Letters to the Editor
-
Superb
One-legged beauty reached up and found the rope that will lift her out of the zombie-fest. She left the blood splattered canvas and the body of one-time boyfriend created by Rodriguez to a serene land where they start a new life! Kurt Russell looked at the camera and smiled meaningfully before entering the "Death proof"! Then he drove the car and smashed up a girl in the passenger seat without seatbelts. Then he turned his headlights off and went to collide head-on with four more beauties in another car. A narcissistic treat! I did not even try to convince my girlfriend to watch this movie and she kept asking “how this meaningless violence can attract anyone?”. The same sentiment echoed by many in this forum. Movies like any other art form have a cyclic nature where if you push a particular expression a little further, the meaning completely changes. A good director can decide to amuse us, shock us, and evoke mixed emotions depending on the paintbrush and the colors he uses. This double-header took it to the next level where all the blood and flying limbs are simply entertaining. It is the absurdity that makes deliberately made-up B-movies entertaining to a group of trained audience. So, if you don’t like it, this genre is not for you! There is no shame, no crisis in your intellectual citadel that requires you to attack others who happen to like it for what it is. Let's not try to convert our taste to make movies that are universally liked.
-
My kind of chick flick!
The Rotten Tomato rating on this film is 83%, which is a sizeable positive rating. And while few people pay attention to critics anymore, they are for the most part on the money with this one. It has flaws. It ain't logical. It ain't well written in places. It does, however, have at least one thing that it does absolutely right. It lovingly re-creates the
grindhouse or drive-in experience, missing reels, bad sound and all. If you can't remember those days, a lot of this film is lost on you.
Both films are derivative. One's a zombie movie. The other is a female revenge fantasy. It's the over the top attitude that makes both work.
Both Tarantino and Rodriguez present really empowered women in their parts of Grindhouse. In Planet Terror, Rose McGowan goes from a directionless "exotic dancer" to an empowered survivor and leader. In Death Proof, it's true that some women get killed but they have no opportunity to defend themselves from an unexpected attack. They're not bimbos or stupid. They're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other women in the film who do get a chance to get their guard up, on the other hand, kick butt when given the chance.
Love this movie on multiple levels but it's not for everyone. It's not even for 70% of the populace. But for those of it is for, it is wonderful embrace of the trashy film we know and love.
-
What about the warm fannies?
Please people, please! You're dwelling on the wrong subject here!
Can we just get to the real point of the article, and that's the unfortunate use of a word to describe a woman's genitalia instead of the word 'arse'?
-
It didn't do well, and the debate is on.
Why didn't it do well? At Chicago Tribune, one blogger has an abcde thing going. The most common response is that it was released on Easter weekend, when most people have family stuff to do, and with it's 3 hour+ run time, it had fewer showings than Blades of Glory. Others think that people who actually watch these kinds of movies don't want them to intellectual/pop culture winks and comments, etc. Several HATED the car one, felt it was the L Word with a killer car, etc. The trailer came in for much scron, as well.
Others bet it will do better this weekend, when people won't have so many family duties.
Interestingly, there's a loud group out there who despised both movies. They don't seem to be here. I found that very interesting.
-
Ladies, ladies, ladies
This movie was chockful of women, some of them with missing legs, yes, but get this: a lot of the women in these movies aren't missing any limbs. In fact, I think I can remember only two women with missing legs in the entire three hours. One of them (Rose McGowan) puts her first fake leg through Quentin T.'s eye and saves the day with her second fake leg. The other (Sidney Poitier's daughter) loses a leg, but not before Tarantino treats us to a really nice long shot of her really nice long leg(s). So anyone who thinks these movies are demeaning to women because some of them lose legs, well, I say you're missing the big picture. I love women. Rodriguez loves women and Tarantino really loves them. And I think women trust these two directors. (I know I do; I personally don't go for these new horror film franchies like "Saw," "Hostel," and "Hills Have Eyes," mainly because their kiddo directors haven't earned my trust and I don't want just anyone making me squirm.) Rodriguez has had some of the most beautiful women in his movies, and they're all very strong, very sexy and very badass. Look at that posse from Old Town in "Sin City." Tarantino, that old softy, practically dedicates entire projects to women, something he started AFTER "Pulp Fiction," which makes "Pulp Fiction" a weaker movie. Pam Grier in "Jackie Brown," Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill." In "Death Proof," his muse du film would be Zoe Bell, a stuntwoman who was the double for Uma and Daryl Hannah. Did I mention that I now have a crush on a stuntwoman? Thanks to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, I'm going to go to bed tonight not having nightmares about zombies and icky stickies, and instead dreaming about Cherry Darling and Zoe Bell.