriguez, Naveen Andrews, Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell.

My Thoughts:Fucking Beautiful...just fucking beautiful.

Review:Well......unless something seriously blow me out of the water badass comes along within the next 8 months from the horror genre....I think I've found my pick for best horror picture of the year. "Grindhouse", a horror collaboration picture from director's Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez lives up to not only it's director's combined talents, but it's actors talent as well. Boasting a cast which includes Rosario Dawson, Freddy Rodriguez, Rose Mcgowan, Marley Shelton, and Josh Brolin just to name a few..."Grindhouse" had Grade-A performances all across the board. The movie starts off with one of the much talked about faxu trailers, this one being "Machetti"..with Danny Trejo. After taste of heaven...we're shifted right into Robert Rodriguez's segment..."Planet Terror". A zombie picture where the key players are Rose Mcgowan, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Freddy Rodriguez, The Crazy Babysitter Twins, Michael Biehn, Tom Savini, Josh Brolin, and Marley Shelton. With a cameo near the end by Quentin Tarantino. Rodriguez proves with this picture that he knows what zombie movie fans want. This isn't the typical zombie movie where the undead walk around groaning and eating people. It's so much more. Much grosser, much bloodier, and the zombies themselves have some new tweaks added to them such as exploding pus-filled sores, melting body parts, and gooey projectiles that petrude from their mouths and arms. Yes "Planet Terror" is certainly the nastier of the two segments. The picture does keep that old spirit of the typical zombie movie though, as a government experiment gone wrong seems to be responsible for the outbreak of a deadly virus which changes all of the people in a small Texas town into flesh-eating zombies. But later on we find out that for once...the government actually wasn't at the top of this particular biological disaster. Rodriguez put together a very creative script for this picture, and the swerve of who's responsible for the outbreak is just a testament to not only his creativity but his penchant for being original as well. While this outbreak is slowly creeping into the town more and more, alot of underlying storylines surrounding the incident keep Rodriguez's segment entertaining pre-zombie rampage. Rose Mcgowan's character Cherry is looking to leave her job as a go-go dancer and move on to something more respectful, Marley Shelton's character Dakota a doctor, is trying to escape her demented husband William (Josh Brolin and who's also a doctor), and as these stories take place..other characters such as Freddy Rodriguez as Wray, and who shares a rocky past with Cherry..and Michael Biehn as Sheriff Hague who has a mysterious vendetta against Wray, step in to beef up the films character development and character relationships. What follows is quite an entertaining 90 minute ride, and I don't say this often..but watching these characters interact with each other was just as entertaining as watching the zombies devour a large majority of them. Rodriguez also makes his segment stand out by putting his characters in very dangerous situations very early in the segment, and not making their fight for survival too easy. Dakota and Cherry wind up severly injured as the zombies make their way towards town, making their fight for survival just that much more difficult. But even though Robert gives us a large dose of great character development, funny moments, and witty tough-talking dialogue..he doesn't wait too long to let the blood and guts fly after teasing us with a few deaths here and there early on. When "Planet Terror" gets bloody, boy does it get bloody! We get bodies ripped apart, arms torn off, legs ripped off, and blood and guts everywhere as Sheriff Hague and others partner up to battle the undead with any weapon they can get their hands on. In that regard it's kind of reminded me of Romero's "Land of the dead" where the zombies weren't shy about dismembering their victims. Only in "Planet Terror" the character development is much better and the dismemberments, gun battles and explosions are much more frequent. Blood and Gore fans will certainly get their fill of dripping wet blood-soaked carnage in "Planet Terror", which doesn't stop spilling, ripping, and splashing even late in the game where it only gets more berserk and fun as Cherry finally lights up the screen with her stump-gun, a scene which I was anxiously waiting for and enjoyed every minute of when it finally happened. Cherry's scenes with her stump machine gun, along with a very stomach turning scene involving Quentin Tarantino and Cherry in an underground army base are among "Planet Terror''s most memorable moments. Along with it's huge moments of gun fights, explosions, exploding zombies, and flying body parts.."Planet Terror" even manages to mix in a likeable love story subplot between Cherry and Wray. Robert's segment has something for everyone and definitely does not disappoint.

(After Planet Terror we get the trailers for Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS, Edgard Wright's Don't Scream, and Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. My favorite of all the trailers still remains Roth's Thanksgiving).

Segment number two cues up and it's Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof". "Death Proof" is not as full on horror as "Planet Terror"...but it's certainly horrific. It also has elements of "Cape Fear" as well. The film stars Kurt Russell, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Rose Mcgowan (as a different character), Vanessa Ferlito, and Jordan Ladd as it's first set of major players. Russell plays a demented guy with a scar named Stuntman Mike. You don't get the impression at first that he's a psycho but his car, which is a real beast that sports a skull and two lightning bolts on the hood certainly says that the guy has a darkside. Albeit a well hidden one. Tarantino's segment moves along at a much slower pace than Robert's does but again great character development and strong performances by the leads keep the picture interesting until the pace picks up. Poitier plays a radio DJ/local celebrity named Jungle Julia. She's hot but also very bitchy....yet in a likeable cool kind of way, not the "I hate you" kind of way. Well atleast that's how I felt. Tarantino sets it up where the viewer clearly can see that she's the leader of the group, a group which consists of her two friends Shanna and Arlene. "Death Proof" like "Planet Terror"...is set in a Texas town, and does share one connection with "Planet Terror" which comes right in the middle of the segment when Marley Shelton's character Dakota makes an appearance. Russell's character Stuntman Mike doesn't exactly impress early on but later in the segment Russell really owns the character and even later than that his character really becomes entertaining. "Death Proof" is mostly dialogue driven, with Mike stalking Julia and her girls before flirting with them a bit later on at a local bar. Eli Roth also makes an appearance in this segment as a guy looking to score with Julia and her crew..not one of his better characters in my opinion. "Death Proof" finally gets darker in tone when Rose Mcgowan (Pam in this segment) takes Stuntman Mike up on his offer to drive her home from the bar. A decision which later on proves to have very painful and fatal consequences. This is one of "Death Proof"'s most chilling scenes which gets taken up a thousand notches by the events which transpire shortly after involving Mike, and Julia and her friends on a lonely stretch of highway. Shortly afterwards we're introduced to the segments new set of players Rosario Dawson (Abernathy), Tracie Thoms (Kim), Mary Winstead (Lee), and Zoe Bell (Zoe)....a combination of actresses and stuntwomen. Despite introducing a whole new set of women into the segment, the acting quality doesn't drop off one bit and instead gets better. Thoms, Winstead, Dawson, and Bell all have great on-screen chemistry and are very entertaining and fun to watch. Even when they're having a conversation at a diner about work. It's not surprising that a Quentin Tarantino film would have awesome dialogue because most of his previous films are so well written that even the talking parts which would usually be boring in most other films...keep you glued to the screen in most Tarantino pictures...including this one. When Zoe, Kim, and Abernathy take a local rednecks car for a test drive, leaving Lee behind as collateral...stuntman Mike soon spots the three women and speeds off after them looking to terrorize once more. But this time, the tables are turned on Mike as the ladies after their first encounter with Stuntman Mike leaves them alive but shaken, and leaves him with a bullet in his arm..decide to make him "The Hunted". This is where "Death Proof" really gets good as the ladies give Mike a taste of his own medicine which results in one very long very wild and very entertaining car chase scene that ends in one of the most hilarious moments in cinematic history. All in all "Grindhouse" is a double-feature of epic proportions. It's probably the best three hours you'll ever spend at the multiplex in your entire life.

Positives:Solid performances by the major players in both segments. Great dialogue in both segments, great chemistry between the acotrs on screen, awesome blood and gore in "Planet Terror".

Negatives:None.

Overall:Like I said at the beginning of my review, a strong candidate for best horror film of 2007.





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