Grindhouse is more than a trashy tribute to the sex and violence of '70s exploitation flicks, said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. 'œIt's the war cry of two rebels out to restore rude, crude vitality to a cookie-cutter film industry.' The movie is actually a double feature. The first film, Planet Terror, is directed by Robert Rodriguez, the second, Death Proof, by Quentin Tarantino. What unifies the directors is a mission to evoke the scratched-up screen and smelly atmosphere of the cheap theaters that dotted the nation before being taken over by sterile multiplexes. The film's print appears to be peppered with holes and to be missing reels, and even contains several short parodies of coming-attractions trailers, made by other directors. Each movie offers 'œa veritable smorgasbord of decapitations, impalings, attempted rapes, car chases, explosions, good and bad acting, and well-endowed women in very short shorts,' said Lou Lumenick in The New York Post. Planet Terror, a gloriously splashy take on zombie films, follows a steamy Rose McGowan as she fights off pustule-covered monsters with her machine-gun prosthetic leg. Death Proof delivers some of Tarantino's best dialogue since Pulp Fiction, along with a sublime car-chase scene starring Zoe Bell, the best stuntwoman in the business. Grindhouse is glamorous and fun, but by its third hour you'll surely be shifting in your seat, said Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post. As one over-the-top spectacle gives way to another and another, it becomes clear that Grindhouse is designed more for the amusement of its directors than its audience.
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