Planet Terror versus Death Proof

i think we did. on the grindhouse thread.

bah, my bad....

The trailers win anyway.

Don't remind me about the trailers. I'm still pissed that Machete was the only one to make it to either DVD. Of course, I'm sure Tarantino is saving them all for some super-deluxe action-packed DVD to come out in three years, but I'm still sick of waiting for the Kill Bill super-deluxe.

Well I'm not a big fan of

There was an error parsing the BBcode in your post: Unable to insert reply
Possible contributing factor: Not a poll

The trailers win anyway.

-- Eric H., Wednesday, November 14, 2007 3:16 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

otm

"It's..blood!?"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UH3ihpscL8M

they're working on a feature-length Machete, aren't they?

Oh sure, they actually follow through on my least favorite trailer.

the 30-minute "Werewolf Women of the SS" NEEDS to make it to DVD

OMG that trampoline!

more like trampoline, amirite? amirite?

"Thanksgiving" is my favorite trailer. It reminds me of a trailer for this early 80's slasher flick called Screamtime that was on an old faded copy of <i>Alligator</i> I saw when I was a kid.

the 30-minute "Werewolf Women of the SS" NEEDS to make it to DVD

Cosign and then some.

For the purposes of this thread, "Planet Terror" by a mile...

I loved the "Machete" trailer! I saw "Grindhouse" when I was back in the States at a drive-in North of San Diego, and there was lots of whooping when the V.O. boomed "They just fucked with the WRONG Mexican!" It was great.

The Edgar Wright one for "Don't" was very funny, too (riffing on the trailer for the old Italian slasher flick "Torso").

But I have a real soft-spot for the trailer to the Dean Learner production of Garth Marenghi's "Bitch Killer," which totally nails it!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06al10MconQ

Did you guys get the trailer for "Hobo With A Shotgun" when you watched it?! I heard it was someone from Canada, so I am not sure if they showed that one south of the border, bu it was FANTASTIC! Weirdly, it was sandwiched between "real" trailers before the film! It was truly insane and made the Grindhouse experience so much better (made it worse: REALLLLLY needing to pee from the start... slipped out during the start of Death Proof).

My fave trailer was definitely "Don't," and my favourite flick was definitely Planet Terror. The "Reel Lost" joke stuck WAY better in that film, and felt more "real" (comes back and characters are inexplicably added, etc). Although I didn't have a crush on Rosario Dawson until DP.

I will continue to be the lone ILX voice saying that they preferred death proof.

i thought death proof came out way on top in the original thread?? anyway yr definitely not alone in that.

the real competition is the 'thanksgiving' trailer v death proof

planet terror has more joeks, death proof seems more rewatchable

russell's transformation at the end of death proof is way way funnier than anything in planet terror

Planet Terror was pretty lame.

planet terror never gets as boring as death proof but it also never reaches the peak that death proof hits in the twenty or so minutes before the switch to the second group of girls or during the car chase at the end.

They both have certain flaws.

but fuck robert rodriguez anyway, the guy is a really lousy filmmaker

right, planet terror is never boring & death proof is in pretty long stretches but its also not at all memorable

why would flicks intended to emulate grindhouse cinema need to be memorable?

Of the two, the one that I'd like to watch again is Death Proof. Planet Terror was kind of a funny-once.

also it was awesome seeing them on tuesday. for 5 bucks i got two movies in the theatre! and for 2 bux more i smuggled in delicious candy.

i do like how the structure of the song 'hold tight' mimics the structure of 'death proof'.

vice versa, i guess

yeah i dont disagree w/ you will, planet terror is truer to form; just dont see why that makes it a better movie

it's more entertaining, smarter, funnier, etc.

why does a movie being memorable make it better?

compare the "lol ur gonna get raped" pay off in Planet Terror and the one in Death Proof (does the director cut say whether or not Mary Elizabeth Winstead wound up getting molested or not?).

The movie where QT gets his dick melted off and his eyes gouged out is inherently better than the one where he gets to have women talk about his record collection.

Barney: Hey Homer, didn't you say that if Duff Dry wins,
your daughter loves you?
Homer: Not Duff Dry. Washington!
Barney: Okay, okay. They're both great teams.

It doesn't have to be more memorable if its more exciting, but when its neither, than what the fuck is it.

I've had people (most notably my gf) tell me that a movie where women have interminable conversations punctuated by an overlong car chase sounds better than a zombie free-for-all, but then they're the kind of people who don't go see Grindhouse. People who DO go see things like Grindhouse, I dunno why they'd prefer DP.

(hyuk hyuk).

i sat thru the entire credit sequence because i was sure theyd reveal the answer to that one at the end, dc.

will m i really dont know how to answer yr question; i mean - for the same reason that memorable things are generally better than forgettable things?

i agree that pt was more entertaining & more laughs were to be had there, but not about the 'smarter' part. and if those first 2 are the criteria on which we judge movies then like its all comedies & stuff which is dumb.

entertaining doesn't mean its dumb, it just means it holds and rewards your interest.

Just saw Planet Terror. It was pretty fucking tedious. I don't really get how people can enjoy a load of dumb hamming for the entire length of a feature film. Some of the actors were charming enough (most weren't), but Rodriquez brought nothing but broad parody to the whole project.

Death Proof, on the other hand, I wasn't particularly looking forward to, but it really won me over. Smart. Artful. Thrilling, properly thought-out action. Characters drawn with love. The best kind of pastiche - making something genuinely new and standalone-great at the same time as paying tribute to your heroes. No, it wasn't perfect at all (Tarantino's voice coming through too much at times, and the girls leaving their friend behind with a potential rapist was wtf) but compared to Rodriquez's one-joke shlock? Please.

Seriously, if you prefer Planet Terror I am tempted to think you're a fucking moron. I know you guys aren't, so I'm just left admitting defeat on understanding the world, part #351564.

it can do that through involving dialogue, insightful characterization or a fat guy falling down the stairs, all are valid.

x-post "properly thought-out action."

slap it on the box!

I seem to have a compulsion to type Rodriguez's name with a q in place of an g. JUST TO ANNOY HIM.

You know, like action that's actually directed to be thrilling rather than just a joke.

rose mcgowan shouldn't be allowed to deliver dialogue, ever. she's really awful.

what did QT bring aside from broad parody to Death Proof? is one-joke (questionable enough) shlock better when they put no-joke parts in it? And is it paying tribute to your heroes just because you repeated have characters say the words "dirty mary crazy larry"?

I really liked her delivery of the "eating shit" line!

xpost

"just a joke" seems to be the biggest complaint about Planet Terror. Probably should have put some parts in that weren't funny (or much of anything) to make people feel better.

meh, let her pole dance for 90 min and i'm cool with it. she's just so awkward trying to have a simple dialogue scene though.

planet terror wasn't that funny a joke. it was alright.

i wonder why as tarantino gets older he feels the need to make less interesting films and why few people notice how awful the writing is in those diner scenes, especially the second one. loved the car chase stuff though!

Da Croupier, there's seriously no part in my trying to do this. Partly because we obviously have no point of connection at all, and partly because I'm not very good at analysing why something is well directed. Pacing, dialogue, interaction betweeen characters, play upon expectation, fucking great car chases. All that shit. That's the best I can do.

as an aside, most of the people I know that greatly preferred Planet Terror weren't very familiar with the source material (which, no matter what people think, is not classic 70's grindhouse, but the 80's Return of the Living Dead style stuff). To me, it was just a literal tribute to that, which is fine and all, but I'd rather watch, well, Return of the Living Dead. I kept having to correct peoples perception that it was a hilarious parody of b-movies by informing them that the humor in it was exactly the same as the movies they thought it was making fun of.

I don't know, my ex-gf (who I saw it with) looooves that 80s Return of the Living dead stuff and she loved PT, and hated DP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPFsIh0hhrc

if only this was properly thought out!

i wonder why as tarantino gets older he feels the need to make less interesting films and why few people notice how awful the writing is in those diner scenes, especially the second one. loved the car chase stuff though!

totally otm, though I got tired of the car chase scene when they had a clear chance to GET ZOE OFF THE HOOD OF THE CAR WHILE KURT WAS DELAYED and instead they kept driving. even THAT got too long for me.

x-post i'd think of it as a Carpenter tribute more than parody, right down to the music. it doesn't really parody the violence in those 80s films so much as self-consciously grand guignol the whole thing.

Death Proof all the way

planet terror never gets as boring as death proof but it also never reaches the peak that death proof hits in the twenty or so minutes before the switch to the second group of girls or during the car chase at the end.

My favourite non-action section in Death Proof is when the second group first turn up. I really adored that bit at the store and parking lot. The girls, the B&W reel, the camera angles, the shots through Russell's camera. There was some really great music playing too. I loved that they were just hanging around, and yet there was enough happening at the right times to make it utterly compelling to me.

John Justen otm.

I preferred Death Proof because of Kurt Russell, mostly. I'll just watch Re-Animator or something instead of Planet Terror (though I did like it, just not as much).

Also the DC of Death Proof is far superior to the theatrical version. Haven't watched the DC of Planet Terror tho.

Is the DC of Death Proof what we got in Europe with the standalone releases, or is it different again?

"I'll just watch the originals" makes sense as a criticism of BOTH movies, one reason I prefer the one that truly gets shits'n'giggles about being a retread. I don't think Robert Rodriguez has made anything on the level of Tarantino's earliest stuff,, but comparing their 00s films I get more of a sense that RR just LOVES trash and wants to serve it up piping hot while QT wants you to watch him rub his dick all over his movie collection while moaning their names and playing their soundtracks.

QT wants you to watch him rub his dick all over his movie collection while moaning their names and playing their soundtracks.

WORST POTENTIAL DVD BONUS FEATURE EVER

That's probably true, but I'd still have more fun rewatching Death Proof than Vanishing Point or whatever.

I've actually never seen the Death Proof reference points, though I've seen plenty of the PT ones, mainly cuz I'm not a classic car enthusiast. But I've been meaning too, I trust QT's taste in other films.

i would just like to reaffirm that I know my then/than and to/too, I'm just a shitty proofreader on here.

Probably should have put some parts in that weren't funny (or much of anything) to make people feel better.

You're being snarky, but that's pretty much true. Changing the rhythm, dialing it back, etc. would have given the movie a little more traction with me - it was kinda like morning zoo radio where assholes just keep trying to top each other with being the wackiest dude out there.

Rodriguez couldn't do that, of course, because he's a big ol' hack.

If hack actually means anything, it doesn't mean him. He's a comic book director, but one with values, craft and a temperament I enjoy. It's obvious that just about everything he's done (except maybe From Dusk Till Dawn) was a labor of love and genuine enthusiasm. Which is part of what makes him possibly my favorite comic book director in an industry chock full of them right now.

QT is more than a comic book director, though, which is why I really wish he'd put down the bong and stop making mixtapes.

'a (director) producing dull, unoriginal work' fits well enough to me

so basically any hollywood director whose work you don't enjoy is a hack. got it.

They're both sort of failures in a way. Rodriguez probably thought he was making a bad movie and didn't completely succeed. Tarantino thought he was being sneaky and making a great film and mostly didn't succeed.

They're both enjoyable, but I can't imagine either working outside the double feature context.

Death Proof for me, definitely.

I'm a big QT fan, unapologetically so. (That sounded lame, but I don't quite know how else to explain it.) For me Death Proof was moviegoing heaven: a 1970 Dodge Challenger, Kurt Russell, beautiful strong women, incredible stunt driving and AWESOME car chases...I don't understand what's not to love! At the end of the movie when the girls are kicking Stuntman Mike's ass, I was practically on my feet. I haven't had that much fun at a movie in ages.

i liked them both a lot

...and the winner is Machete. No wait, Thanksgiving.

as an aside, most of the people I know that greatly preferred Planet Terror weren't very familiar with the source material

My experience = 100% different

Smart. Artful. Thrilling, properly thought-out action.

My experience = 100% different

just watched the DVD of Death Proof last night and my opinion remains unchanged - altho it worked better when the lapdance "reel" was cut altogether. DP is more true to its source material, if that counts for anything - oddly QT notes in one of the extras that the big inspiration for Planet Terror and the films they were all referencing while making it were Carpenter's 80s trilogy, the idea being that Planet Terror was the movie Carpenter should've/could've made between the Thing and Escape from New York. (If that is indeed the case two things spring to mind: 1) Carpenter is not 70s grindhouse, and 2) he always wrote better characters than anyone in Planet Terror)

I actually preferred Planet Terror. It was campy and hilarious and also maintained the same pitch all the way through, whereas Death Proof's act break kind of threw me. Naveen Andrews' frantic scramble on the pavement for testicles kills me just to think about.

I loved both of them though, and am in love with Zoe Bell (who apparently was going to be on LOST at some point this season, before the WGA strike came down).

^^^

Death Proof... saw it last night... very disappointed, it seems like people sit around having very boring conversations for a-a-a-a-a-a-ages. The car crash was G*R*A*T*E, though, but not enough to make up for the tedious build-up.

The second reel had us screaming "Stuntman Mike, come and kill them and save us from this boredom!"

Just saw Death Proof yesterday. Twas ok...the cheerleader was hot.

Does anyone know the music plaing in Russell's car at the convenience store at the beginning of the second section? sounded amazing.

There is a lot of great music in that awful film, but I cannot remember the tune you mean... it wasn't Jeepster by T-Rex? No, that was earlier.

i liked Death Proof, probably won't ever see Planet Terror altho gun-leg is a cool idea

Kurt Russell is so great in this. I wish people wrote better scripts for him.

Saw Planet Terror for the first time this weekend. It was funny and also kind of unnecessarily gross.

Still prefer Death Proof

Good man

good question. when i initially saw them both (in the theater), i liked death proof, especially its second half, and close to hated planet terror. death proof starts badly and drags through a LOT of painful dialogue, but the best bits - those involving kurt russell and the two stuntwomen - are fantastic beyond words. planet terror seemed like a lame, smarmy, fake horror flick. but i've genuinely enjoyed planet terror on two subsequent rewatches, and death proof's problems only become more apparent. i still like DP better. the car chase that closes it is reason enough, one of the best action scenes of the last couple decades. starting to get the hang of rodriguez' style, though. his shit is fake and corny, but taken on those terms, entertaining as hell. loved machete to death.

I will admit the part of my annoyance with Planet Terror was completely unrelated to the movie; the remote for our home theater fell in between the sofa cushions and somehow managed to hit a setting that muted all of the dialog. Because of the way the movie was shot, we thought this was intentional for about fifteen minutes.

Many of the issues I had with PT grossness isn't the stuff you'd necessarily think I'd have a problem with; for example, Fergie didn't bug me but the entire thing with the medical examination of the dude who got bitten totally did (Plus it was inconsistent! How come Josh Brolin's character could get face-spattered with goo during that examination and not go zombie, but when the same dude later smears more goo on him it's like OH NOES I'M A ZOMBIE NOW? And why were some of the people shambling cannibalistic terrors and others were lucid melting freaks?)

One thing I had a MASSIVE issue with that I think we can all agree on was Quentin Tarantino's melting cock. That was maybe the most unnecessary thing I've ever seen on film.

In the plus column, Rose McGowan with a gun for a leg was extremely funny and the blonde doctor was consistently great throughout the movie.

did you seriously just fact check plot inconsistencies in a "let's make a B movie on purpose and having missing reels and nonsensical shit happening all over the place" movie?

Yes, I did. No, I am not missing the point; if these things get in the way of enjoying the movie, they weren't executed correctly.

For example, Josh Brolin magically appearing for a final showdown despite there being no rational reason for him to be anywhere near that base didn't bother me, and neither did Rose MacGowan's magic gun leg. The "zombies" being two completely different things depending on what scene they were in was really fucking annoying, though. It's possible some handwavey explanation was given during the scenes where we had accidentally muted the dialogue, in which case I am clearly talking out of my ass. but ultimately I do actually have the right to decide how far I am willing to suspend disbelief and no amount of intentional suckage excuses making something that sucks.

the way I see it they can only get in the way of your enjoying the movie if you're actively expecting it to make more sense than it by design probably will not

i mean of ALL the movies to have that kind of complaint about!

so basically I should enjoy something that I would normally find stupid and distracting because hey, it's on PURPOSE!

There is a reason I watch MST3K, and it is to make fun of shit like Planet Terror.

You have the logical acumen of a houseplant.

I'm not telling you how to feel or to enjoy something you don't, I'm just saying Planet Terror is maybe not a movie worth being pedantic about, maybe? Somebody back me up here?

So you are ignoring the bigger problem I had with the movie (that is was unnecessarily gross and not fun to watch at times) in favor of the aside I made for the smaller problem I had with the movie (it aped the plot inconsistencies of its source material too well, making me think more about plot mechanics than just enjoying the story) as a means for calling ME out as pedantic?

Do you even think before you comment on these things or do you just see certain posters' names and instantly go into attack mode?

if it really really bugs you, by all means, let it bug you. but complaining about it on a public forum with zero apparent hesitation or self-consciousness is not that far from earnestly noting production errors on Blazing Saddles or something.

i don't know who DJP is, but sure, something about it triggered a deep psychological reaction in me, that's the only way i could object to the content of your posts, sure.

Planet Terror is a stupid, oddly joyless movie

I wouldn't call it joyless, at least not when Rose McGowan starts kicking ass with her pegleg; pretty much every action sequence involving her is nonstop hilarity, as is Six Feet Under dude's death march through the hospital. Unfortunately, the death march is only about 2 minutes long and Pegleg McAsskicker doesn't material until the final quarter of the movie.

Planet Terror rules

grrr materialIZE

I like it way more than Death Proof but I don't know if I loved every minute of it enough to defend or even watch it all the way through again

One thing I had a MASSIVE issue with that I think we can all agree on was Quentin Tarantino's melting cock. That was maybe the most unnecessary thing I've ever seen on film.

I would argue that all QT performances where he isn't being gouged in the eyes while his dick melts have been less necessary than his performance in Planet Terror by definition.

I would argue that you are insane, and also as a corollary: GROSS

Director's cut additions to Death Proof don't help it (except for the quick shot of Mary Elizabeth Winstead singing). Takes a slow but well-paced movie and makes it drag IMO.

Planet Terror was terrible and I never want to see another Robert Rodriguez movie.

I enjoyed Planet Terror, I think they did a good job with the schlockiness, and it was a lot of fun to see it in the cinema...though I haven't watched it again, even though we have it on DVD. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. Giving Rose McGowan a gun for a leg was pretty genius, because it totally distracted me from hating her like I usually do.

Death Proof is my favorite though, hands down. I didn't find the dialogue boring...if anything I took a perverse enjoyment out of how long QT spent with the girls at the Alamo, only to kill them all on the highway to the tune of Dave Dee Dozy Beak & Titch. Just the Kurt Russell + omg totally sweet cars! + Zoe Bell + tough chicks combination really did it for me. Right in my wheelhouse (no pun intended). It was all I could not to leap out of my seat and starting cheering on the movie when I saw it at the cinema. And even watching the DVD over and over again, I don't get tired of it. So yeah. It was okay I guess :)

ugh Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch. :(

Abby: You killed Bin Laden?
Lt. Muldoon: I put two in his heart, one in his computer.
El Wray: So that was you.

Bruce Willis was probably my favorite part of Planet Terror. (That and Rose McGowan mowing down zombies with her leg.)

tbf death proof did seem better when i saw it in a bar in the afternoon rather than after Planet Terror and a bunch of fake trailers full of non-stop awesome

in that sense maybe Death Proof is more faithful to the genres of movies that look great playing in the background of self-styled dives

I first saw Death Proof completely in isolation on a random cable channel and thought it was great from the get-go; the pace drag of the opening half just felt RIGHT somehow; getting to know those girls and their random personality quirks only to have them all get suddenly massacred by Kurt Russell was very satisfying from a storytelling standpoint for me, and the resulting come-uppance from the second group of girls was IMMENSELY satisfying given the amount of time spent on them and how it was laid out that these were some bad-ass ladies who weren't going to be rolled as easily as the first group.

death proof 1st act > planet terror > death proof 2nd act, which is annoying unwatchable rubbish

;_;

generally speaking trailers>death proof first half>>planet terror first act>>death proof second half>>>>planet terror acts 2 and 3.

crack-smokers, all of you

Director's cut additions to Death Proof don't help it (except for the quick shot of Mary Elizabeth Winstead singing). Takes a slow but well-paced movie and makes it drag IMO.

― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, November 9, 2010 10:11 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM. scene at the mini-mart with the "italian vogue" dude was so fucking painful. should never have seen the light.

I do agree that the Director's Cut is not great. Definitely prefer the theatrical version.

Director's cut additions to Death Proof don't help it (except for the quick shot of Mary Elizabeth Winstead singing). Takes a slow but well-paced movie and makes it drag IMO.

definitely

I enjoyed Planet Terror, I think they did a good job with the schlockiness...

Death Proof is my favorite though, hands down. I didn't find the dialogue boring...if anything I took a perverse enjoyment out of how long QT spent with the girls at the Alamo, only to kill them all on the highway to the tune of Dave Dee Dozy Beak & Titch. Just the Kurt Russell + omg totally sweet cars! + Zoe Bell + tough chicks combination really did it for me. Right in my wheelhouse (no pun intended). It was all I could not to leap out of my seat and starting cheering on the movie when I saw it at the cinema. And even watching the DVD over and over again, I don't get tired of it. So yeah. It was okay I guess :)

― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, November 9, 2010 10:18 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark

agree with all this, BUT... i really disliked most of the stuff with the girls at the alamo (jungle julie & crew). i liked the the idea of slowly setting them up and then arbitrarily wiping them out, but i just hated a lot of the dialogue & performances. the stuff involving kurt was great, and i liked rose in these scenes, but that's about it. tarantino's cameo was hideous & unnecessary (and i liked his bit in DP).

whole second half/act of death proof is marvelous - in the original theatrical cut, anyway.

lol, apparently I have only ever seen the Director's Cut of "Death Proof"

crack-smokers, all of you

not since last tuesday!

that long ago?

I don't think you could get the theatrical cut of either movie until the Grindhouse Blu-Ray set came out last month.

I may have mentioned this in another Grindhouse-related thread, but I had the BEST fucking time seeing these flicks in the theater.

I had just gotten a job, and was in that blissful time between getting hired and not shown up for your first day of work yet. So, I was hanging out at the house, not wanting to spend too much money, and I read that the local run-down theater (the type of place that does monster movies on Halloween, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show every now and then) was showing Grindhouse in an afternoon matinee for like $7. So, I load up my double flask of some Jim Beam, go to said theater, order me a XL popcorn and XXL Diet Coke, and had an absolute blast.

I've still only seen Planet Terror that once, and it was pretty damn awesome. And I was still relatively sober. But Death Proof is the best of this duo, for me. Almost all of the girls are hot to really hot, the music is great, the cars are awesome, the final car chase is awesomer, and . . . Rosario Dawson.

Woo.

So, Death Proof. But I eagerly await actually seeing Planet Terror again.

I don't think you could get the theatrical cut of either movie until the Grindhouse Blu-Ray set came out last month.

you might not have been able to "get" it, but you could see it in the cinema, as many of us obviously did

yeah blam otm: Rosario Dawson was killer in Death Proof.

The whole thing was on Encore last year and stayed on our DVR for awhile.