GRINDHOUSE

Robert Rodriguez' "Planet Terror" was absolutely great, worth the price of admission by itself. Gory as hell, gruesome and funny, with great action and a surprisingly tight script. Rose McGowan and the whole cast gave great performances, really throwing themselves into this admittedly goofy material. Doesn't take itself too seriously, just good solid exploitation fun. The thing I admire about Planet Terror is that it's so DENSE--every frame, every scene seems packed to the brim with material that both references the classic exploitation and horror movies of the past, but is also just funny and intense in the present. The dialogue bristles with repeated motifs and phrases, the technical gimmicks are used to rich effect (the "missing reel" which happens just as the steaming hot sex scene is getting started) and everything about the movie was pushed just as far as it could possibly go.

I have to admit I was disappointed in Tarantino's "Death Proof". I'm as big a Tarantino fan as you could find, but something just wasn't clicking with me. I don't mind that the first half of the movie is basically long, fetishy shots of girls' feet, legs and asses (anyone else notice QT's slight case of foot fetishism? :) ), but the dialogue didn't sparkle the way his scripts usually do. There was a LOT of character and a lot of dialogue in the first half of the movie, but very little in the way of memorable lines or moments. Kurt Russell was pretty good, and the case did decent jobs, especially real life stuntwoman Zoe Bell as herself. It was pretty cool, but left me a bit underwhelmed.