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May 11, 2017Nursebob rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
For those of you unfamiliar with the genre, “grindhouse” is a collective term used to describe the glut of tawdry exploitation films released back in the 70s and 80s which screened as double bills in the nation’s seedier cinemas. Revelling in blood and boobs they were generally low-budget productions that lured young men into the theatre with promises of explicit violence, hot chicks, and lots of softcore humping. In this brilliant homage, writer/director Robert Rodriguez has taken the genre to dizzying new heights while still maintaining the guts ’n sleaze factor for a new generation to enjoy. Lots of cheesy cheap-ass gore with exploding heads and gutted torsos augmented by a script rife with clichés and one-line groaners (“She could suck the bend out of a river”) and it’s all served up with such low-brow panache that you can’t help but laugh along with it—those scenes of Rose McGowan flying through the air, her missing leg now replaced by a high-calibre machine gun-cum-grenade launcher spraying death in every direction, are surely some of cinema’s all time high/lows! Rodriguez obviously sat transfixed through a few grinders himself for he captures the look perfectly right down to the celluloid scratches and spliced jump cuts which suggest film stock that has been played long past its expiry date. Spectacular explosions, repulsive special effects, and a slew of surprise celebrity cameos (Quentin Tarantino as an oversexed zombie soldier?!) take me back to my own adolescent days when I used to sneak across the border to Detroit in order to see these films in all their uncensored glory. I guess they really can make them like they used to…..if that’s even a good thing.