It’s hard for me to feel satisfied after seeing a movie in theaters lately. $9.50 a ticket? Those seats better have Fleshlights built into them at that price. When I saw Children of Men I thought it was an anomaly: here was a movie I felt was actually worth paying that money for. I figured that wouldn’t happen again for years. Grindhouse is either an anomaly as well or the movie industry is waking up and smelling the coffee.

I loved the tribute to the old exploitation flicks. People that don’t get this don’t get the movie itself. The hype only friggin’ broadcasts that it’s a tribute to 70’s exploitation films; if you didn’t get that you deserved to lose the $9 in my book. But I’m an asshole. It’s supposed to be campy with bad editing. It’s all intentional. And I loved every friggin’ second of the thing. The purposeful bad editing was hysterical at times (you’d have to see it to understand what I mean), and the “ick” factor had the whole audience screaming and yelling the whole time. Like the actual 70’s exploitation flicks sans the bad haircuts. It literally was a grindhouse style flick: two different movies back to back with some previews in between. Each movie ran about an hour and 40 minutes I believe. The previews before and in between the movies were nothing short of brilliant. Machete was my favorite and if internet rumor is true (I made a funny), that one is being made into a full length for the next Grindhouse.

What made the whole experience more enjoyable was how different the two movies were. “Planet Terror” was a campy tribute to bad zombie flicks, full of gore, one-liners and ass-kicking. “Death Proof” was a tribute to those old car chase murder movies. Death Proof was evidence that you can still do fuckin’ AMAZING car crash scenes and stuff without any CGI. None what-so-ever. That was all real and knowing that made you appreciate it all the more. As a matter of fact, I’d say that knowing that was critical to fully enjoying the movie.

I’d see Grindhouse again. Hands down. What made it great was that we had a crew of around 14 or 15 people. Seeing it with a posse is part of the fun. Having an awesome audience is also pretty important, and I suggest seeing it at whatever local indie theater you have in your hometown: a lot of the time they have better crowds.

Let it be known that for the first time ever, I thought Rose McGowan didn’t look nasty. Must be nice having professional lighting and make-up artists making you look snazzy. When I become emperor of this pitiful planet I shall partake of this…

-=Grim=-