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Finally saw Planet Terror

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MonsterKid71	Finally saw Planet Terror	Lead	[-]
Posts: 110 (06/16/08 06:33:17) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Well the last 40 minutes of it........caught it on Starz last night........mucho stupid. It was kinda fun but then the whole over the topness to it all eventually ruined it for me. Typical Tarentino feel to it. Im glad I didnt pay money to see this......and thankfully I saw it on a weekend that Directv was airing all their movie channels for free as well. Anyone else dissapointed in this too?
Kester Pelagius		#1	[-]
Posts: 890 (06/16/08 09:58:52) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Actually PLANET TERROR was the one by Rodriguez. (If ever in doubt just remember that Tarrantino has a foot fetish and the opening credits of DEATH PROOF scrawl over a pair of shapely naked female feet propped up on a dashboard, whereas there's nary a naked female foot in sight in PLANET TERROR.) That said I, too, only recently just saw PT. For what it is, a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD knock-off, it's not too bad. However the two things that have always bothered me about this movies is 1) The title; 2) The stupid faux degraded film "SFX"; 3) I'm not old enough to have experienced the whole "grindhouse" thing first hand but, after seeing these movies, I am fairly certain I still haven't experienced it. First, the title. It's wrong. To mean that screams spaghetti space opera. To purposely omit "living dead" or "zombie" from the title of a zombie movie knock-off is just plain dumb. Then again I thought the PA setting we saw in the last few minutes was far more interesting than the entirely zombie crapfest that preceded it. But then I've never really cared for the zombie genre as a whole so take that with a grain of salt. Second, I don't know about you but I've been in a theatre where the film has bubbled and broken due to heat and no one ever propped up any sort of marque card from the management about missing reels. In fact they left us sitting there so long the entire theatre started to chant for the manager. He eventually showed up, or rather started to walk in, but that was when the chant turned to demands for his severed head, and he did an abrupt about face just as several drinks were hurled in his general direction. Third, the "SFX" designed to downgrade the look of the movies made me feel like what I was experiencing was the "shithouse cinema" experience. We had dollar movie theatres, which were where movies went for their last showing before going to celluloid heaven, and I can tell you they never EVER looked this bad. Some were a bit scratchy, sure, but I don't recall a single instance of missing reels or skips due to bad splicing. Not even the 16mm movies we had in school- and I saw the animated Lord of the Rings in 6th grade projected onto a school room wall!- looked this bad. The effect is way over exaggerated. I mean it, seriously, not even ROCKY HORROR looked . . Well, okay, bad example. Forget I mentioned it.
HombreLobo44		#2	[-]
Posts: 1522 (06/16/08 17:26:49) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I enjoyed Planet Terror. Fun little zombie flick with plenty of babes and cameos. I enjoyed the performances by Freddie Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, and Josh Brolin. Yes this is a bit over the top, but that doesn't kill the fun. My son didn't like it either. I too din't find the faux grindhouse experience all that enjoyable. I mean if a film is worn out and you're stuck seeing it in that condition, as was the case in the 70's, then fine. However, this element of the film; the degraded or choppy picture quality, soundtrack, missing scenes, etc. was really not all that necessary. Rather annoying actually. I remember we had two "grindhouses" in Elgin, Ill. when I was The Grove and The Crocker. These were the old single screen dirtholes that in their prime were probably beautiful places. By the time I was old enough to see films at these two places, the neighborhood was already getting seedy and what a shame. I saw Grizzly, Food of the Gods, Squirm, At the earth's Core, The Sentinel and even the premiere of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same at The Crocker. They even had the quad sound which made the experience as close as I'd ever get to seeing Led Zeppelin. These two places had the greasy floors, crappy popcorn and sticky seats we all now seem to wax nostalgically about. I personally don't think it was so much the building or the condition of the film, but the whole fact that i was going to see Beverly D'Angelo masturbate right in front of me during the The Sentinel (I know that sounds disgusting!). It was knowing that my mexican homie Tony Castro (who I went to school with from kindegarten through high school.) would be seeing worms poking through a man's head like a pasta maker in Squirm. We didn't have cable t.v. back then. No freakin' iphones or ipods or portable dvd players, the internet with it's cornucopia of illegal download sites as well as the legit ones. Nope all we had back then was the Friday newspaper ads and the cinema. It was an event! It was a huge part of my young life period. I don't feel that Tarantino or Rodriguez captured that spirit with Planet Terror or Death Proof. It's impossible to replicate! HombreLobo44
frankie marino		#3	[-]
Posts: 745 (06/16/08 19:27:28) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	i really like Planet Terror. it's something i can pop in whenever and watch. it is very over the top, but if you see it from the beginning, the over-the-topness works better. it's fast paced, gory and stupid. not exactly like the films it tries to imitate, but damn close i agree about the title. apparently the working title was Project Terror which sounds much better...but yeah, "dead" "zombie" or "cannibal" somewhere in the title would have been better But then I've never really cared for the zombie genre as a whole so take that with a grain of salt. you FUC-KING COMMIE!
Kester Pelagius		#4	[-]
Posts: 893 (06/17/08 07:39:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	frankie marino wrote: i really like Planet Terror. it's something i can pop in whenever and watch. it is very over the top, but if you see it from the beginning, the over-the-topness works better. it's fast paced, gory and stupid. not exactly like the films it tries to imitate, but damn close i agree about the title. apparently the working title was Project Terror which sounds much better...but yeah, "dead" "zombie" or "cannibal" somewhere in the title would have been better But then I've never really cared for the zombie genre as a whole so take that with a grain of salt. you FUC-KING COMMIE! PROJECT COMMIE TERROR Yeah, well, I've never really cared for cannibal movies either. If not for the nudity I probably wouldn't ever have watched any. I'd prefer straightforward jungle sleaze sans the macabre and gore. You know something like BLUE LAGOON or PARADISE with the nudity factor cranked up to 11. Say, that reminds me. . . Reason #4 for why Planet Terror was more "shithouse cinema" than a "grindhouse" moive: LACK OF NUDITY! That's probably a bit crude to say but it's true. The reason they were called "grindhouse" movies is because these movies were sexploitation sleazefests. Which isn't to say PLANET TERROR isn't a good movie, it has a nice 80s Drive-In feel, but it missed it's mark. It's not just the lack of nudity, witness the fact I didn't even think about that until now, but PLANET TERROR is one of those sub-genre of movies about strippers that don't get naked. To be fair this was also a gripe I had with INDEPENDENCE DAY. If you don't have the 'nads to film nudity, or your producers wont pony up the dough for your A-list celeb to take her kit off, either change the character's professions or find a B-movie starlet who will take her kit off! And, before anyone whines about McGowan being a Go-Go Dancer know this: Go-Go Dancers came in two primary varieties, those that danced topless and those that danced totally nude. The clubs used to compete for patrons based on how much flesh was shown.
bgart13		#5	[-]
Posts: 1540 (06/17/08 13:38:51) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	In defense of PT (stand back, Frankie!), I will say this. Rodriguez is not known for anything BUT going overboard. Therefore, his version of a drive-in/grindhouse movie is going to be outlandish and cartoony, even by the grindhouse standards. Look at every single movie he's ever done -- nothing understated in any of them. I think the title does live up to drive-in/grindhouse standards -- it promises a lot but doesn't live up to its name! I would also say that the battered quality of the print, cgi enhanced or not, actually helps PT significantly. Ben
frankie marino		#6	[-]
Posts: 747 (06/18/08 17:06:47) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	i agree 100% about the nudity, but then that's something missing from nearly ALL modern horror/exploitation films
Atomic Mystery Monster		#7	[-]
Posts: 911 (07/06/08 15:24:18) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The reason they were called "grindhouse" movies is because these movies were sexploitation sleazefests. Um...what? Where'd you get that idea from? While sexploitation films were indeed shown at grindhouses, the term refers to a variety of genres. Here's a quickie definition for ya. And as shown here (NSFW), even Three Stooges shorts can be considered grindhouse material! I think bgart13 is dead-on about the apparently overexaggerated scratches and the like being due to Rodriguez's style (Tarantino's no stranger to that, either). Then again, I do recall some comments in other forums about people seeing films in grindhouses that were in similarly rough shape, so who know? I also suspect that the "missing reel" cards were put in so that mainstream audiences wouldn't get confused. If it weren't for Rodriguez's claims of having the idea for the movie prior to the creation of Grindhouse, I'd assume the title was misleading on purpose. But to be fair, it's not like it'd be the first zombie film with an odd title that didn't hint at the undead (DR. BUTCHER, MD anyone? Or how about WILD ZERO?).
MonsterKid71		#8	[-]
Posts: 111 (07/08/08 12:37:56) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	But to be fair, it's not like it'd be the first zombie film with an odd title that didn't hint at the undead (DR. BUTCHER, MD anyone? Or how about WILD ZERO?). Good point!

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