The commercial for this film, with the "Borg-ified" amputee woman firing a machine gun where her leg used to be, looks so ridiculous and over the top that I just might want to see this. Kurt Russell looks like he's having a ball.

They had a screening at Lincoln Square tonight for it, Adam. I would've told you, but shortly after assigning 50 passes to me, they then took me off the assignment.

The New York Post reported that (married with children) Robert Rodriguez and (unmarried) Rose McGowan began an affair on the set of this movie. More here.

The article won't load but I guess this would explain why I heard that him and his wife are getting divorced.

I don't know why it didn't load for you, Brian. It did just fine for me. Maybe it's your browser...
Maybe Robert Rodriguez should have cast Heather Mills as Cherry, instead of Rose McGowan. After all, she's already lost the leg...

N.Y Post review. Three stars, mostly for the segment Death Proof. (Hope this one loads.)

Grindhouse did a bit poorly in its opening weekend, with $11.6 million gross, placing it fourth. Maybe it was the holiday weekend that gave it a poor opening, or its three-hour-plus running time that scared people away, I don't know. A critic from one local paper implied that it was a bit sacreligeous to open a (violent) film like Grindhouse on Good Friday. I did notice, however, that the syncophatic TV critics labeled no criticism (repeat: none) about HBO premiering the first of the final nine episodes of critical darling The Sopranos, a series where the (violent) lead character will kill anyone at the drop of a hat, on Easter Sunday.

I think it was a little bit of both. I wouldn't have minded seeing it, but it's hard to squeeze in three hours of one's time on a holiday weekend.

Unfortunately, many people left after Planet Terror, not realizing that it was a double feature, and thus missed what many consider to be the superior of the two films.

Also the long running time can hurt the movie in that they will loose 1 show per day when compared to a normal 2 hour movie. With 1 fewer showing you loose some of the people who just show up to the theater and see something that's starting around that time.

I just saw it yesterday and loved it. Kinda hard to pick nits in a film that purposefully put in bad splices, film artifacts and a plot so crazy it's not supposed to make sense.

Also loved the fake movie trailers. One was directed by Rob Zombie. "Warewolf Women of the SS," it features Zombie's wife Sherry and a really funny cameo by another star.

Fun experience.

There are four fake trailers. Rodriguez himself does Machete, a spoof of the Desperado genre with Danny Trejo as Machete. This features a fun cameo by a Rodriguez regular as a priest. Then we have Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the SS," which is a little too over the top, but has a hilarious cameo that Brian alluded to. The intentionally jokey trailer "Don't" comes next (the joke becomes a little too obvious at the end, but it's still funny). Then, Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving," which is eerily reminscient of old '70s horror trailers (love the deadpan narrator).

As for the films...

"Planet Terror" is the more entertaining experience. Things happen all the time and there is a rich cast of strange people. There's all out action, zombies, military conspiracies, and go-go dancing. As someone noted, Rodiguez is doing more a parody of the genre than a homage (as Tarantino does), so the film is short on making sense and long on zombie movie cliches. It's hard to hate a film like this that features Rose McGowan's iconic machine gun/bazooka leg, the character of "El Wray" (or whatever his name is), and tranquilizers...lots of tranqs. There is a particularly funny scene involving a "missing reel," which eliminates a racy sex scene and an important explanation as to who Ray actually is. Tarantino has a particularly disgusting cameo, BTW.

Quentin's film is odd. It's done straighter than Rodriguez's and "Death Proof" comes off almost as an oddball exploitation film. It follows the model: party girls at the beginning have randy escapades and then are killed brutally. Cycle begins anew with a hitch. However, being Tarantino, it comes off as more hip dialogue than set-up, and the beginning is reaaally slow. One may fidget quite a bit at the beginning of this film and it is a better time for a bathroom break than during the faux trailers at intermission. Unlike Rodriguez, Tarantino does quite a bit of set-up so that we will understand the characters as people and not stick people. Kurt Russell is great. Once the final chase begins, we have an impressive action sequence that's a lot of fun to watch for the stunts. The twist is a touch obvious in retrospect, but it's good fun and the incredibly cheesy ending kept me laughing for a few good minutes.

While Death Proof isn't as fun, the climax is terrific. There also are little touches for people paying attention: a character from "Kill Bill" makes a surprise appearance. "Characters" from Planet Terror appear...sort of (my favorite was the doctor still wearing the same name tag on her jacket that she had in the first movie). One wishes Tarantino pared down his film though; it's about the same length as Rodriguez's, but with only 1/3 the action.

Grindhouse performed exceptionally poorly over this weekend, coming in 10th place with a $4.24 million gross. Its total box office to date is some $19 million. It's poor performance may lead to Dimension breaking up this pic, and releasing its two halves separately (I've heard rumors to this effect.) Maybe the enormous rainstorm in the eastern U.S. had people stay away from the movies.

Is there any truth to the rumor that a direct-to-DVD sequel is in the works, and that it will feature a storyline based on the Machete "trailer"?

That's what I've been hearing.

Death Proof, IIRC, played at Cannes this year as a stand-alone feature. Meanwhile, Kurt Russell has gone on record to state that there probably will never be another cinematic experience like Grindhouse again, and that people will regret not seeing it. I kind of agree with him, as I never did get around to seeing it in a theater. It just disappeared so bloody fast.

Despite Grindhouse being split into two for its DVD release, I think it will run on the Starz cable TV channels as one film. Try this for more information.

Actually, it's now playing as two separate movies. Planet Terror premiered March 1, and Death Proof debuted March 8. If you have "Starz On Demand" (our cable company doesn't even offer it), you can see the theatrical version now.

Death Proof loses points for me, due to the (minor Spoiler) trashing of two 1960's classic (and irreplacable) Mopar muscle cars - a Dodge Challenger and a Dodge Charger. A classic car is a terrible thing to waste. I know it was a plot point to wreck the cars, but I hope the producers used replicas. (When a Tucker was trashed in the 1988 movie Tucker, it was a replica.)

Well, it would've had to have been, since there are only 47 still in existence.

Still love this movie. Wish they would have released it as a double feature on DVD. Also it's a shame that they lost money on it and won't be making any more. Before it had come out they were talking about making another one, or a spin off. Rodriguez even briefly discussed doing a direct to DVD release of Machete, starring his good friend Danny Trejo. Rob Zombie spent a weekend shooting his "Werewolf Women of the SS" and apparently had enough footage for like 40 minutes of story and was disappointed that he didn't get to finish it. Although with the way that the direct-to-video market is these days perhaps Zombie and Rodriguez could get some low-rent distributor to pony up a few million for them to actually finish those films, in true Grindhouse, low budget, exploitation quick and dirty style.

Then we have Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the SS," which is a little too over the top, but has a hilarious cameo that Brian alluded to.

Mike, if you think that was over the top, I suggest checking out this title from 1975 "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" Zombie's obvious inspiration for his trailer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilsa,_She_Wolf_of_the_SS

I finally saw Death Proof yesterday, months after I saw Planet Terror. It's a shame I missed these in the theater since I bet I would've enjoyed the experience.

Anyway, one nit I noticed, though this may have been intentional given the nature of the films. In the first part of Death Proof, the girls have hit their second bar (the one Tarantino's character runs). They all take a shot, one which "Butterfly" has trouble finishing, and she puts down her glass. The shot changes and she puts it down again.

Rodriguez even briefly discussed doing a direct to DVD release of "Machete", starring his good friend Danny Trejo.

Rodriguez is making Machete, for a 2010 theatrical release. With Danny Trejo (of course) and Rose McGowan repeating her Planet Terror role of Cherry (hopefully with the machine gun leg.) More here.

Machete is due to be released September 3, 2010. Look here at the casting; it's all over the place. Robert DeNiro. Lindsay Lohan. Steven Seagal. Don Johnson. Danny Trejo. And of course, Rose McGowan as Cherry. What was the casting director smoking?

Ed Harris over at "The Agony Booth" takes on Death Proof. You can read it here. (And Ed, if you read this, Machete was more than "sort of okay.")

Planet Terror and Death Proof can be streamed separately on some free channels. (The Roku Channel being one of them.) But, I believe the three-hour version of Grindhouse is, as of now, unavailable to stream.

When they were released on DVD, they were also released separately.