Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were appreciating their exploitation film poster collections and wishing the movies were as good as the over-the-top artwork. So Rodriguez directed Planet Terror and Tarantino brought Death Proof, two slabs of sleaze, schlock, and splatter that make good on their promise of zombies, car chases, sexy women, gore, drugs, explosions, belly laughs, and general mayhem. Some prefer Planet Terror's adherence to the exploitation code: missing reels, histrionic acting, zero continuity, scratched footage, and so forth. Others think Death Proof's taut pacing and competent actioneering stole the show. The truth is, both films, separated by hilarious trailers for imagined trash (Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, Edgar Wright's Don't, Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the S.S., Rodriguez's Machete), work with, not against, each other and suffer when they're apart. "In paying homage to an obsolete form of movie culture, Grindhouse delivers a dropkick to ours" (Nathan Lee, Village Voice). Starring Freddy Rodríguez, Rose McGowan, Kirk Russell, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Zoe Bell, Michael Biehn, Naveen Andrews, Josh Brolin, Vanessa Ferlito, Sybil Danning, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Fergie, Jay Hernandez, Cheech Marin, Simon Pegg, Nicky Katt, Marley Shelton, Danny Trejo, Jason Isaacs, Tim Robbins, Udo Kier, and Nicholas Cage.
Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez/Eli Roth/Edgar Wright/Rob Zombie---USA---2007---191 mins.
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