This is sad, it did very well in my neck of the woods. Perhaps it will pick up on word of mouth. Maybe Good Friday/Easter weekend was not the best time to release it.
I forgot to ask this last night, but could someone spoiler the set-up for El Wray? I think I’ve got something niggling around back in my brain about it, but I can’t quite think of it correctly. Little help?
Kick. Ass.
Sure the first bit of Death Prood could have been cut by 20 minutes, but if that’s what it took to get to that cheer-worthy ending. Like a rape revenge flic without the rape (thank og). And imagine, using talented, hot actresses instead of just a bunch of 16-year-old anorexics willing to flash their boobies. Huzzah.
And remember…
If you… are planning… on going… down… to the basement…
DON’T!
Heheh. This has become the new catch phrase in our household.
"If you…are thinking…of going…into…this…house…
DON’T."
I saw it this evening and the whole thing was brilliant. It very well may be too high concept for people who would be lured in by the exploitation factor and too much exploitation for film fans pulled in by the concept.
Planet Terror was definitely the “better” segment mainly because Rodriguez clearly worked at making the film horribly directed. The awkward jump cuts, the bad continuity, and the quality of the production make me think that he took apart how that kind of film would have been made in 1974 and then rebuilt it (“Hmm… the cheap strippers they hired to fill in the background people probably wouldn’t have been available every day so I’ll take a few of them out during some camera angles…”). The whole thing is ingenious and has a manic energy that carries his segment well.
Tarantino’s Death Proof was also true to the exploitation film form, though he seemed to be trying for of a Russ Meyer film. It probably would have worked better if any of the women in the movie had been interesting characters, but they were shallow, vapid, and annoying so I didn’t care about their long conversations (something which would be used in exploitation films because talk is cheap to film while car chases are expensive). The talking slowed the pace of the film and there was a real irritation with waiting for him to get on with it.
Grindhouse really needs to be seen in the theater simply because it replicates the experience so well. The “poor quality” print and the trailers and bumpers are going to have less impact as a home viewing experience.
One more thing. I stayed through the whole credits because we were interested in some of the music in the film and were curious if they were going to slip anything in at the end and I noticed this credit:
Mr. Tarantino’s Chef: [some name I forgot]
Mr. Rodriguez’s Chef: Robert Rodriguez
I saw a 4pm showing earlier today. The theater was almost empty. 
I thought Planet Terror was fun but Death Proof was freakin’ amazing. As I said in the other Grindhouse thread, Planet Terror is not a grindhouse movie: it’s what we wish they would be, or, rather, it embodies how we remember the good ones when our memory glosses over all the not-so-great stuff.
Those of you who found Death Proof too talky, how many movies in this genre have you actually seen, really? Endless empty dialogue is practically a hallmark of the style; low-budget exploitation filmmakers can’t afford to do more than two or maybe three big set-piece type scenes, so they pad out the running time with travel shots (driving and walking, mostly) and self-consciously clunky banter. In my opinion Tarantino captures that element of the experience brilliantly.
And it wasn’t just pastiche, either, emulating a form. To repeat what I said in the other thread:
It’s not just a grindhouse movie: it’s a thesis on “grindhouse-ness,” filled out and animated by Tarantino’s boundless love for the genre. A legitimately impressive piece of work by a legitimate film artist.
Planet Terror: B
Death Proof: A+
LOVED 'EM BOTH
fuckin’ OMG, they’re definitely different, but I give them equal marks. Major points for having Zoe Bell play herself, and I love the way props and characters keep showing up, it gives it a parallel universe where this shit really happens feeling.
Sadly the theater was mostly empty, maybe because it’s Easter Sunday, although that seems a perfect time to me.
ETA, I think Tarantino hit his acting high water mark as Richie Gecko
I SO want to see machete
Saw it Saturday morning. AMAZING. Like Kill Bill and Sin City thrown into a blender, and then x100. I wish all movies were more like this! I thought Planet Terror edged out Death Proof just slightly, although my wife preferred the latter. I’ve already ordered the soundtrack to Death Proof. I’m trying to spread the word about how great the movie is, but it’s the kind of thing that’s either right up your alley, or not at all. I would really hate for it not to succeed.
Yeah, I told my wife about a month ago that I would be stunned if this movie breaks $100m, and that it would be doing well to make it to $60m. She was all like “I can’t believe you just said that! I thought you were a Tarantino fanboy, that you see everything he directed… how can you say this movie is going to tank?”
Now she’s like “How the hell did you know?”
Simple. Tarantino plays to a limited audience, and this movie is even more limited. Sure it’s a great idea, sure it was done brilliantly, but really… how many other people than these two really love 1970s-era sub b-flicks?
And in a way, we’ve seen it before… and better. Kill Bill is a far better hommage, and with it (and Pulp Fiction) we already know that Tarantino can take second-rate material and make a first-rate movie out of it chock full of in-jokes, movie references, and second/third-tier talent.
Been there, done that.
Me? I’d like to see Tarantino write a romantic comedy next. Now that will be different. 
I saw it fully expecting to like Tarantino’s film better, but I really enjoyed “Planet Terror” more. I understand that rambling dialogue is Tarantino’s signature (and Cervaise, although his intent may have been to ape the dialogue of grindhouse films, to my ear it sounded completely “Tarantinoesque” as opposed to authentic), and I thought it was extremely well-employed in “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” but in this movie, stretches of it really began to try my patience. It wasn’t particularly interesting in itself, and many of the actors didn’t have the charisma to make it so. I found Sydney Poitier particularly annoying (although easy to look at) and quickly began wishing she would die off soon.
I really felt like it was a subpar effort by Tarantino (and not in ways that seemed intentional) but it is possible that onset butt-petrification fueled my impatience, or that I’m just gradually getting weary of his meandering-dialogue shtick in general. (I found myself eyeing the FF button on the remote a couple of times when I watched “Kill Bill 2” on DVD, so that may have been the beginning of the honeymoon’s end for me.)
The chase scenes in “DP” were cool, though, and the ending was utterly hilarious and worth the admission price.
“Death Proof” was Tarantino jerking off on the faces moderately attractive actresses for an hour and half. It was boring 95% of the time. I can see why Planet Terror was placed first even though it was the better of the two. People would have walked out during Death Proof if it was first.
Planet Terror was a lot of fun.
I was disappointed that after going through all the effort to make El Rey Jesus Christ that when they killed him they didn’t place him in a christ-pose.
I disagree with the your review of Tarantino, but that is simply opinion. To each their own.
I am dumbfounded by your spoiler. How did you come with this idea? I did not get that at all or in anyway and I still do not see it.
Jim
Whoever asked him that question has to be a moron, I mean, is he not covered in prison tattoos?
“El Rey”=The King, in Spainish culture, is used to refer to Jesus Christ.The dove tattoo on his wrist=The symbol of Christ. The reverence the characters who treated Rey badly once they discover he is “El Rey”. And I can’t remember of the exact line but there’s a line that just added to the Christ-ness of it.
Theatre was about 1/2 full for our viewing yesterday afternoon (what a way to spend Easter afternoon!) Lots of audience participation, and very well received by the group we were amongst, but this was not playing at the premier theatre in town, and that made me a bit suspicious of its reception/expectations. Sadly.
Couldn’t agree more with Cervaise on DP. Someone else on this thread mentioned that PT seemed almost lacking in dialog and set-up, and I agree. The zombies quickly became laughable, instead of truly creepy as they might have been with a bit more set-up. I completely appreciated the dialog and set-up in Tarantino’s segment, even if at times thinking that he doesn’t quite have his finger on the full pulse of female interaction. But the buildup to the lap-dance “missing reel” (Stuntman Mike had his little book that he wrote everyone’s name in, good or bad…BIG chills up n’ down my spine!) was spectacular, sinister, sneaky-evil and perfect. And Tarantino confirmed for me what I have always felt I knew about the sociologically disordered: they are cowards of the worst ilk inside that coating of pure shit-insane evil.
As a child of the 60’s coming of age in the 70’s, I have an altogether idealized view of those wonder years at the movies, complete with torn film, reels out of order, scratched up screens & whiny, out of sync music. This was a great step into, and out of, time for me.
My 16-year-old wouldn’t have missed it for the world, either, tho clearly he idolizes Rodriguez above Tarantino.
I saw this on Saturday in a little local theater. The kind that used to be a single screen with balcony, but they turned the balcony into a “screening room” and have two theaters in the building now. I was disappointed to find this little room and then to have it close to empty (about 35 people) was a bit sad.
I don’t have much to add to what’s been said already, except I don’t get the love for Zoe Bell. Her stunts were great but her acting was so utterly atrocious that I couldn’t wait for her to shut-up. (I’ll throw in Tarrantino in these flicks for the same crime).
Am I the first to mention the awesomeness that was the pocket bike?
I LOVED the pocket bike scene. Wheelies, popping zombies, awesome.
Saw it in a 1/4 full theater of movie geeks on Sunday afternoon. I freakin’ loved it!
As I was leaving the theater, I saw one of the first geek arguments about the movie between a theater employee and someone who had just come out of the movie. The theater employee said “Go smoke a cigarette during the first ten minutes of “Death Proof”. Treat it as an intermission.’” I disagree. I’ve been going back and forth between the two since I saw it, but I think the tonal shift in the beginning of Death Proof comes at pretty much the right time. The dialog is fantastic, too.
Planet Terror is awesomely funny. I never got to go to a real grindhouse-type movie theater, but I was exposed to those sorts of movies on rental VHS video in high school. I saw a dozen movies like “Planet Terror” during high school makeout sessions where we didn’t really care what we were watching.
This could be interesting. Harvey Weinstein, disappointed at the BO take, is planning to re-release it in May as two separate movies, with additional footage.
I guess it depends on the ‘additional footage’ whether those who have already seen it will stump up again, but I don’t think that those who weren’t attracted by the double bill will turn out in droves for the single movies.