Grindhouse (film)

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Grindhouse
Grindhouse theatrical poster
Directed by	Planet Terror: Robert Rodriguez Death Proof: Quentin Tarantino Fake Trailers: Edgar Wright Eli Roth Robert Rodriguez Rob Zombie
Produced by	Elizabeth Avellan Erica Steinberg
Written by	Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino
Starring	Rose McGowan Freddy Rodriguez Josh Brolin Marley Shelton Michael Biehn Kurt Russell Rosario Dawson Vanessa Ferlito Jordan Ladd Sydney Tamiia Poitier Tracie Thoms Zoë Bell
Music by	Robert Rodriguez Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino
Editing by	Robert Rodriguez Sally Menke
Distributed by	Dimension Films The Weinstein Company
Release date(s)	April 6, 2007
Running time	Planet Terror: 80 min. Death Proof: 90 min. Total: 191 min.[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$53,000,000 [2]
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Grindhouse is a 2007 film. In North America, the film is presented as a double feature of two full-length segments, one being a zombie film, Planet Terror, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the other being an action film, Death Proof, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, with faux trailers advertising fictional films preceding each segment (actually short films since the movies they advertise don't exist). In much of the rest of the world, the film will be split in two and each feature will be released separately.^[3][4]

Contents 1 History and development 2 Production 2.1 Musical score 3 Planet Terror 3.1 Plot 3.2 Cast 3.3 Soundtrack 4 Death Proof 4.1 Plot 4.2 Cast 4.3 Soundtrack 5 Faux trailers 5.1 Machete 5.2 Werewolf Women of the S.S. 5.3 Don't 5.4 Thanksgiving 5.5 Hobo With A Shotgun 6 Critical Reception 7 Grindhouse split controversy 8 Sequel possibilities 9 References 10 External links

[edit] History and development

The idea for Grindhouse came to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino when Tarantino would set up screenings of double features, complete with trailers preceding and between the films. "[Tarantino] would have some trailers and a movie, and then some more trailers and a second movie," remembers Rodriguez. "I thought, 'We have to re-create this experience for people and show them a double feature like this.' The double feature just came to mind [from] us wanting to re-create that experience."^[5]

The film's name originates from the American term for theaters that would play "all the exploitation genres: kung fu, horror, Italian horror—also known as giallo—sexploitation, the "good old boy" redneck car-chase movies, blaxploitation, spaghetti Westerns—all those risible genres that were released in the 70s."^[6] According to Rodriguez, "The posters were much better than the movies, but we're actually making something that lives up to the posters."^[5]

Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror during the production of The Faculty. "I remember telling Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett, all these young actors, that zombie movies were dead and hadn't been around in a while, but that I thought they were going to come back in a big way because they’d been gone for so long," recalls Rodriguez. "I said, 'We've got to be there first.' I had [a script] I’d started writing. It was about 30 pages, and I said to them, 'There are characters for all of you to play.' We got all excited about it, and then I didn't know where to go with it. The introduction was about as far as I'd gotten, and then I got onto other movies. Sure enough, the zombie [movie] invasion happened and they all came back again, and I was like, 'Ah, I knew that I should've made my zombie film.'" The story was reapproached when Tarantino and Rodriguez developed the idea for Grindhouse.^[5]

During the time Planet Terror began to come together, Tarantino developed the story of Death Proof. Tarantino was fascinated by the way stuntmen would "death-proof" their cars so they can be driven headfirst into a brick wall at 60 mph and still protect the driver—as long as he's in the driver's seat. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car.^[5] Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you."^[6]

According to Rodriguez, "[Tarantino] had an idea and a complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He started to tell me the story and said, 'It's got this death-proof car in it.' I said, 'You have to call it Death Proof.' I helped title the movie, but that's it."^[5] Of the car chases, Tarantino stated, "CGI for car stunts doesn't make any sense to me—how is that supposed to be impressive? [...] I don't think there have been any good car chases since I started making films in '92—to me, the last terrific car chase was in Terminator 2. And Final Destination 2 had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every time a stunt happens, there's twelve cameras and they use every angle for Avid editing, but I don't feel it in my stomach. It's just action."^[6]

[edit] Production

Rodriguez began filming Planet Terror in Austin, Texas, in March 2006. Director Tarantino began filming Death Proof in August 2006. The first ever footage was shown at 2006's Comic Con and then was aired a few months later, on October 10, 2006, on Spike TV's Scream Awards. Rodriguez and Tarantino were also honored with awards.

Quentin Tarantino attempted to cast both Kal Penn^[7] and Sylvester Stallone^[8] in Death Proof, but both were unable to work due to prior commitments.

Originally, Rodriguez and Tarantino had planned to make all of the film's fake trailers themselves. According to Rodriguez, "We had so many ideas for trailers. I made Machete. I shot lobby cards and the poster and cut the trailer and sent it to Quentin, and he just flipped out because it looked so vintage and so real. He started showing it around to Eli Roth and to Edgar Wright, and they said, 'Can we do a trailer? We have an idea for a trailer!' We were like, 'Hey, let them shoot it. If we don't get around to shooting ours, we'll put theirs in the movie. If theirs comes out really great, we'll put it in the movie to have some variety.' Then Rob Zombie came up to me in October at the Scream Awards and said, 'I have a trailer: Werewolf Women of the SS.' I said, 'Say no more. Go shoot it. You got me.'"^[5]

During editing, Tarantino and Rodriguez came up with the idea of inserting "missing reels" into the film. "[Quentin] was about to show an Italian crime movie with Oliver Reed," Rodriguez recalls, "and he was saying, 'Oh, it's got a missing reel in it. But it's really interesting because after the missing reel, you don't know if he slept with a girl or he didn't because she says he did and he says that he didn't. It leaves you guessing, and the movie still works with 20 minutes gone out of it.' I thought, 'Oh, my God, that's what we’ve got to do. We've got to have a missing reel!' I'm going to use in it in a way where it actually says 'missing reel' for 10 seconds, and then when we come back, you're arriving in the third act. [...] The late second acts in movies are usually the most predictable and the most boring, that's where the good guy really turns out to be the bad guy, and the bad guy is really good, and the couple becomes friends. Suddenly, though, in the third act, all bets are off and it's a whole new story anyway."^[5]

Grindhouse is rated R in the United States for strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use. On March 15, 2007, The New York Post reported the film may require heavy and extensive cuts in order to avoid an NC-17 rating.^[9] Shortly after, the film officially received an R rating from the MPAA. According to Ain't It Cool News, only minimal cuts were made which ended up totaling 20 seconds according to Tarantino.^[10]

[edit] Musical score

Rodriguez revealed at Comic-Con 2006 that inspiration for his score came from music composed by John Carpenter. Rodriguez said that during the filming of Planet Terror, Carpenter's music was often played on set.^[11]

[edit] Planet Terror

[edit] Plot

In a rural Texas town outside of Austin, go-go dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) decides to quit her low-paying job and find another use for her talents. As Cherry meets up with her ex-boyfriend, El Rey (Freddy Rodriguez), at JT's grill, a barbeque restaurant owned by JT Hague (Jeff Fahey), a group of government officials led by the deranged Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis) are disturbed to learn that a group of psychotic zombie-like creatures - Sickos - have broken free of their cages and are already infecting the rest of the town. When the poisonous gas that causes victims to turn into the zombies is released into the night air by their business associate, Abby (Naveen Andrews), the entire world is now at risk of infection. The infected townspeople are treated by Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) and Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), an unhappily married couple who fail to treat the Sickos' infection quickly enough to prevent an epidemic.

While driving home, El Rey and Cherry are attacked by Sickos. Cherry has her leg severed and is near death while El Rey escapes with minor injuries. Sheriff Hauge (Michael Biehn), JT's brother, fearing that El Rey is a threat to the general public, arrests him shortly before the victims of the poison mutate into Sickos. Meanwhile, Doc Block, realizing that Dakota was planning to run off that night with her lesbian lover, Tammy (Stacy Ferguson), whom the Sickos had killed earlier, plans to kill her, but is called to treat more patients before he is able to do so. Dakota flees the hospital and, through a series of violent accidents, manages to reach her home and rescues her son, Tony, as his crazy babysitters (Electra and Elise Avellan) chase them off into the night with shovels. As for Doc Block, he is attacked by the zombie of the first infected patient he treated, Joe (Nicky Katt), with a bone cutter. However, the cutter becomes unplugged before any harm comes to William, so Joe infects the doctor instead by smearing rotting flesh and pus all over the left side of his face.

Cherry, using a wooden post for a leg, flees the hospital with El Rey, killing many Sickos along the way. They eventually arrive at JT's grill, where they gather weapons and prepare for the crusade against the Sickos. Meanwhile, Tony accidentally blows his face off with Dakota's gun and Dakota is reunited with her father, Earl McGraw (Michael Parks). As El Rey and Cherry begin to make love, one of the film's reels is misplaced and several plot turns are missed; the grill is now burning to the ground, Sheriff Hauge has been critically injured and Dakota has arrived at the grill with the others. They flee the area and head towards the Mexican border, killing several Sickos before being stopped by the government officials, led by Muldoon, who mow down a line of Sickos and then arrest the rebels.

The rebels learn that the government agents are attempting to liquidate the entire area, hoping to stop the spreading disease. As Cherry and Dakota are kidnapped by two Rapists (Quentin Tarantino and Jason Douglas), the others defeat the prison guards and search for Muldoon. El Rey and Abby ultimately find him and learn that he killed Osama bin Laden shortly before the events of the film. Rather than being rewarded for killing him, Muldoon and his men are repayed with a faceful of DC2 (the deadly poison), which they must now inhale in small quantities with the use of gas masks in order to sustain the rapid mutation. As Muldoon's supply of the poison depletes, he begins to mutate into a Sicko and is killed. Cherry and Dakota then kill the transforming Rapists before El Rey replaces her broken wooden post with a custom-made M4 carbine assault rifle, which she promptly uses to defeat the remainder of Muldoon's men and clear the area of Sickos.

The others locate two helicopters that they plan on using to escape. In the final battle, both Hauge and JT sacrifice themselves by destroying the building they were in and Abby has his head blown off while the others easily defeat the remaining Sickos. Amidst the warfare, Doc Block returns and is gunned down by Dakota's father, while the helicopter pilot uses the helicopter's blades to butcher the other Sickos. While saving Cherry from a Sicko, however, El Rey is also shot to death, and the remaining survivors flee in the helicopter and take refuge in Tulum, Mexico, where a new society begins and Cherry (with a minigun replacing her M4) gives birth to El Reys's daughter.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Rose McGowan	Cherry Darling
Freddy Rodriguez	El Rey
Josh Brolin	Dr. William Block
Marley Shelton	Dr. Dakota McGraw Block
Jeff Fahey	J.T. Hague
Michael Biehn	Sheriff Hague
Rebel Rodriguez	Tony Block
Bruce Willis	Lt. Muldoon
Naveen Andrews	Abby
Julio Oscar Mechoso	Romey
Stacy Ferguson	Tammy Visan
Nicky Katt	Joe
Hung Nguyen	Dr. Crane
Tom Savini	Deputy Tolo
Carlos Gallardo	Deputy Carlos
Skip Reissig	Skip
Electra Avellan	Crazy Babysitter Twin #1
Elise Avellan	Crazy Babysitter Twin #2
Quentin Tarantino	Jones the Rapist
Jason Douglas	Lewis
Michael Parks	Earl McGraw
Jerili Romero	Ramona McGraw
Felix Sabates	Dr. Felix

[edit] Soundtrack

Grindhouse: Planet Terror
Soundtrack by Robert Rodriguez
Released	April 3, 2007
Length	43 min.
Label	Varèse Sarabande

The soundtrack to Planet Terror was released on April 3rd from Varèse Sarabande, though the score managed to sell on iTunes a week early.

1. Grindhouse (Main Titles) - (Robert Rodriguez)
2. Doc Block - (Robert Rodriguez & Carl Thiel)
3. The Sickos - (Robert Rodriguez & Graeme Revell)
4. You Belong to Me - Performed by Rose McGowan (Pee Wee King, Chilton Price & Redd Stewart
5. Go Go Not Cry Cry - (Robert Rodriguez & Rick Del Castillo)
6. Hospital Epimedic - (Graeme Revell & Robert Rodriguez)
7. Useless Talent #32 - Performed by Rose McGowan (Rebecca Rodriguez & Robert Rodriguez)
8. His Prescription... Pain - (Robert Rodriguez & Carl Thiel)
9. Cherry Darling - (Robert Rodriguez)
10. The Grindhouse Blues - (Robert Rodriguez)
11. El Wray - (Robert Rodriguez)
12. Police Station Assault - (Robert Rodriguez)
13. Dakota - (Robert Rodriguez & Carl Thiel)
14. Zero to Fifty In Four - (Robert Rodriguez)
15. Fury Road - (Robert Rodriguez)
16. Helicopter Sicko Chopper - (Graeme Revell & Robert Rodriguez)
17. The Ring in the Jacket - (Robert Rodriguez & George Oldziey)
18. Killer Legs - (Robert Rodriguez & Rick Del Castillo)
19. Melting Member - (Graeme Revell & Robert Rodriguez)
20. Too Drunk to Fuck - Performed by Nouvelle Vague (Jello Biafra)
21. Cherry's Dance of Death - Performed by Chingon (Robert Rodriguez)
22. Two Against the World - Performed by Rose McGowan (Rebecca Rodriguez & Robert Rodriguez)

[edit] Death Proof

[edit] Plot

The film begins with three friends, Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd) and radio disc jockey Jungle Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier), wandering around Austin, Texas on Julia's birthday. To celebrate, the girls go to Guero's Mexican restaurant for margaritas and the Texas Chili Parlor for some ice-cold Shiner beer. Over margaritas, Julia tells Arlene that earlier that day she made a radio announcement, promising any boy who calls Arlene "Butterfly" and recites her a segment of poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening will be given a free lap dance. Meanwhile, Pam (Rose McGowan), a childhood enemy of Jungle Julia's, is also at the bar, eventually encountering Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a body double for Hollywood Action films.

The girls go through the day without any offers, but Mike eventually lets on that he knows about the challenge and recites the poem. After getting the lap dance (which is omitted from the film due to a "missing reel"), Mike offers to take Pam home in his black 1971 Chevy Nova SS, a special vehicle he claims to use specifically for filming action sequences that has a "skull" logo painted on the hood adapted from the "skull" logo used in the Kung Faux television series . However, Mike is soon revealed to be a homicidal maniac who takes great pleasure in killing young women on the road. First, he brutally murders Pam by swerving aggressively to injure and frighten her, and then accelerating rapidly and braking hard, which leads to a deadly impact with the unpaved dashboard in front of her. Next, he crashes into the other three girls (along with Jungle Julia's pot dealer, Lanna Frank (Monica Staggs), whom they met up with at the bar) at a combined speed of two hundred miles per hour, resulting in a gruesome, violent death for each girl, shown in slow motion four times, with the camera focusing on each death in turn (Shanna is thrown out of the car and breaks her head across the highway; Lanna Frank is penetrated by the steering wheel; Jungle Julia's right leg is hacked off as she's crushed by the car; and Arlene has her face ripped off by Pornstar Mike's tires).

Mike only suffers minor injuries, however, and because the girls were driving while intoxicated, he is cleared of all charges, much to the chagrin of Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (Michael Parks), who knows that Mike is guilty of "vehicular homicide." He then moves to Tennessee, eventually targeting Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), and Kim (Tracie Thoms) and Zoë Bell, a group of women working below the line in Hollywood. Kim, Abernathy and Zoë eventually take a 1970 Dodge Challenger on a test drive, during which Zoë plays a dangerous game which she calls "Ship's Mast", lying on the front windshield as Kim drives the car far at high-speed. Mike, in his "new" 1969 Dodge Charger, chases after them, repeatedly crashing into their car and nearly killing Zoë multiple times.

After an extensive chase, Mike congratulates the women and prepares to leave, only to be shot by Kim (who shoots at him several more times as he flees). Zoë, thought killed when she was flung from the car's hood into the weeds, turns out to be alive and unharmed (foreshadowed earlier in the film when Kim described her taking a long and dangerous fall without injury). His illusions of invincibility shattered, Mike is reduced to tears while sterilizing his wound with Four Roses bourbon and taking a few drinks to calm his nerves (earlier in the film, he claimed to be a teetotaler in order to win Pam's trust). The girls decide to take revenge, chasing him on the country road and crashing into him before violently beating him in the face with a metal pipe. After another extensive chase sequence, Mike's car flips over and the girls drag him out of the car, violently punching and kicking him in the face many times before Abernathy finally crushes his head in with a kick.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Kurt Russell	Stuntman Mike
Rosario Dawson	Abernathy
Vanessa Ferlito	Arlene
Jordan Ladd	Shanna
Rose McGowan	Pam
Sydney Tamiia Poitier	Jungle Julia Lucai
Tracie Thoms	Kim
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	Lee Montgomery
Zoë Bell	Zoë
Omar Doom	Nate
Michael Bacall	Omar
Eli Roth	Dov
Quentin Tarantino	Warren
Monica Staggs	Lanna Franks
Michael Parks	Earl McGraw
James Parks	Edgar McGraw
Tim Murphy	Bartender
Marta Mendoza	Sonia
Electra Avellan	Crazy Babysitter Twin #1
Elise Avellan	Crazy Babysitter Twin #2
Marley Shelton	Dr. Dakota McGraw Block
Jonathan Loughran	Jasper
Tina Rodriguez	Juana Pelamela Vatos
Kelley Robins	LaQuanda

[edit] Soundtrack

Grindhouse: Death Proof
Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released	April 3, 2007
Length	35 min.
Label	Maverick Records
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link

The soundtrack was also released on April 3 from Maverick Records. It also includes trademark audio snippets from the film.

1. "The Last Race" — Jack Nitzsche
2. "Baby, It's You" — Smith
3. "Paranoia Prima" — Ennio Morricone
4. "Planning & Scheming" — Eli Roth & Michael Bacall
5. "Jeepster" — T. Rex
6. "Stuntman Mike" — Rose McGowan & Kurt Russell
7. "Staggolee" — Pacific Gas & Electric
8. "The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)" — Joe Tex
9. "Good Love, Bad Love" — Eddie Floyd
10. "Down In Mexico" — The Coasters
11. "Hold Tight" - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
12. "Sally and Jack (From the Motion Picture Blow Out)" — Pino Donaggio
13. "It's So Easy" — Willy DeVille
14. "Whatever-However" — Tracie Thoms & Zoë Bell
15. "Riot In Thunder Alley" — Eddie Beram
16. "Chick Habit" - April March

[edit] Faux trailers

Before both segments there will be trailers advertising fake films. According to Rodriguez, it was Tarantino's idea to film fake trailers for Grindhouse. "I didn't even know about it until I read it in the trades. It said something like 'Rodriguez and Tarantino doing a double feature and Tarantino says there's gonna be fake trailers.' And I thought, 'There are?'"^[6] The Canadian theatrical release includes the SXSW winning faux trailer Hobo with a Shotgun.

[edit] Machete

In an interview with Danny Trejo, the actor said that he will be in a fake trailer for a movie called Machete. It was later announced that the trailer will be made as a direct-to-DVD feature film.^[12] This continues a theme for Trejo's characters in Rodriguez movies who often have knife-like names, such as Razor Charlie in From Dusk Till Dawn, Razor Eddie From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, Navajas (Spanish for knives) in Desperado and Machete in Spy Kids.^[13] Rodriguez wrote Machete in 1993 as a full feature for Trejo. "I had cast him in Desperado and I remember thinking, 'Wow, this guy should have his own series of Mexican exploitation movies like Charles Bronson or like Jean Claude Van Damme.' So I wrote him this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, 'That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts.' But I never got around to making it."^[6]

Actor	Role
Danny Trejo	Machete
Jeff Fahey	The Well-Dressed Man
Cheech Marin	Father Benicio Del Toro

[edit] Werewolf Women of the S.S.

Rob Zombie contributed a faux trailer called Werewolf Women of the S.S., featuring Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu, Udo Kier as SS officer Franz Hess, and Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, and Sybil Danning as SS officers/sisters Eva (The Black Widow of Berlin) and Gretchen Krupp, along with wrestlers Andrew Martin and Vladimir Kozlov, and Olja Hrustic, Meriah Nelson, and Lorielle New as the Werewolf Women. According to Zombie, "Basically, I had two ideas. It was either going to be a Nazi movie or a women-in-prison film, and I went with the Nazis. There's all those movies like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS; Fraulein Devil; and Love Camp 7—I've always found that to be the most bizarre genre."^[6]

Actor	Role
Nicolas Cage	Dr. Fu Manchu
Udo Kier	Commandant Franz Hess
Sheri Moon	Eva Krupp
Sybil Danning	Gretchen Krupp
Bill Moseley	Dr. Heinrich von Strasser
Tom Towles	Lt. Boorman
Andrew Martin	Nazi Stormtrooper
Vladimir Kozlov	Nazi Stormtrooper
Olja Hrustic	Werewolf Woman
Meriah Nelson	Werewolf Woman
Lorelle New	Werewolf Woman

[edit] Don't

Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright contributed a trailer called Don't, a 1970's Britsploitation meets Mondo trailer.^[14] The trailer features appearances from Jason Isaacs, Matthew MacFadyen, singer Katie Melua, Georgina Chapman, Emily Booth, Stuart Wilson, Lucy Punch, Wright regulars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and a voice-over by Will Arnett.^[15] According to Wright, "In the '70s, when American International would release European horror films, they'd give them snazzier titles. And the one that inspired me was this Jorge Grau film: In the UK, it's called The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. In Spain and in Italy, I think it's called Do Not Speak Ill of the Dead. But in the States, it was called Don't Open the Window. I just loved the fact that there isn't a big window scene in the film—it's all based around the spin and the voiceover not really telling you what the hell is going on in the film."^[6]

Actor	Role
Jason Isaacs	Bearded Man
Matthew MacFadyen	Hatchet Victim
Katie Melua	Brunette with Hatchet Victim
Georgina Chapman
Emily Booth
Stuart Wilson	Old Man
Lucy Punch	Running Blonde Woman
Simon Pegg	Cannibal
Nick Frost	"Baby" Eater
Will Arnett	Announcer

[edit] Thanksgiving

Eli Roth contributed a promo for the slasher opus Thanksgiving, starring Jeff Rendell as the villainous Pilgrim, Jordan Ladd, Jay Hernandez, and Roth himself as his intended victims, and Michael Biehn as the Sheriff. According to Roth, "My friend Jeff, who plays the killer pilgrim—we grew up in Massachusetts, we were huge slasher movie fans and every November we were waiting for the Thanksgiving slasher movie. We had the whole movie worked out: A kid who's in love with a turkey and then his father killed it and then he killed his family and went away to a mental institution and came back and took revenge on the town. I called Jeff and said, 'Dude, guess what, we don't have to make the movie, we can just shoot the best parts.'"^[6] The design for the titles in Thanksgiving were based on a Mad magazine slasher parody entitled Arbor Day.^[6] The trailer has also been compared to the slasher-flick Halloween, and has been called a parody of the film in several reviews.

Actor	Role
Jeff Rendell	The Pilgrim
Liliya Malkina	The Grandmother
Kevin Wasner	The Turkey Pilgrim
Mike McCarty	The Rioter
Michael Biehn	The Sheriff
Mark Bakunas	The Deputy
The Klando Majorettes	Screaming Girls
Vendula Kristek	The Cheerleader
Petr Vancura	The Boyfriend
Jordan Ladd	Judy
Eli Roth	Tucker
Jay Hernandez	Bobby
Dan Frisch	The Human Turkey
Chris Briggs	The Vomiting Cousin
Karel Vanásek	The Grandfather
Katherin-Ellen Zabehlicky	The Granddaughter

[edit] Hobo With A Shotgun

The Canadian release of Grindhouse also featured a faux trailer for a film titled Hobo With A Shotgun. The trailer is the winner of Robert Rodriguez's SXSW Grindhouse Trailers contest and was created by Dartmouth, Nova Scotia filmmakers Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill, and John Davies. Outside of the Canadian release, the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX also features Hobo With A Shotgun in screenings of Grindhouse.

Actor	Role
David Brunt	The Hobo

[edit] Critical Reception

Grindhouse opened on April 6, 2007 to mostly positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly awarded the film an "A" rating, praising it as a" crazily funny and exciting tribute to the grimy glory days of 1970s exploitation films" that "will leave you laughing, gasping, thrilled at a movie that knows, at long last, how to put the bad back in badass." ^[16] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also awarded the film a perfect rating, commenting that "by stooping low without selling out, this babes-and-bullets tour de force gets you high on movies again." ^[17] Popular critic James Berardinelli also enjoyed the film but was not as positive as other critics. Awarding the film three stars (Out of four), Berardinelli found the film to be "cinema as an expression of pulp with attitude... [Rodriguez and Tarantino] are speaking from the hearts... but that doesn't mean everyone sitting in the theater will get it." ^[18]

Several critics, however, were not amused by the film's graphic and comical violence. Larry Ratliff of San Antonio Express-News noted that "this ambitious, scratched and weathered venture never manages a real death grip on the senses."^[19] Similarly, Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews was unimpressed, writing that the film is "as much fun as being in a car crash" and found the features to be little more than "pointless kid fantasy films." He awarded the overall film a C-, eventually noting that, while Planet Terror at least "caught the spirit" of the genre, Death Proof was "a complete misfire" filled with "long-winded banter that a grindhouse viewer would never sit through back in the day."^[20] This opinion was shared by a number of other critics; Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle awarded the film a high rating, but noted that: "the Rodriguez segment is terrific; the Tarantino one long-winded and juvenile."^[21] The film ultimately scored an 83% "Certified Fresh" rating on popular website Rotten Tomatoes, earning an average grade of 7.4/10 and recieving almost the same score from the "Cream of the Crop" critics.^[22]

Grindhouse opened poorly^[23] with "a disappointing $11.5 million"^[24] for an underwhelming per-theater average of $4,417, with box office analysts originally predicting an opening weekend total of at least $20-$30 million.^[25][26] The opening weekend box office total stood below not only the second weekends of Blades of Glory and Meet the Robinsons, but was also below the opening weekend of Are We Done Yet?. In an attempt to explain Grindhouse's disappointing opening weekend, box office analyst Brandon Gray suggested that Grindhouse "suffered the usual horror comedy dilemma that afflicted Snakes on a Plane and Slither among others: too funny to be scary, too scary to be funny."^[23] Box office analyst Lee Tistaert of popular tracking website Lee's Movie Info compared the result with what may have happened if Tarantino's Kill Bill saga had been released as one film, instead of two seperate volumes. "Is it possible that Tarantino got his wish this time as a result of two back-to-back $60 million grosses?" he asked. Others attributed its position to the film's opening on Easter weekend and noted that, while the film played strongly on both East and West coasts, it did poorly in the South and Midwest.^[27]

[edit] Grindhouse split controversy

During the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, Glen Basner, responsible for international releases for The Weinstein Company, made clear that the film would be split in two in non-English speaking countries. The films would be called Grindhouse: Planet Terror and Grindhouse: Death Proof, and will be released approximately 2 months apart.^[28] The faux trailers for Death Proof will be directed by Rodriguez, while those for Planet Terror will be by Tarantino. No mention was made of the trailers by Roth, Wright, or Zombie.^[29][30] European fans of Tarantino have expressed their outrage in film forums and with online petitions, with many suggesting they will boycott the films, or possibly illegally download them.

While The Weinstein Company has stated that the film will be split because non-American audiences have no experience with the concept of double features, many European fans see it as an attempt to increase profits by forcing audiences to pay twice for a film that is shown as a single entity in the United States.^[31]

[edit] Sequel possibilities

Both Rodriguez and Tarantino have said that they are interested in making a sequel to Grindhouse.^[32] Tarantino said that he wants to shoot an "old-school Kung Fu movie in Mandarin with subtitles in some countries, and release a shorter, dubbed cut in others" for his segment.^[33]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Movie Website
• Grindhouse at the Internet Movie Database
• Grindhouse Review FilmJerk.com. Edward Havens, March 29, 2007. Positive review of the film.
• Grindhouse Review OhmyNews International. Brian Orndorf, April 5, 2007. Positive review of the film.
• Set pics on JoBlo.com
• IGN: Grindhouse Trailer, Videos and Movies
• Official pictures on EW.com
• Grindhouse at Rotten Tomatoes
• Review at Dread Central
• Grindhouse Review at About World/Independent Film
• MoviesForGuys.com Review
• Rolling Stone magazine interview with Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright
• L.A. Weekly round table discussion with Tarantino, Rodriguez, and veteran filmmakers of original grindhouse movies
• Quentin Tarantino in LA signing copies of the Death Proof soundtrack April 10th
• Grindhouse at BeenToTheMovies.com (Preview, Trailer, Gallery)

Films written and directed by Robert Rodríguez
Bedhead • El Mariachi • Roadracers • Four Rooms • Desperado • From Dusk Till Dawn • The Faculty • Spy Kids • Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams • Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over • Once Upon a Time in Mexico • Sin City • The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D • Grindhouse • Sin City 2

The films of Quentin Tarantino
Directed: My Best Friend's Birthday • Reservoir Dogs • Pulp Fiction • Four Rooms • Jackie Brown • Kill Bill • Grindhouse • Inglorious Bastards • The Vega Brothers Written: True Romance • Natural Born Killers • From Dusk Till Dawn