According to word of mouth the double feature of GRINDHOUSE flopped in the United States because people walked out of the cinema not realising the concept of a double feature . Even if there is some truth in this surely if people have paid their money to watch a film it won't affect the box office as to when an audience walk out on the film ? One thinks there's an apocryphal myth at play here similar to the French audience who ran out screaming from a late 19th Paris cinema as soon as an on screen train came puffing head on towards them . Perhaps the low box office return for the GRINDHOUSE double bill was much lower than expected was that the two films were too expensively stylised to make an expected profit ? Why go to so much expense to make a couple of B movies on an A list budget when so many hacks in the 1970s were able to do it on a Z list budget ?
That said PLANET TERROR is a highly stylised film , perhaps too much so . To all intents and purposes it's very similar to those brainless films you'd get in the video store circa 1982 that you'd endlessly discuss with your schoolmates who'd no doubt think it was a great film due to the gore . Certainly PT is a gory film , inspired by the works of David Cronenberg and George A Romero but perhaps lacking in the cerebral social commentary both of those directors brought to their films . Here producer Quentin Tarantino and director Robert Rodriguez bring post modernist visuals to the movie . Unfortunately they both try a bit too hard and the visuals become something of a gimmick . For example why shoot and photograph a film that looks like late 1970s exploitation B movie when characters are seen using mobile phones that wouldn't have existed in that time period ? The more the film tries to look like exploitation 70s cinema the more distracting it becomes in its failure to convince
Another aspect that fails to work is its somewhat silly tone . A character gets their leg amputated and is replaced by firstly a table leg then later a gun . No complaints that it's rather tasteless because it is amusing to a degree but this plot point becomes more and more over used and silly the more the film continues . If I remember correctly this tongue in cheek humour also spoiled Rodriguez DESPERADO to a degree in its ambition to be a cult classic . Humour is a subjective thing and what may be amusing to a director doesn't necessarily get translated to an audience . It's not the director's fault but real life events in America in the last few months involving killing sprees with firearms makes much of the comic book violence in PT seem blatantly pornographic in hindsight
In summary this is a mildly diverting film that suffers from trying too hard to emulate the films it parodies . It's entertaining enough while you're watching it but it's not really a film you're going to be a hurry to rewatch either and you'll probably have forgotten all about it the next day
That said PLANET TERROR is a highly stylised film , perhaps too much so . To all intents and purposes it's very similar to those brainless films you'd get in the video store circa 1982 that you'd endlessly discuss with your schoolmates who'd no doubt think it was a great film due to the gore . Certainly PT is a gory film , inspired by the works of David Cronenberg and George A Romero but perhaps lacking in the cerebral social commentary both of those directors brought to their films . Here producer Quentin Tarantino and director Robert Rodriguez bring post modernist visuals to the movie . Unfortunately they both try a bit too hard and the visuals become something of a gimmick . For example why shoot and photograph a film that looks like late 1970s exploitation B movie when characters are seen using mobile phones that wouldn't have existed in that time period ? The more the film tries to look like exploitation 70s cinema the more distracting it becomes in its failure to convince
Another aspect that fails to work is its somewhat silly tone . A character gets their leg amputated and is replaced by firstly a table leg then later a gun . No complaints that it's rather tasteless because it is amusing to a degree but this plot point becomes more and more over used and silly the more the film continues . If I remember correctly this tongue in cheek humour also spoiled Rodriguez DESPERADO to a degree in its ambition to be a cult classic . Humour is a subjective thing and what may be amusing to a director doesn't necessarily get translated to an audience . It's not the director's fault but real life events in America in the last few months involving killing sprees with firearms makes much of the comic book violence in PT seem blatantly pornographic in hindsight
In summary this is a mildly diverting film that suffers from trying too hard to emulate the films it parodies . It's entertaining enough while you're watching it but it's not really a film you're going to be a hurry to rewatch either and you'll probably have forgotten all about it the next day