Hey folks, Harry here with the spottiest frickin' wifi in and out signal known to man. Third attempt to post this - I've no idea if it'll work this time. I'll be working up my review soon - still waist deep on the move. GRINDHOUSE is a fucking blast! Here's Donut Boy
Call me Donut Boy. My friend does PR for Vanessa Ferlito and that's how I got my ticket to the Premiere of Grindhouse in Austin, TX. I got to the theater about an hour early and before I walked to my seat, I stopped by and said hi to Harry who was very friendly and even introduced me to his fiancee. I got to my seat which was right smack in the center of the theater on a row that was reserved for the actors in the movie. Kurt Russell, flanked by two gorgeous girls sat down next to me. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino took the stage to a thunderous roar and began to introduce the film. They mentioned that the film has already screened in LA, but they were really more psyched to screen it here in Austin because first, they don't like watching movies with agents, and all those other suits and second, the films were done here in Austin and they purposely put in a lot of very Austin items that were sure to please the crowd. They even went on to tell us to cheer loudly and have a great time. Then before leaving the stage, Tarantino got us doing a pretty good cheer-off. The first trailer starts and it is immediately grainy like it has been shown a thousand times. This sets the tone for the entire film which I wasn't at all expecting. The trailer for the first for a film is called "Machete." This trailer is hilarious and obviously paying homage to those seventies gore fests. Danny Trejo plays a hired assassin who gets framed for a crime and then goes after the bad guys. The plot seemed similar to that new Marky Mark flick (Shooter?) and although I haven't seen it yet, the trailers do seem similar. Picture Trejo driving a motorcycle with a large machine gun canon mounted between the handlebars. The Audience is cheering and clearly ready for more. Robert Rodriguez's feature "Planet Terror" is next and this one pays tribute to early zombie flicks. I really enjoyed Freddy Rodriguez in this one. He is so talented and gets the best lines in the film. Rose McGowan didn't really do it for me, although she is really hot, even with one leg. There is anappearance by John Mclaine, I mean, Bruce Willis and he is essentially playing the same tough guy from all of his tough guy movies. Nothing to impressive really. The overall plot was fairly predictable and I found myself getting bored with parts. One memorable moment happened right before Freddy and Rose's characters were about to have sex, the scene changed to a message saying "Missing Reel" which had us all laughing because we missed a memorable sex scene. I guess this was a common thing back in the seventies when reels went missing. Wow, that must have been frustrating. There were some very gross scenes which had us all cheering and some very cool action. After this one ended, the audience buzzed for a bit and then a few more trailers. Only one of the trailers really stood out for me. It was called "Thanksgiving" and was about a guy who chops people's heads off during Thanksgiving. There were scenes with cheerleaders about to make out with their boyfriends and their boyfriends get their heads chopped off. In one scene a cheerleader goes down on a guy in the back of a car and then looks up to see his head missing. It had the audience roaring with laughter. The final scene (i swear to god) had the killer having sex withsome one's decapitated head in the SNL "dick in the box" way. I couldn't believe this movie wasn't rated X. I looked over and Kurt Russell was laughing pretty hard, so I guess it was okay. The final film and the highlight for me was Quentin Tarantino's film "Death Proof." This one had Tarantino's name written all over it. Its about a former stunt man who kills people with his car. Tarantino sets up the victims in great Austin locations with dialog reminiscent of Pulp Fiction and really gets us to like them before they are killed. And when they are finally killed, boy do they die violently. He definately didn't hold back when doing the death scenes and had all of us holding our hands to our faces like "did that just happen?" I was really pissed off actually when the first batch of victims die because Tarantino spent so much time making us like them and then so quickly kills them. This ended up being great for the revenge that takes place later and I really give Tarantino props for doing a good job playing with our emotions. Kurt Russell's performance was spot on and I really enjoyed watching him work his magic. Apparently he enjoyed watching himself too because every time I looked over at him he was laughing and smiling. The other performance that stood out for me was Zoe Bell who played this Australian stunt driver who ends up in the most ridiculous car chase scene while she is holding on to the hood of a car. She had a really likable personality, great lines and by the end of the film, I was cheering really loudly for her. At the end of the film, the main characters get revenge and I've never heard a movie theater audience cheer as loud as they did that night at the paramount. It was the most satisfying ending of any movie I've ever seen. Better than Darth Vader admitting toLuke that he was his father, better than Old Yeller dying, better than Gweneth Paltrow's head in a box from Seven, ... you get the picture. I was really surprised that Robert Rodriguez (whom I really like) agreed to do a double feature with Tarantino. Quentin's film was much stronger and I enjoyed it so much more that I kind of felt bad for Rodriguez. Rodriguez's movie on its own would've been fine, but back to back with Tarantino, he's out matched. I would highly recommend Grindhouse. Peace out - Donut Boy.
