GKarsEye
Regular
So, any other fans of Rodriguez (the El Mariachi series), Tarantino, and trashy exploitation films in general?
Saw this double-feature thing today and it freakin' kicks ass. It's basically a long love-poem to the 70s/early 80s low-rent horror and action movies that were show on the cheapest theaters in urban areas ("grindhouses").
The beginning of Salon.com's review sums up the essence of this movie brilliantly:
So the first film is Rodriguez', it's called Planet Terror, and it's about how some chemicals turn people into zombies. The badass who leads the charge to defend a group of survivors will be recognised by Six Feet Under fans as the actor who plays Federico. I just finished watching season 4 of SFU, the first season where his character has something kinda interesting to do, and it's a kick seeing the litte fellar as an action hero. Of course the real star here is Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer who loses a leg. The image of her with a machine gun for a leg is the big iconic image of the movie.
She is a fantastic screen presence and, yes, incredibly hot. I regret not making her one of my choices for the "hot-off" contest in NC-17.
A very fun bit of eye-candy.
Tarantino's film is called Death Proof and it's a completely different feel. The only thing they have in common is that McGowan is also in Death Proof (albeit in a much smaller role, wereas she is the star of Planet Terror) and a couple of characters from Planet Terror make a cameo appearance. The movie is about two groups of girls who get terrorised by a maniac on the road. Some of the girls include Rosario Dawson (and NC-17 readers can imagine how happy I was to see her) and Sydney Potier (daughter of Sidney) who is absolutely gorgeous. Kurt Russell, my second favorite actor ever (after Shatner) is in this one and he is, of course, awesome. The centerpiece is the auto action- phenomenal car chases and car fights. My one complaint about this movie was that there was a lot of dialogue and little of it was interesting or funny enough to be worth the screen time. For example, there is a shot of the second group of girls talking with the camera spinning around them, like the opening to Reservoir Dogs. But the dialogue isn't anywhere near as funny as the Madonna dialogue in RD.
The end sequence of Death Proof, however, more than made up for it.
There are also 4 trailors for fake movies made by guest directores Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and others, which are all very funny. The one called Thanksgiving is everyone's favorite, and it's great, but I really got a kick out of Machete, which featured the tag line, "They've f___ with the wrong Mexican!"
From what I read, and from the empty seats in my showing, it looks like this movie is flopping. I don't get it- are people really happy with the soul-less schlock of PG-13 faux-sci-fi comic book fare and empty, shallow "message" films that exist only to beg to win little phallic statues on TV?
Do yourselves a favor and grab your friends (the ones with a sense of humor, not the pretentious uptight ones) and go see this, then hit the local bar. This flick is a perfect way to start a night out with your buddies. It's got babes, explosions, monsters, cars, Kurt Russell, and something that very few movies have these days- entertainment value.
Saw this double-feature thing today and it freakin' kicks ass. It's basically a long love-poem to the 70s/early 80s low-rent horror and action movies that were show on the cheapest theaters in urban areas ("grindhouses").
The beginning of Salon.com's review sums up the essence of this movie brilliantly:
So the first film is Rodriguez', it's called Planet Terror, and it's about how some chemicals turn people into zombies. The badass who leads the charge to defend a group of survivors will be recognised by Six Feet Under fans as the actor who plays Federico. I just finished watching season 4 of SFU, the first season where his character has something kinda interesting to do, and it's a kick seeing the litte fellar as an action hero. Of course the real star here is Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer who loses a leg. The image of her with a machine gun for a leg is the big iconic image of the movie.
She is a fantastic screen presence and, yes, incredibly hot. I regret not making her one of my choices for the "hot-off" contest in NC-17.
A very fun bit of eye-candy.
Tarantino's film is called Death Proof and it's a completely different feel. The only thing they have in common is that McGowan is also in Death Proof (albeit in a much smaller role, wereas she is the star of Planet Terror) and a couple of characters from Planet Terror make a cameo appearance. The movie is about two groups of girls who get terrorised by a maniac on the road. Some of the girls include Rosario Dawson (and NC-17 readers can imagine how happy I was to see her) and Sydney Potier (daughter of Sidney) who is absolutely gorgeous. Kurt Russell, my second favorite actor ever (after Shatner) is in this one and he is, of course, awesome. The centerpiece is the auto action- phenomenal car chases and car fights. My one complaint about this movie was that there was a lot of dialogue and little of it was interesting or funny enough to be worth the screen time. For example, there is a shot of the second group of girls talking with the camera spinning around them, like the opening to Reservoir Dogs. But the dialogue isn't anywhere near as funny as the Madonna dialogue in RD.
The end sequence of Death Proof, however, more than made up for it.
There are also 4 trailors for fake movies made by guest directores Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and others, which are all very funny. The one called Thanksgiving is everyone's favorite, and it's great, but I really got a kick out of Machete, which featured the tag line, "They've f___ with the wrong Mexican!"
From what I read, and from the empty seats in my showing, it looks like this movie is flopping. I don't get it- are people really happy with the soul-less schlock of PG-13 faux-sci-fi comic book fare and empty, shallow "message" films that exist only to beg to win little phallic statues on TV?
Do yourselves a favor and grab your friends (the ones with a sense of humor, not the pretentious uptight ones) and go see this, then hit the local bar. This flick is a perfect way to start a night out with your buddies. It's got babes, explosions, monsters, cars, Kurt Russell, and something that very few movies have these days- entertainment value.
