Grindhouse Presents, Planet Terror - Extended and Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Grindhouse Presents, Planet Terror - Extended and Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: You and me against the world!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Planet terror" is a project that might be labeled as a futuristic catharsis, that works out as a deserved homage to Cesar Romero's "The night of the living dead."
A mortal poisoned gas affects, accelerates and transfigure the human race, and the only human capable to find an antidote is out of business.
Watch this film with a basic premise in mind. Don't try to analyze it, just to have fun with his gore scenes, bloody sequences and black humor. A four hand project between Rodriguez and Tarantino. Some hair raising chases here and there and the presence of captivating women make the film worthy to watch it, but, don't dare to take it too seriously.
And have a good time!
Movie Review: Too much blood and gore
Summary: 3 Stars
I know that this move is produced as a 'homage' to this genre of movies. Yet, this is too much blood and gore for me. Unless you are a die hard Robert Rodriguez fan, and part of Rodriguez/Tarantino cult, you are not going to like this.Movie Review: Inspired by Army Of Darkness
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, if you think this is a Bruce Willis film, think again, he's in it for about 5 seconds.
Mostly it's that chick from Charmed, she loses a leg and her superman boyfriend rams a gun onto it and she becomes a wonder woman on acid to blow away zombies in a blood filled dismembering gorefest of a way.
Good for a rental, but I wouldn't wanna own it.
Movie Review: Just add blood (and gore, girls, guns, and guts) ... for a fine Texas barbecue sauce
Summary: 3 Stars
Gore, girls, guns, zombifying gases and guts-- I guess that's all it takes to make a moderately entertaining and occasionally visually stunning flick. Of course, it won't do much for your mind -- unlike some grindhouse flicks that play with intriguing subtexts underneath all of the shock-inducing and exploitation schlock -- Robert Rodriguez just wants to ramp up the insanity step by step, piling up absurd but effective and increasingly over the top gory elements until, after the climax, it all ends on a strangely sentimental note.
The plot, for what its worth, is cobbled together to create maximum opportunity for thrills and mayhem. There's a stripper who gets her leg bitten off, only to have it replaced by a prosthetic machine gun/rocket launcher. Her lover is a tow truck driver who is really the incognito of a superheroic and psychotic gun-wielder. There's an anaesthesiologist mother on a rampage with hypodermic needles when her husband tried to kill her after her lesbian lover shows up half eaten in the hospital. Throw in a Texas barbecue king, a jealous sheriff and a bunch of less than fully competent deputies, two crazy Latina twins, a cowardly stripclub owner, into a small town where a military operation gone bad has released a poisonous gas that turns men and women into highly infectious flesh-crazed rot-faced cannibals. What have you got? Mayhem, exploding bodies, exploding cars, zombie action, leering men, attractive women alternating between nails tough and sexy.
The thing I liked least in both Grindhouse films were the cameos by filmmakers. In Death Proof, both Tarantino and Eli Roth show up and Roth plays (badly, since he can't really act, and it does him a favor to assume he is trying to act because if he is really like the character he plays on screen, he's a real ... well, you know) an extremely despicable and loathsome misogynist; in this one Tarantino himself plays (once again, badly -- while he is a very competent director who knows how to get intriguing performances from his actors I've never seen any indications that Tarantino himself can do more than bluster on screen, but I'm pretty sure that is acting because from what I know of him he strikes me as very likely more decent and certainly more self-aware than the characters he plays on screen) another despicable character with a gun, prepared to use it to enable himself to act out the macho woman-hating fantasies that Roth's character talked about. He played a similarly psychotic character in that roadhouse vampire flick that he and Rodriguez made (From Dusk Till Dawn) -- I'm not quite sure why he likes to use himself as a mouthpiece for the most vile and disgusting references to women that appear in their films. Is it ironic self-critique or is it narcissistic opportunism: the chance to play out a fantasy of perversion under the guise of ironic self-critique? I can't tell.
Anyhow, once again, Rodriguez shows himself to be a visually inventive genius who knows how to make the most of a moderate budget but is once again apparently wasting his talents on entertaining but ultimately ephemeral material. I guess this is what he likes -- so all power to him. For my part, with the possible exception of Spy Kids (which is one of the better and more engaging children's action films, in part because the Latino sensibility that pervades it brings a freshness to what could have been a pretty generic plot) and maybe Sin City (in which the original material has a haunting texture that he is able to bring to life), I don't think he has lived up to his promise and potential (unlike Tarantino, whose films bring both intelligence, and a wide understanding of cinema culture, to his grindhouse sensibility). Here's hoping Rodriguez's next film will be both visually exciting and at least somewhat stimulating for the brain (and stimulating in some other way than like the green gas that induces a zombified hunger for blood and mindless thrills).
Movie Review: A good effort, but could have been better.....
Summary: 2 Stars
This second part of the two part "Grind house" project of Tarantino/Rodriguez was not as enjoyable for me as Death Proof. The story was about a group of people trying to save the world from flesh eating zombies. As in original Grind house movies, good actors were scarce and the good ones were seen in almost all of the movies in various character roles, same types of roles, even with the same clothes on. Such is the case in Planet Terror. We once again see the attractive Dr. Dakota and also the mumbling local cops with the southern drawl at the same hospital as in Death Proof. In this movie Dr. Dakota and the cops have more of a speaking role and contribution to the movie. A big disappointment was not seeing Bruce Willis for more than what seemed a total of 10 minutes in the whole movie and with not really much to say. Obviously he was added to the bill to attract paying customers. He was much more entertaining as the boxer in Pulp Fiction.
There were a number of things I didn't like about this movie. The first and most noticeable was the ever present lines, threads, static, and shaking of the film so as to give the effect of an old 35mm movie. In Death Proof, Tarantino had the good sense to stop that effect halfway through his movie. Unfortunately, Rodriguez didn't. The effect is twice as bad and annoying from the very beginning to the last credits. I understand that using the effect is to make us feel we are watching an old film, but the acting is good, they are using high tech weapons and cell phones, so I think subjecting the viewer to that distraction is a mistake. Especially if a viewer has paid a lot of money for a high definition plasma screen TV and has to suffer through that for 90 minutes. We get it, use the effect for a few minutes and then stop it please. An aside here, it looks like the movie Machete will be made. Please, please, don't have all that annoying static, threads, and garbage on the screen again for that flick. Why cant these directors give us the option on the DVD of seeing the movie with or without that effect.
Another annoyance with Planet Terror was Quentin giving himself a large speaking and acting role as "rapist #1". QT is very good at writing and directing scary villains. But trying to act as one is laughable. His lispy voice, unconvincing acting, combined with the fact he has packed on the pounds since Kill Bill is just a joke. Quentin, please just stick to the writing, casting, and directing because you are a master at that. You suck as an actor and it comes across as being just a little too self indulgent. Alfred Hitchcock would place himself in his movies as an extra about 100 feet away from the main actors as they were saying their lines. He would appear on a park bench feeding the birds, or just walking down the street. An example of a brilliant director who knew his limitations.
I am also unhappy that faux trailers, i.e. Werewolf Women of the SS were missing from both DVD's. I suppose I have to wait for these two directors to re-release the two movies together on a new DVD including the trailers as they showed in the theatres so they can suck another wad of cash out of their adoring fans. Too bad.
I give this movie two exploding heads out of five. Save your money and buy Death Proof.