GRIND ME SO GOOD...

In my recent movie-viewing history, I don't recall any film as vile, disgusting, or utterly grotesque as Grindhouse...and I loved it.

For those who've been living under a friggin rock, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have teamed up again to bring viewers their unique taste of blood, guts, and sexuality. Their latest success attempts and succeeds at introducing the "Grindhouse" atmosphere to a new generation. A grindhouse is a term for a theater that screened exploitation films, or B movies usually consisting of a double feature dominated by explicit sex, violence, bizarre or perverse plot points, and other taboo content. Exploitation films have been around since the 1930's and 1940's. Perhaps the most famous example of these is Reefer Madness, a sensationalized and notoriously inaccurate attempt to demonize marijuana in conservative 1930s America, but other various sub genres of exploitation films such as black exploitation, cannibal exploitation, and zombie exploitation exist as well.

As for this one, the double feature consists of Planet Terror (written and directed by Rodriguez) and Death Proof (Written/Directed by Tarantino). Planet Terror is hands down the bloodiest funfest I've ever witnessed. To give you an idea without spoiling . . . it made me think of what it would look like if I filled 100 water balloon with blood and threw them into a giant fan all at once. The protagonist, El Wray (Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodriguez) cuts and chops his way to the truth about an evil government conspiracy while winning back the heart of his lost love...who has a peg-leg.

Death Proof is undeniably Tarantino, equipped with long, comedic character discussions/exposition followed by fast paced action sequences. This tail end of the double featch is not bloody or gory, but it has some unbelievable car chases and stuntwork done by one of the main characters herself. Tarantino set out to find a stuntwoman who could act rather than an prototypical actress so the action scenes would not have to be faked in any way. The stuntwoman/actress chosen - New Zealander Zoe Bell - worked as a stunt double for the Bride (Uma Thurman) in Tarantino's 2-volumed Kill Bill, and for Sharon Stone in the excremental Catwoman. Although this movie lacks any martial arts (or feline fight scenes), Bell steals every scene with her energetic personality and complete insanity as she executes a few harrowing and almost unbelievable stunts during a high-speed car chase. Kurt Russell also rekindles his bad-ass alter-ego reminiscent of Snake Plissken from Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. while portraying Stuntman Mike, a homicidal murderer who seduces unsuspecting females into his driver-safe stunt car, then kills them by crashing the hell out of it.

SEE THIS MOVIE!!! The lazies who don't want to spend 3 and a half hours in a theater obviously don;t know about the hilarious fake-trailers during the intermission. This is not just a trip to the movies...it's an experience.