"It's blood." "... son of a BITCH."

GRINDHOUSE.

Wow.

...

Wow.

Thanks to my comic store, I went to go see a special sneak preview last night. And let me tell you, I'm still thinking about it. For a movie that many will think of (and will still find) all superficial schlock and action, I found GRINDHOUSE to be an utter geek feast, something that I and my friends (and Mom) will be talking about for weeks to come.

Movie audiences will likely prefer Robert Rodriguez's PLANET TERROR, while snobby film critics (me included) will probably prefer Tarantino's DEATH PROOF. I'm still not certain if it was the right or wrong thing to put DEATH PROOF at the end, after a good hour and a half of non-stop parody/homage/over-the-top action and fun. DEATH PROOF is much, much more talky, much more slowly paced, and I could easily see impatient people walking out, or just tuning it out from sheer exhaustion after the earlier stuff.

As Devin on CHUD.com suggested, Rodriguez has made an over-the-top fever dream approximation of everything people think of when they think of grindhouse movies. Tarantino, on the other hand, just went ahead and actually made a pretty straight-forward grindhouse film. His is easily the more challenging film, and certainly has its own flaws, but I personally do think it's the superior film, ending the movie of a richly satisfying note.

spacechild said that he would probably sooner pop PLANET TERROR on DVD rather than DEATH PROOF, which makes perfect sense; PLANET TERROR is non-stop badassery geek crack fun, and totally awesome in every respect. But DEATH PROOF is not for the short of attention. It's a film that takes it's sweet time, and often goes on and on in scenes, making you wonder why we're seemingly spending soooo much attention to these girls and their conversations, especially considering what the hell might have just happened. And then, BAM! Only BAM! isn't a strong enough word, but it'll have to do.

Because I don't want to spoil anything. The less you know going into this film, the better. Just go. Bring caffeine, make sure you don't have to hit the bathroom, and settle in. Go with your best geek friends and find a packed theatre house with the biggest screen possible.

I'll tell you this. I'm fucking seeing it again this Friday. I was so busy laughing or gasping or cheering, there was so much that I missed the first time around.

I'll share my actual thoughts on the cast and other such things later on, posting instead what my well be the greatest movie review I've ever read.

( From aintitcool.com, here's Neil Crumpston's take on GRINDHOUSE... )

Devin on Jason

CHUD.com is doing a film-by-film examination retrospective over the entire FRIDAY THE 13TH film series. At the end of the first installment, Devin Faraci wrote:

In a lot of ways Friday the 13th is The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings trilogy of Jason movies that would follow (Parts 2, 3 and 4 all take place over the course of about 24 hours). The first Friday establishes the world and the basic template, but the mythology really starts to grow in the films to follow. Actually, the Friday films most closely follow the Star Trek model – the first one is sort of ponderous and not exactly what you’re hoping for when you watch it now, while the next three are pretty terrific and tell one long story. Then there’s a fifth film that is like a smack in the face, a sixth that’s a return to greatness, and then a bunch of sequels featuring characters and concepts you don’t even recognize anymore. Also, there end up being space ships.

And this is why, even though Devin is an insufferable, smug, condescending, arrogant ass half the time, I keep reading CHUD.com. Even when he's not right, which is often (and his comparison of the Jason movies to the Trek films is not entirely accurate, but not entirely inaccurate either), he's almost always entertaining.

Even when they're totally wrong, I love geek-think when it's on a roll like this.