JD’s first review. GRINDHOUSE

There’s only so much you can say about a movie double feature that pays homage to the type of movie that the majority of people today do not understand, know about, nor want to give a chance and see. For anyone who doesn’t know what a “grindhouse” is, its a sleezy cinema in NY back in the 60s and 70s that featured films full of graphic violence, nudity, sex and nonstop action. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez both wrote and directed their own full length movies and combined them into one three hour and minute joy ride.

“Planet Terror”, the first film in the double feature, written and directed by Rodriguez, was about a military cover up about a deadly virus that turned people into flesh-eating zombies.  Sounds simple enough, but the best part about their movie was the nonstop action and hilarious dialogue right from the start. From the opening scene of the first patient inflicted with this deadly virus, to the hordes of zombies towards the end, you couldn’t even flinch without missing something. Our heroine of the story Cherry Darling (rose mcgowen), gets her leg ripped off by zombies but her boyfriend “El ray” decided the best medicine is a good old machine gun to replace her departed leg. From there on out, it was an all out war between the living and dead. And to find out how this story ends, you must check out the movie.

“Death Proof”  the 2nd of the double feature, stars Kurt Russell as a serial killer, is a little bit on more the other side of old school cinema. There’s not much to tell other then the fact that the last 20 minutes might have the most awesome TRUE (not special effects) car chase scene we have ever scene. The ending is fantastic and its one hell of a ride.

Overall both movies were great in their our ways, my only knock on the movie, is it might of been better suited to reverse the order of the movies. Have “Death Proof” first and finish off the night with “Planet Terror.” When you see the movie, you’ll understand my reasoning for this. To keep you alive and kicking between movies, there are trailers for three non-existent movies that are sure to crack you up and wishing they were coming to a theater near you.

Out of a possible ****

I give this movie a ***1/2