Mud Songs

Death Proof (Extended and Unrated) is Quentin Tarantino’s tribute to Grindhouse films and is better than the theatrical cut, though it’s difficult to qualify “better” in a movie that doesn’t strive too hard to be good in the first place (there are some unpleasant though quick gore shots). Tarantino doesn’t bring anything new to the table (the dialogue and direction are derivative of himself) — except for the car chase scene at the end which is fun and funny.

I’ve seen all of Taratino’s movies. I’ll eventually post about them as I re-watch them.

The Gauntlet is a 1977 Clint Eastwood cop movie with a snazzy jazzy soundtrack that has Clint falling in love and on the run with a prostitute because he was set up, and I wonder who set him up? A totally lame and predictable movie, but watching the cops shoot the shit out of everything is kind of fun. Famous for the final scene where the shoot a bus up with about 10 million bullet holes. Stupid… yet classic. Also directed by Clint (before he became a respectable director).

The science behind the fiction in Mission to Mars is cool, so it’s worth a look if you’re into science. Everything else about this movie is so, so, so incredibly bad, you might want to keep your finger on the fast-forward button — or smoke a big fat one before you press play. It tries too hard to be dramatic, but it’s a joke. B-movie potential.

First Man Into Space is a “sci-fi” B-movie from the late ’50s about the first man in space who comes back transformed as a blood-thirsty but misunderstood monster. Watchable as a B-movie, but there are much better B-movies out there.

Grindhouse, a double feature of exploitation B-movies — one a zombie movie, the other a car chase/revenge flick — does not elevate either genre to the level of great cinema (as some might argue is the case with Kill Bill). A mild thumbs up for me.