Tarantino and Rodriguez Score Big With Grindhouse

At this point in their careers, directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez can do almost whatever they want, and they proved that with their latest double feature, Grindhouse.

Grindhouse features two movies, one directed by Tarantino and the other by Rodriguez, with fake movie trailers separating the two. The four short trailers were even made by respected horror movie directors Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie.

With this entourage of directors, Grindhouse was set up to be one of the goriest movies of the year, and the first film, Planet Terror, did not disappoint. Directed by Rodriguez, Planet Terror follows Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez as they try to survive in a world infected by biological weapons.

The plot follows the two as they attempt to escape from the center of the infection and find a cure for a disease that turns people into cannibalistic monsters. After having her leg eaten by the infected, McGowan replaces it with a broom stick and eventually a gun.

This gun, along with Freddy Rodriguez’s impeccable aim and proficient knife ability, made for a gruesome hour and a half. Each shot sprayed clouds of blood in the air with every hit, and the death tolls rose swiftly once McGowan’s character had the gun grafted to her leg.

Overall, the first film was exactly what you would expect from Rodriguez, a blood-splattered good time with plenty of tongue in cheek humor. Tarantino’s offering, on the other hand, was quite different.

Death Proof, as opposed to Planet Terror, did not go for the all-out adrenaline rush of gunshots and broken bones. Instead, it was a highly climactic movie based more around dialogue than action.

The movie follows Kurt Russell, who plays Stuntman Mike, as he stalks and attempts to kill women. The entire movie has very little action until the end, and is a huge detraction from Tarantino’s other pictures, which are normally filled with action and violence.

The two films complement each other very well, although Tarantino’s picture may have served better going first as it is initially a let down after the energy of Planet Terror. With movie prices as high as they are these days, seeing two movies from such acclaimed directors for the price of one is an opportunity that no one should miss.