Sunday, March 26, 2017

10th Anniversaries, Pt 3



 
Grindhouse
2007
D: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, et al.
**********
Pros: Great Grindhouse Style, Well-Executed Violence
Cons: Two Individually Flawed Movies


       Quentin Tarantinio and Robert Rodriguez have always been avid fans of trashy 70’s B-Movies, and Grindhouse represents their ultimate love letter to them.  It’s a double feature with a full-length movie by each director with vintage animated bumpers and various fake trailers contributed by some guest filmmakers Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, and Rob Zombie.  The double feature consistently uses low-budget practical effects, heavy gore, and intentionally worn picture quality. 
      Both features earn their R-Rating through copious amounts of violence, but the sex scenes are edited out through fake “missing reel” segments.  This is bad if you’re a horndog with no sense of humor.  It also could be interpreted as a commentary on the double standard between depiction of sex vs. violence in movies.  

The features in order are:

1. FAKE TRAILER- MACHETE
D: Robert Rodriguez
Starring Danny Trejo as an action hero.  Rodriguez wrote the movie in 1993, and the fake trailer later motivated him to make the full feature in 2010.  The trailer stars Cheech Marin and Jeff Fahey.


2. FEATURE – PLANET TERROR
Planet Terror
D: Robert Rodriguez
**********
Pros: Well-Done violence, Grindhouse Style, Humor
Cons: Depressing Child Death, One Unlikeable Heroine

       With this zombie spoof, Robert Rodriguez pulls out all the stops.  The violence is over-the-top, with gory body explosions and the biggest blood squibs I’ve seen until Django Unchained.  Unlike most of these midnight movies, it keeps the action going.  Special effects are mostly practical, except for well-done CGI on Cherry Darling’s (Rose McGowan) M-16 leg.  I was wondering how they pulled that off, considering the directors’ bias for practical effects.  Sometimes that kind of misdirection is the best kind of effect.  Humor is more campy than witty, and the style is more exaggerated than it is in Death Proof, with an even scratchier picture and a stereotypical film burnout (for all I know it could be what that actually looks like, I’ve never seen one).  The missing reel humorously cuts straight to a third-act battle scene, skipping many important plot points.  Planet Terror has a memorable score made by Rodriguez and Graeme Revelle, and stars Stacey Ferguson, Quentin Tarantino, and Tom Savini.
     The movie stars Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer whose leg is ripped off by a zombie and replaced with an M-16.  She and the heroic Earl Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) fight off a zombie plague triggered by the release of a chemical caused by Dr. Abbington (Naveen Andrews) and an elite military group led by Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis).  The chemical spreads across the area, forcing the heroes to escape form a bar owned by JT Hague (Jeff Fahey) and his sheriff brother (Michael Biehn).  The movie is action-packed, funny, and stylish.
      The one thing that ruins the movie’s quality, reducing it to a mere guilty pleasure, is the character arc involving Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton).  Married to Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin), she’s been cheating on him with other women.  We’re supposed to automatically dislike the cuckholded husband, and Dakota’s father Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (Michael Parks) always disapproved of their marriage, knowing he was a bad man.  However, Dr. Block doesn’t really do anything wrong until the moment he attacks Dakota halfway through the film.  As if Dakota wasn’t unsympathetic enough, she later irresponsibly hands her young child (Rebel Rodriguez) a gun to shoot at any attacker while she leaves him alone.  Unfortunately, the boy almost immediately shoots himself, and that’s where the movie loses me.  I guess I draw this line at children, and I hate it when people can’t tell the difference between dark humor and depressing garbage.  If there was any character I wanted to see get hers, it was Dakota, but she frustratingly survives the movie.


3. FAKE TRAILER – WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS
D: Rob Zombie
A parody of Nazisplotation movies starring Udo Kier, Sheri Zombie, Andrew “Test” Martin, Oleg Prudius, and (hilariously) Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu.


4. FAKE TRAILER - THANKSGIVING
D: Eli Roth
Feeling that Thanksgiving was an underrepresented holiday in the slasher genre, Eli Roth made this (the slasher is dressed up like a pilgrim).  It almost got Grindhouse an NC-17.  It stars Jordan Ladd, Michael Biehn, Jay Hernandez, and Roth himself.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as a cheerleader played by her character in Death Proof.


5. FAKE TRAILER – DON’T   
D: Edgar Wright
An affectionate parody of American trailers for Hammer Horror films.  The cast (which includes  Jason Isaacs, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost) are never shown speaking, and a narration is provided by Will Arnett.


6. FEATURE – DEATH PROOF
D: Quentin Tarantino
**********
Pros: Grindhouse Atmosphere, Well-Executed Violence, Witty Dialogue, Good Cast, Clever Premise
Cons: Resolution Partially Ruined by Unlikeable Protagonists

A clever twist on the slasher genre in which the killer uses a death-proofed car to kill women, a premise which speaks of Tarantino’s love for old-style car effects.  It uses a wittier, more restrained style than Planet Terror, and it stays more faithful to old grindhouse features.  It takes a while to build up, but when the payoff occurs, it’s quite satisfying.  The car chase at the end is great, but the morally reprehensible act of setting up their friend for rape renders the heroines less sympathetic, and the movie’s resolution suffers for it.

7. FAKE TRAILER – HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (CANADIAN RELEASE)
D: Jason Eisener
Later made into a full-length movie starring Rutger Hauer as as the hobo.

    
       The two feature films take different approaches.  Planet Terror is more exaggerated and action-packed, while Death Proof is more akin to a wittier version of a real grindhouse movie.  The double feature benefits from the variety in my opinion.  They both clearly take place in the same universe, with Planet Terror’s coming after Death Proof in continuity, but before it in the movie’s runtime.   Both movies are enjoyable, but each suffer from one fatal, frustrating flaw.  However, since Grindhouse is an experience in itself, the features’ individual quality can be forgiven, thus allowing me to call the Double Feature masterpiece.







 
DVD REVIEW
Grindhouse Double Feature
Pros: The Entire Double Feature on One Disc
Cons: Lacks Extra Footage from Uncut Versions
I was really upset when I found out that Grindhouse was not initially going to be released as the Double Feature we saw it as in the theatres.  No vintage bumpers, no fake trailers, just the movies.  I was also afraid that the humorous “missing reels” would be removed, robbing the films of their humor.  Fortunately, they finally came around and released the version they should have released in the first place.  The first disc is the entire double feature, trailers and all on one side of one disc (apparently not a given for long movies).  The movie comes with English and French tracks a commentary for Planet Terror.  Death Proof’s lack of commentary is not surprising considering the creator backlash it got.  The second disc is chock full of goodies like behind the scenes features and an extra fake trailer.   
     



QUOTES


[Crying after losing her leg]
CHERRY DARLING: Look at me!  I was going to be a stand-up comedian!  Who’s gonna laugh now?
EARL WRAY: Some of the best jokes are about cripples.  Come on.

CHERRY DARLING: Name's Cherry Darling...
EARL WRAY: Sounds like a stripper name.
CHERRY DARLING: No, it sounds like a go-go dancer name. There's a difference.

DR. FELIX: Viral infections. They came pouring in. Some are rapidly developing coliform leisions... highly contagious. What do you think?
DR. BLOCK: Self-preservation comes to mind.

[From Werewolf Women of the SS trailer]
NARRATOR: Featuring Udo Kier, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tom Towles, Sybil Danning, Bill Moseley, and Nicolas Cage…as…Fu Manchu.
NICHOLAS CAGE AS FU MANCHU: This is my Mecca! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


[From the Thanksgiving trailer]
DEPUTY: [tasting blood from decapitated body]  It’s blood.
SHERIFF: Son of a bitch!

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