A Review of the Film Grindhouse

Fresh off the creative and commercial success of their most recent film projects, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have teamed up to create their homage to 70's-era exploitation films, the double-feature Grindhouse. When last we saw them, Rodriguez offered up the great film-noir romp Sin City, based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, while Tarantino was wrapping up his two-part revenge series, Kill Bill. Grindhouse offers up much of the same, with the film-makers putting a fresh spin on some of the genres that have inspired them.

The Grindhouse experience involves a complete transportation back in time, complete with era-specific content warnings and preview music, as well as altering the film stock to give the appearance of a imperfections.The pair even recruited some of their friends to create fake trailers to add to the experience. Rodriguez starts the experience with the trailer for Machete, a "film" featuring Danny Trejo as an assassin who is double-crossed on an assignment, and subsequently goes on a revenge-fueled rampage with Cheech Marin at his side as his priest. The trailer is an appropriate beginning to the Grindhouse experience.

The first feature on the bill is Robert Rodriguez's George Romero-inspired zombie flick, Planet Terror. Featuring wall-to-wall action, Planet Terror features Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer named Cherry Darling. Fed-up with her career, Darling walks away from her nightclub dancing and ultimately teams up with a band of small-town Texas misfits seeking to fight off what seems to be a zombie infestation. Freddy Rodriquez is featured as McGowan's ex-boyfriend, a bad boy who's run afoul of the law. Also in the cast are Marley Shelton and Josh Brolin (who channels Nick Nolte) as doctors who are trapped in a strained and unhappy marriage while also treating infected townspeople.