If the director himself considers this his worst movie, Quentin I just gotta tell you I don't see it. It's a remarkedly different beast compared to the all guns blazing Planet Terror with a much smaller scale plot involving two seperate groups of girls being stalked by a murderous stuntman appropriately named, Stuntman Mike, and it's funny cause that simple plot alone are two different beasts. The first is film grained up, jump cuts, has a very 70s vibe despite it taking place in modern day and is my favorite of the two segments. Which is no slight against the second with a quartet of ladies with two being everyday gals and the other two being fairly badass thrillseekers who run across Stuntman Mike and outperform him with some impressive stunts, it's shot in both pristine black & white alongside color, with modern filmmaking techniques, and some stellar stunts. Kurt Russell steals the show, being effectively creepy like so under my skin freak me the fuck out kinda creepy, but it's Kurt and he's got so much charisma and likeability it's interesting to watch despite not knowing much about Stuntman Mike. Standouts in our lady groups is Vanessa Ferlito from the firste troupe, I don't know if it was the accent or the no nonsense attitude or just her absurdly pretty face but I gravitated toward her so easily, and while everyone rightly lauds and praises Zoë Bell for her wit and insane physical performance Rosario Dawson was my gal in this and I thought she was groovy and props for her on getting the final blow. The production was spot on, again a very low budget effort but works insanely well on how they used the budget, they saved their big bucks for the big shit with some gross effects, a showstopping crash, and a car chase that will stick in your mind for some time. I will say I do wish we could have focused on one group or even did a mixed bag between the two casts, but it all works out and doesn't really hurt the film provided you don't mind almost a 2 hour runtime with a fair bit of dialogue and slow burns before the lid pops. I was still invested throughout and honestly wouldn't mind owning the whole Grindhouse experience! It's a long forgotten niche of cinema but definitely has it's fans and while I can safely say I'm more of a casual observer I still respect and enjoy the distinct style and filmmaking choices even if they aren't all for me. For one brief moment in 2007 you could go to a theater for a double bill with fake trailers and advertisements for an experience that can't be replicated and that I am strongly jealous of, considering I was 12 at the time and a fledgling movie fan who had no concept of grindhouse cinema. But I'm extremely happy to have finally seen both these movies that I've heard about for more than a decade. I give this 3 stars, 7.5/10, and we're jumping back to the 1960s next week.
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