Grindhouse (2007)

continued...

... your laughs and screams out from the coming attractions, part two of our Double Feature, Death Proof, starts.

Death Proof is certainly a far departure form the zombie horror you just saw. We get lots of hot chicks jawing to Tarantino dialogue. Ummm...it's kind of a turn on. We meet three women. Jungle Julia (Sydney Poitier) the hottest radio DJ in Austin, TX, Shana (Jordan Ladd) it Shana Banana not Shawna Banona, and their friend from out of town Butterfly(Vanessa Ferlito). They're out for a hot time, but Butterfly seems haunted by an ominous presence in the form of a scary looking black Dodge Charger with a skull and cross bones painted on the hood. Butterfly finds out Julia told all of Austin that she was in town and if a certain poem is said when a guy buys her a drink she has to give said guy a lap dance. Turns out the guy that gives Butterfly a drink and recites the poem is none other than the man who drives the scary car...Stunt Man Mike (Kurt Russell). Sticking to the crappy feel of Grindhouse, the missing reel contains the lap dance, and we're offered the apologies of the management. Boo. The girls take off to a lake house and are followed by Stunt Man Mike, who turns out to have been following them. He passes them on the road, turns around and rams their car head on demolishing all four women in the car. Demolishing isn't the word to use, when you see how these girls get destroyed...you're jaw drops to the floor, left stuck in a sticky old puddle of soda. It's fucking gruesome. Skip to part two and he's stalking four new girls. The new girls (Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell, and Tracie Thoms) are all in the movie biz, two of which are gear heads and decide to play some road games in a borrowed Dodge Charger that is twin to the original muscle car in the film "Vanishing Point." Here comes Stunt Man Mike, but is seems he's met his match. These ladies fight back. What follows is the world's best car chase scene. About 15 minutes of nitrous charged auto magic, ending in the caving in of Stunt Man Mikes skull with someone's boot heel. The End.

The entire film runs about 3 hours. But is totally worth the numb bum. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Roderiquez nail the genre. Planet Terror is Robert's masterpiece and Death Proof belongs to Quentin. They may be completely opposite subject matter, but absolutely belong together in this 180 minute mash up. The films are currently separated sans previews on DVD, which brings a tear to my eye. All we can do is hope for a Grindhouse DVD release. Until then you can see each film in it's entirety with missing film reels. That's right; Butterfly's lap dance has been restored. Ha-cha.

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