Grindhouse

Zombies, dancing skanks, rednecks and killer stunt cars

Grindhouse (2007) features two separate movies: Planet Terror by Robert Rodriguez and Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino. Together, theyre called Grindhouse because theyre a deliberate attempt to recreate the experience of a double feature at a B movie house in the mid/late 60s-70s with the prints intentionally marred by scratches and blemishes or, in one case, a whole reel supposedly missing. Trailers for fake movies, like Machete, are also part of the package.

Planet Terror involves a biochemical outbreak in central Texas that (big surprise) turns people into zombies and the ragtag group that teams-up to fight em, led by Freddy Rodríguez and Michael Biehn, the latter a sher...

Grindhouse exploits its modern B-movie experience through a bloody expressionistic tribute. Two feature films. Four fictional trailers (five if youre lucky...). And an authentic conceptual presentation of the 70s exploitation genre, missing reels and all. Rodriguez/Tarantinos admiration for cinema in general is tangible. Both a credible experiment in genre resurrection and a fetish for babes, blood and bolted machine gun legs. It is, at its core, a retrospective piece of entertainment. But does the double feature presentation, trailers included, work as a solid film in itself? Yes. Just about.

Two of the four fictitious trailers worked. Wrights Dont replicated the essence of Hammer Film Productions perfectly with a quintessential amount ...