Grindhouse

As many ActionClub posts are becoming, this is not a review of an 80s Action movie, but 'Grindhouse' is so remeniscent of the era that it must have a mention.

This is the new Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez movie. Now, as you may or may not know, this movie is a two-part double feature with three trailers separating. First off is Rodriguez 'Planet Terror'.

PT is essentially a zombie movie centering around go-go dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) and her dark loner ex-boyfriend, El Wray (Freddie Rodriguez - usually, I would put links to all the cast mentioned, but these two movies are so heavily populated that it will take far too long - you'll just have to go the the IMDB 'Grindhouse' page yourself and check out the incredible cast). Without giving anything away, Cherry loses her leg and has an assault rifle fitted by Wray for zombie killing action. There is loads of silly gore, a sex scene interrupted by a 'missing reel' apology card, incredible performances by Bruce Willis (as Lt. Muldoon), Naveen Andrews (as a ridiculous criminal genetic engineer) and Tarantino himself (who comes to a suitably sticky end). All in all, it's great fun and accurately represents loads of terrible movies I remember renting out during the 80's.

As mentioned before, the two movies were split by three spoof trailers: 'Werewolf Women of the SS' directed by Rob Zombie (which can be seen below); 'Don't' directed by Edgar Wright (which came as a nice surprise, featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) and 'Thanksgiving' directed by Eli Roth (who cameos in 'Deathproof'). Probably the best bit of the movie, but I won't spoil them by talking about them here. Needless to say, they are genius and complement the rest of the feature beautifully. The following is the whole of Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women trailer (spoiler alert).



After the interval comes Tarantino's 'Death Proof'. Kurt Russell plays the character of 'Stuntman Mike (who could almost be a pastiche of 'Snake' from 'The Simpsons'). DP is firmly split into two acts, both of which feature long scenes of characteristic Tarantino dialogue - by this I mean waffling that has little to do with plot and everything to do with character establishment. Sometimes taking a bit longer than they possibly should, contributing to making this the weaker of the two halves. Again, without giving anything away, Mike is a bad guy who gets his come-uppance just before the movie abruptly ends.

Rumour has it that Grindhouse is going to be split into two movies when released in the UK due to it's long running time of over 3 hours. Not sure why anyone would want do this as it is perfectly set up to have an interval in the middle, unlike some other freakishly long movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, JFK or the god-awful King Kong. If you do decide to see just one, I would recommend 'Planet Terror' but both are very entertaining and worth seeing.

Check out the official Grindhouse website and the trailer below.