Grindhouse Movie Marathon Weekend

Saturday night the 7th I was lucky enough to have the Grindhouse experience at one of the most famous theaters in the U.S., the downtown Austin Alamo Drafthouse. The marathon started at midnight showing four different grindhouse (mondo) type of movies and then concluding with Grindhouse early Sunday morning. Ill be honest I had pretty high expectations in the programming since i knew it was going to be similar to the movies they show on Weird Wednesdays every week. As far as Grindhouse the movie the only thing I was skeptical of was Death Proof since all the marketing I had seen primarily focused on Planet Terror.

The first movie to kick it off was "The Boss" aka "Wipeout". This movie f-ing rocked. This is an Italian made mobster movie starring Henry Silva as the baddest hitman on the planet. The movie was friggin hilarious. The movie has a ridiculous plot about 3 or 4? mobster families that are in war with each other. The movie starts off with Henry Silva (Lanzetta) taking out a mobster kingpin at a movie theater with a grenade launcher. The rest of the family gets revenge by kidnapping the daughter of the mobster who ordered the hit. They want to exchange her for the main mobster. The hilarious thing about the movie is the daughter is a slut and loves the fact shes kidnapped and willingly screws all the men. Lanzetta finally betrays his boss and starts working for the Don. He breaks in and kills the captors and takes the girl as his sex slave. There is some hilarious dialogue between Lanzetta and his new slut that has to be seen to be believed.

The second movie of the night also ended up being a comedy called "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" featuring none other than a young David Hassellhoff as the character "Boner". The movie's thin plot is about Aloha high school thats morally corrupt, about to be closed down and the students are possibly going to be transferred to a rival school, Lincoln High. The Cheerleaders run the school and do everything in their power to keep Aloha High School alive and kicking. For example the school board inspectors come to the school and the girls drug the chili they are eating in hopes to persuade the board to approve of the school. Everyone gets high and there is a hilarious scene of everyone food fighting and spazzing out over all the drugs. Eventually the board runs into a huge orgy the cheerleaders are having with the jocks in the shower rooms and they join in. The movie is utterly ridiculous but somehow it keeps you hooked with all the shenanigans. There are two crazy dance scenes and a basketball game that is suppose to decide the fate of the school. My favorite scene of the movie is when David Hassellhoff is knocked out on the court and he is eventually revived when one of the cheerleaders removes her panties and waives them in front of his nose. He pops up and wins the game for the school. Stupid movie, stupid story but stupid fun.

After drinking some brew and watching these two movies i was spent. I knew that I needed to be awake for Grindhouse so I decided along with what I guess to be about 20% of the audience, slept through the next two movies. I tried to give the next movie "The Losers" a chance but it was too damn boring. After about 20 minutes i decided to go to Lala land. The movies plot seems fun but it didnt pan out in what i saw. It was about some biker gang that was recruited to go to Vietnam and rescue someone important. I woke up at the finale which was also boring and lackluster. The final movie was called "Poor Pretty Eddie" and it was an exploitation movie about a black singer that's broke down somewhere in the south and captured as a slave. The 30 minutes i saw before i passed out again looked like good fun. I wished I would have been able to finish that one. I guess ill Blockbuster it someday if it ever gets a dvd release.

Finally after a 30 minute breakfast break was the main feature: Grindhouse. It started off with a local trailer for a faux movie called Hobo With a Shotgun. It was pretty entertaining and gruesome. Props for whomever did that one. The next trailer was Rodriguez's Machete starring Danny Trejo. It was good fun and a great way to start the movie but im still not convinced as some suggested that it could be a full length movie. When Planet Terror starts its already firing on all cylinders. What can i say the movie has some great action sequences, good gore and some kick ass music. Rodriguez captured perfectly the feel of an early 80's action movie with better gore thrown in. The only complaint I had was the movie felt a little rushed at 80 minutes and I wished it had another 30 minutes or so to help flesh out some of the characters. Great fun and great first half of Grindhouse. The next intermittent trailer was Rob Zombies Werewolf Women of the S.S. Yawn, next! The trailer after it was by Edgar Wright for a horror movie called Dont. It was scary and funny at the same time. Finally the best trailer of the whole thing was Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. Its basically a 70/80's slasher movie showing most of the best parts. There is a scene with a cheerleader thats on a trampoline that has to be seen to be believed and felt!

After the trailers was Tarantino's Death Proof. After reflecting on this for a few days I'm dying to see Grindhouse again especially Death Proof. I loved the characters, I loved the story and I loved that it was filmed in my home town of Austin. When the movie starts off it shows the downtown Alamo Drafthouse which I was watching it in and the crowd went wild. I literally lived right up the street from Guero's where the first half of the movie was shot. If you don't know by now the movie is about a stuntman who stalks women and then tries to kill them with his car. This has probably my favorite acting by Kurt Russell of his whole storied career. Also all around great performances by the whole cast especially Zoe Bell and Rosario Dawson. Between this and Clerks 2 I think Rosario has turned herself into one of the most delicious actresses around. I heard complaints that there was too much dialogue which I would agree with if it wasn't so interesting. Not once did I look down at my watch and think "allright get on with it". By the time the first 5 deaths happen I was engrossed with the characters. The second half of the movie is more dialogue but also a lot more action. Im not a big fan of car action but I did enjoy what there was. When the extra final frame of the movie rolled immediately after the "The End" credit everyone roared with glee. It was a perfect ending to a great double feature that I recommend to any gore, action, thriller fan to see on the silver screen. I plan on seeing this at least once more before it hits on dvd. Its a crime that it only made 11 million on opening weekend while kiddy crap reigns supreme. Hopefully word of mouth will get around and more people will check it out. It definitely deserves it and once again it lived up to the hype. I give Planet Terror a solid 8, the trailers an 8.5 and Death Proof a solid 9, so overall i give Grindhouse an 8.9 out of 10.

Overall it was a great experience with some kick ass old school movies along with Grindhouse. The also gave out some awesome 27 x 40 double sided posters to everyone.