Grindhouse
Where do I even start with this fantastic double feature? I suppose I'll just go in order!
Planet Terror was possibly one of the grossest yet most hilarious zombie movies I'd ever seen. Every freaking cliche was used and yet it just made it even better. I loved that all of the actors seemed familiar in some way and after checking IMDB of course I had seen them all before in other films/tv shows. Rose McGowan was fantastic as Cherry. I think that was probably the first role I really enjoyed seeing her in. And freaking Bruce Willis just shows up as the main villain? Too funny.
The action was over the top, just enough to match the ridiculous cliches people kept spewing. Oh and how freaking gross were the zombies? Especially when Tarantino character's balls fell off. Good god.
I swear I had more to say about this film but it was just so hilariously awesome, that's the only way I could sum it up!
The trailers they included with the film were Hobo with a Shotgun (the prize winner to be in Grindhouse), Machete (which is actually going to be made into a real film, fuckin a!!), Thanksgiving (good god the ending of that trailer broke my brain), Werewolf Women of the SS (had to be a Zombie production), and Don't (which was how I feel about most of those horror films). Machete was my favourite because I love Danny Trejo and the fact that it is being made into a real film is just stunning. Yay for Robert Rodriguez having too much time/money on his hands.
Death Proof was very much a Tarantino flick. I know some people complained that there was too much talking, to which I reply "Have you ever fucking seen a Tarantino movie before douchebag?". Seriously. I think his use of conversation was especially well done in this flick because it made you actually like the characters and dread their inevitable fate even more. And what a gruesome fate it was for the first girls. Jeebus. I want to know how he didn't get charged for having the dead girl in the plastic cage beside him though.
Anyways, as I said to Rob, this film was one of the most glorious revenge sequences I've ever seen. After Snake, I mean Kurt Russell, torments the girls as they were playing Ship's Mast I was especially furious at him. I kept waiting for the driver to whip out her gun, and when she finally did after they'd stopped I was cheering my ass off. Oh my god, the best part of that film will always be Zoe popping up from behind the bushes saying "I'm ok!" The whole audience just erupted in laughter and cheers. And when she grabbed that lead pipe and freaking mounted the car like she was going to go joisting... That was hot.
Of course, what followed was somewhat predictable as you never can tell with Tarantino when he'll randomly kill off an actor/actress but the girls managed to catch up with Stuntman Mike and kick his sorry ass. To death. Goodness, Rosario Dawson's last face crunching boot drop came out of nowhere but still had people cheering more.
Overall both films were exactly what a good grindhouse film should be... so bad it's good. SO terribly cheesy you can't help but laugh. The actors were terrific, all of them! I couldn't single out one "meh" role, everyone had a distinctive personality that came through in both films. There was more than enough gore and violence and of course, these days the violence actually looks real for the most part (well, mostly in the Tarantino flick, the Rodriguez flick was still super over the top there too).
All in all, if you like cheese, violence and cliches you will love Grindhouse. Go see it. NOW!