Grindhouse presents "Planet Terror" (2007) Review

Grindhouse "Planet Terror" (2007), Robert Rodriguez
4/5

From the director that brought us the epic film Sin City (2005), this Grindhouse exploitation feature is a feast of gratuity and pays excellent homage to the grindhouse genre popular in the 70s. Set as a double feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007), Planet Terror is less about the plot than it is about an excess of gore, violence, sexual innuendo and melodrama. The cast is epic featuring Bruce Willis (Die Hard, The Fifth Element etc), Rose McGowan (Charmed, Deathproof), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men, True Grit, The Goonies), Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) and more. This film is all you could want from a gratuity stand point. The gore is oozy and fake looking, splattering everywhere to comedic effect. The performances are great, conveying a sense of irony to their cheesy and melodramatic overtones. The sexual innuendo is hilarious, over the top, and misogynistic. The plot is loose and nonsensical, remaking zombie films. In particular it is reminiscent of Land of the Dead (2005) directed by George A. Romero which itself, is a remake of his own previous zombie horror films. Grindhouse is about the experience of cinema, revelling in the history of film by including the 'previews' before the feature begins which are hilarious, the overall grainy quality of the visuals, and the crackles and pops that simulate the style of the old grindhouse cinema reel. Planet Terror (2007) even goes so far as to cut to a burning of film and a "missing reel" title page in the middle of a sex scene, which is hilarious and a take on the genre's controversy and inception as a type of filmic pornography in terms of the over-the-top violence, sex and nudity that was aberrant at the time and in the culture. The zombie elements are incredibly silly, as they are meant to be. The film is meant to be experienced and everyone should revel in this neo-grindhouse. It is ironic as it is a high quality production of a low quality genre. The classic moments in this film are too many to note, but this film is highly enjoyable and should be watched with lots of other people and as a back-to-back double feature alongside Deathproof.  The films even have some cross-over elements and characters. Also look out for Tarantino playing a misogynistic soldier and some actual shots of 'real' exploitation films on tv screens in the background.