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Credits

Director: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino Starring: Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell, Freddy Rodríguez, Rosario Dawson, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin Screenplay: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino Country: USA

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By now the sordid saga of Grindhouse and its series of botched theatrical releases may possibility be more well know than the film itself. However, for those that came in late, or have blocked out the whole unfortunate mess from their minds, here's a recap of what went down.

Way back yonder genre wonder kids Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino decided to collaborate on a project together. The idea was simple; create a loving homage to the exploitation and sleaze filled gems of yesteryear that fuelled their cinematic development. The film would be called Grindhouse, the title stemming from the slang term given to rundown movie theaters that would show outrageous double features of pictures that would range anywhere from B to Z Grade in quality.

The project would be made up of two 90-minute films, a schlock ridden piece of zombie madness titled Planet Terror directed by Rodriguez and a chick gang/serial killer car opus labeled Death Proof by Tarentino. The icing on the fan boy cake would be a collection of fake trailers directed by other cult cinema guru's including Edgar Wright, Eli Roth and Rob Zombie wedged between the two films. The inclusion of fake film scratches and damage, missing film reels and fake 70's advertising would round the package off.

Planet Terror, Rodriguez's entry, is your classic zombie invasion film. Within the first five minutes of the film a military Bio-Weapon is released upon a small town and the effects turn the bulk of the population into rabid flesh eating zombies. In the ensuing mayhem a small group of survivors band together and take refuge in a roadside dinner.

Rodriguez knows exactly what people want with this sort of film and he quickly provides lashings of T&A and plenty of well-staged gore effects. The cast performs admirably with special mention going to Freddy Rodriguez, who delivers a great performance as the hard-ass El Ray, giving the character the perfect amount of verve and humor.

Ultimately Planet Terror is a fun ride, but it does start to lose steam towards the end as the constant barrage of action and gore begin to leak into one another. It must be said that the film plays much better as part of the complete Gridnhouse cut, rather than an individual film.

Tarantino's Death Proof works extremely well to evoke the feel of 70's genre films. The tone of the film is almost perfect and the director really excels by bringing together the films bizarre plot and characters. The plot of the film is quite straight forward; a deranged stuntman, named Stuntman Mike, stalks and murders young ladies with his 'Death Proof' stunt car.

The film contains all the Tarantino trademarks - snappy dialogue, inventive editing and a great soundtrack. Kurt Russell stars as the malevolent Stuntman Mike and gives one of his best performances in years, perfectly portraying the stoic psycho with just the right amount of mystery and cynicism. Ultimately Death Proof may be the shallowest film Tarantino has produced, but it works marvelously as an emulation of B-grade cinema and works well both as a stand-alone film and as part of the larger Grindhouse project. A special mention must be made of the killer live action stunt work performed throughout the film, which is a rarity now days.

Running close to three hours in length, the original release of Grindhouse was so poorly received upon its initial theatrical release that Dimension Films, the US distribution company, pulled the film, sliced it in half and went about releasing the two film titles separately with added content. While this release plan was more profitable (only slightly) fans suffered with the loss of the fake trailers. The overall scope of the project was also lost and the double feature homage aspect made redundant. Worse still, all international release plans for the full length cut of Grindhouse were scrapped and replaced with the two individual releases. While Death Proof received a small theatrical run in Australia, Planet Terror went straight to DVD. To add insult to injury all DVD releases (even Region 1) contained only the individual cuts and not the original grand, exploitation love-in that Aussie genre fans were denied.

Planet Terror includes a commentary from Rodriguez on the feature disc, which is fun and informative, and a collection of behind the scenes featurettes detailing the many visual effects created for the film. These included a "Robert Rodriguez 10 minute film school" - these are included on every DVD of a Rodriguez Film and basically add another outlet for Robert to provide more commentary over a montage of "behind the scenes" footage and some special effects breakdowns. Next up is "Badass Babes of Planet Terror". An in depth look at the lovely ladies of Planet Terror. The male cast members also receive a short video profiling their characters. Next is a short video that details how Robert Rodriguez shot some multiple takes on one scene which Dakota's son (played by Robert Rodriguez' own seven year old son) meets his fate. The scene was shot with two different outcomes to gauge test audiences reaction. After that we get a 13 minute look at the stunts of the film. Last but not least, a strange look at the nepotism surrounding any of Robert's films: his doctor has a small part (as a doctor), his real estate agent is also in there and even his nieces are along for the ride.

The extras for Death Proof include some nice mini-docos chronicling the elaborate stunt work that went into the film and the various cars used during the production. The following is included on the supplement disc. We begin with a video introduction by Quentin welcoming you to the world of Death Proof.

Next is "The Hot Rods of Death Proof", A 12 minute look at cars, cars and more cars!

Next up a 20 minute segment on the stunts, detailing the many psychical effects within the film. This is followed by two minidocs on stuntwomen/actress Zoe Bell and Kurt Russell. Another two 9 minute minidocs introduces us to the other female and male cast members of the film.
Next is an odd little two minutes of footage of actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead absentmindedly singing the song "Baby it's you". It's interesting to see what cast members do during down time but it really is just a waste of disc space (although the young lady is quite attractive.)

Next a segment regarding editing. As always Quentin gives long time editor Sally Menke loads of credit for her craft. Also included is the trailer for "DoubleDare", a feature documentary on Zoe Bell's search to make it big in the stunt world (she was Uma's main stunt double in the Kill Bill series)

The real gem in this set is the exclusive Grindhouse supplement disc. Among the extras is a 24 minute video showing Quentin & Robert announcing Grindhouse at the 2006 San Diego Comic-con. This is great piece that includes cast appearances and a entertaining Q&A session.

Next is a 12-minute Japanese interview with Tarantino that deals with the genesis of the project and his influences - BE WARNED: This extra has vision of Tarantino wearing a traditional kimono.

After that is a 40-minute run-of-the-mill press piece with lots of people backslapping each other. Despite its overt advertisement form and some repeats from what was said in the San Diego footage there is still some note worthy inclusions such as short interviews with Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie about their fake trailers.