Slave to your influences - Grindhouse

Just saw this yesterday. I wanted to like it. Reeeaally wanted to, but couldn't. Grindhouse is a 3 hour plus double feature containing Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Death Proof by Quentin Tarrantino (Kill Bill). This is a loving tribute to the drive in films of the 60's and 70's, where z-grade, cheaply made independent films were paired with slightly better B films for an evening's entertainment. The genres ran from sci fi to horror to exploitation, sometimes combining all three. Tarrantino is a noted fan of this era, and has made an effort to collect the original reels of many of the pictures, exhibiting at his home his own curated versions of movie night. Rodriguez has also been a fan, and together they came up with the idea of each making a 90 minute film. Planet Terror stars Rose McGowan as Cherry, an exotic dancer who quits her job, having enough of this lifestyle, and prepares to leave the dingy Texan small town in search for a better life. Unfortunately, fate intervenes. At a nearby military base, a deal for an illegal shipment of chemicals falls apart as the dealer, a rogue scientist, gets double crossed and Lt. Mouldoon (Bruce Willis) takes the shipment. But the scientist shoots one of the canisters, and the green mist escapes, infecting most of the soldiers. It turns them into disfigured zombies, although continued small exposure doses keeps Mouldoon and some of his men from changing. At a local BBQ restaurant, the Bone Shack, Cherry unexpectedly reunites with an old boy friend, El Rey (Freddie Rodriguez), and is not happy to see him. He isn't pleased either -- she ran off with his favorite jacket, and in it an engagement ring that he had planned to give her. Cherry asks Ray if he could drive her out out town, as he was just passing through. As they leave, they are attacked by the first wave of zombies that leave the base. Cherry is assaulted and her leg ripped off. Meanwhile, in the town, people are getting infected. The victims are brought to the hospital, where Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) and his wife Dakota (Marley Shelton) are tending to the wounded. Their marriage is an unhappy one, rapidly disintegrating, as Dakota is making plans for a tryst with another woman, Tammy. El Ray brings Cherry to the hospital, but not before he is arrested by Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn), who treats Ray as a threat to the general public, and throws him into jail. The zombies rapidly take over the town. After Tammy's body is brought to the hospital, Dr Block confronts his wife. Is she going back to her cheating ways? He attacks her, injecting her hands with the anesthetics that she uses to treat patients. She escapes and manages to drive using her wrists and a watchband to go home. There she gets her son and goes over to her father's house for refuge. But her dad (Michael Parks) is busy killing his wife, an invalid who has turned into a zombie. Her son kills himself accidentally with the handgun that she gave him to protect them both. Dr. Block, now a zombie himself, tracks her down and attempts to kill her but is offed by her dad. Zombies are everywhere, and they attack the police station, where Sheriff Hague and his men fight a desperate battle against them. In the chaos El Rey escapes, and heads for the hospital where he cuts down a number of zombies to find Cherry. She is safe, hiding under a blanket, wallowing in self pity and fear. El Rey jams a 2 x 4 into the leg stub and forces her to walk, helping her out of the building. They, along with the remaining town survivors, flee to The Bone Shack, where they arm themselves and plan to escape. El Rey is a gun slinger, a fact that Sheriff Hague knew, and they become uneasy allies. Cherry manages to get the truck (with the help of El Rey's shooting) and crashes it into the restaurant. The survivors climb aboard it and a couple other vehicles and escape, heading toward the base. They attack the soldiers -- Cherry gets an upgrade by having her amputated leg augmented with an AK-47 -- and she becomes a one woman killing machine, using her go go talents in the process. El Rey confronts Lt. Muldoon, who has gone completely insane, turning into a zombie, and he and the chemicals are destroyed in a huge explosion. El Rey is killed in the end, but Cherry lives on to deliver the survivors to a coastal area in Mexico, near an ancient Mayan ruin, as they build a new future as idyllic beach bums.

Death Proof stars Kurt Russell as Stunt Man Mike, a stunt double actor for television. His only pleasure in life is pursuing the young ladies - preferably in his muscle car Chevy Nova, which he uses to hunt down then plow though his victims. We are introduced to three young ladies, out of college and working and living the life. Sidney Potier is Jungle Julia, a dee jay for a local station, who has created a bit of trouble for her friend, Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito) by announcing on her program that whoever calls Arlene "Butterfly," buys her a drink and recites a segment of a Robert Frost poem to her, that she will give him a lap dance. Arlene is horrified. It is Jungle Julia's brithday, and the girls go to the local watering hole and get plastered. A couple of guys try to make a move on them by hitting them up with liquor, but nothing ever comes of it. Arlene notices a black Chevy Nova cruising around town, and that the driver is checking her out. Stunt Man Mike appears at the bar, and talks to a blond woman (Rose McGowan), and offers to drive her home. He asks if she knows the girls over int he corner, and she laughs, saying that she knew Julia from school. He introduces himself to them and looking at Arlene, does the quote. Jungle Julia intervenes, saying that Arlene has already done it, but Stunt Man Mike looks at Arlene and can tell that she is lying. He talks her into doing it (which is never shown, being a "lost reel"). We cut to the girls driving off, driving off to a cabin near a lake. But they never get there. Stunt Man Mike has been following them, and blows by them on the road. He turns around, waiting for them, and then jams on the accelerator, coming at them head on with the headlights off. The collision is textbook car crash, and we see in disturbing detail what happens to the girls in the car, who are all killed. Stunt Man Mike survives -- his car is made for tv and movie stunts, so it is extra armed. We are introduced to another group of ladies, all of whom work for a film crew which is in production in Tennessee. After an excruciatingly long girl talk at a diner, Zoe states that she wants to drive an old classic American muscle car, the one used in Zabriskie Point. And as luck would have it, she has found that car advertised for sale in the local paper. She talks her friends into taking her to the seller and seeing if they could con the person into letting them do a test drive without him present. They do, using an unsuspecting Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as man bait, while Zoe and her friends Abernathy and Kim drive off. Kim is just tagging along; Abernathy and Zoe are both car junkies, and they are out to do a stunt: the Ship's Mast, where Zoe climbs on the hood of the har while Abernathy drives at full speed, and holds onto two belts that are tied to the doors. They are all having a great time, until Stunt Man Mike comes out of nowhere to mess with them, crashing his Nova into their car, trying to jar Zoe loose. Somehow, Abernathy shakes him off by shooting at Stunt Man Mike, and he flees. After collecting themselves, their thoughts turn to revenge, and armed with a pipe, Zoe climbs back into the car and Abernathy turns the car around to pursue the Nova. Stunt Man Mike is taken by surprise; the cars crash against one another in a long chase sequence. The Nova is knocked out of action, and the girls drag Stunt Man Mike out of the car and beat him to death. The end.

It's a study in contrasts. Planet Terror is an enjoyable romp that, while true to the spirit of the Grindhouse film, betters it in every aspect - story, acting, action. The characters are well realized, notably Rose MacGowan's Cherry, who is in a life crisis and though these wild series of events, becomes a self assured woman with a purpose. Josh Grolin is great as the thermometer chewing Dr. William Block with a chip on his shoulder -- his wife! On the other hand, Death Proof comes across as a conversation piece with moments of action. Sure, the dialogue is very well done -- it has to -- but the build up takes up so much time that it kills the payoff. In other words, it is just like a lot of the other Grindhouse films from the 60's and 70's, and it's a problem for Tarrantino. He loves his influences, but when making his films he never transcends them. Only in Jackie Brown did he do so, and I consider it his best picture, which I am sure will raise eyebrows. A key to his influence here is the t-shirt on one of the ladies, which has a poster of Faster Pussycat! Kill!! Kill!! on it. The nod is not to the film but to the director, Russ Meyer, and Death Proof echoes another film of his from the same time period, Motor Psycho. The innuendos, the visual gags are all from that movie, even if the story is different. The incessant girl talk was painful to sit though; like sitting in on another group's conversation and being forced to listen to it. Which is the point, but Tarrantino has to know that he is giving the finger to his mostly male audience who are expecting another Pulp Fiction exercise. Also, Kurt Russell is woefully used. In the first half of the movie, the interaction between him and his prey is suspenseful and creepy, but it completely vanishes in the second half, where he just shows up, and becomes a cartoon character. Silly. At least for a price of a ticket you can watch one decent shlock movie and then slip out.