Grindhouse is definitely worth a watch in theaters. You should probably hurry as well, it’ll likely be gone in week or two. Thanks, American Box Office!

And, I’ve been told this is wonderful, but I have my doubts. Mostly because the last movie I saw with him that I liked was Dusk Till Dawn.

I simply missed out on Grindhouses, I don’t understand the concept behind them, and I don’t think that I would enjoy it as much as I would if I knew the slightest bit about them.

But then, since there’s nothing but The Reaping (that everyone says is horrible) and Disturbia (that seems too much like a certain Hitchcock movie we all know) in the theaters, who knows, maybe I’ll end up there. :P

those characters (the second group of girls - i actually liked the first group) were empty and flat and obnoxious.

and Tarantino needs to stop patting himself on the back for being such an accomplished movie historian/archivist/viewer. it’s beyond annoying at this point.

but for some reason, i can forgive that stuff a little more easily than i can forgive Rodriguez for cheating and overstuffing.

not sure why.

I’m normally one of those people, but I don’t need a movie to repeatedly tell me I’m one of those people. That just killed it. Took me right out of the movie for multiple stretches that were too long for their own good. To the point where, by the time it ended, even after a drastic spike of intensity courteous of the amazing car sequences, I just didn’t give a damn about any of the characters or their story.

I think the character of Stuntman Mike is brilliant. His role reversal works perfectly and Kurt Russell is great in that role, but everyone else were such black holes of self indulgence that the entrance barrier for me to get back into the movie was too vast to surmount without obvious will on my part.

And, yeah, Rob Zombie just embarrassed himself with that abortion of a trailer. Ouch.

PLANET TERROR didn’t feel like a film (and certainly not a “grindhouse” film) to me. it was a series of ever-escalating gags. not that they weren’t impressive. but it felt like cheating.

and after a while, all the grimacing, posturing, and “intentionally bad” dialogue got old and got on my nerves.

i LOVE exploitation films. i LOVE grindhouse cinema.

PLANET TERROR had some sweet FX work, a BRILLIANT score, some great performances (especially Rodriguez, McGowan, and Brolin). but it wasn’t so much a tribute to 42nd Street as much as it was a bunch of jokes at its expense. and by the end the whole thing was just so overloaded i wasn’t having it. nice to see Biehn and Fahey getting some good mug work, though.

to me, DEATH PROOF was the superior film.

for one, it actually felt like a real honest-to-goodness narrative film. and not an experiment in mixtape-making. Tarantino didn’t need to add so many artificial scratches and grain and malfunctioning projector effects to his half to make it feel genuine. because it was genuine.

the camerawork, the cutting, the story, the pacing, the set-ups and set pieces… total grindhouse.

and those car scenes. HOLY SHIT. i’ve never been so invested in a car chase.

my two main problems with it were 1) Zoe Bell is obviously a stuntwoman and obviously NOT an actress and 2) the film-geek pop-culture reference-a-thon that is the diner scene.

i love VANISHING POINT.

but i heard you the first time, QT. cut it out.

oh, and I wasn’t too fond of the whole “our heroes” leaving-their-friend-to-get-raped thing.

Zombie’s trailer was WAY off.

Wright’s and Roth’s (and it pains to admit this considering how much i’d like to punch little Eli square in his fucking frat-boy throat) were directly on the nose and awesome.

don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed PLANET TERROR (especially the practical gag-work of N and B and that awesome synth). but it just didn’t do it for me like DEATH PROOF did. and i don’t get why its getting all the love.

you’re right about the pacing.

both films could’ve easily lost ten minutes or so apiece.