Planet Terror (2007): Argument I

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Writer: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino

Tagline: Fully Loaded.

Actors: Cherry Darling, El Wray, Dr. William Block, Dr. Dakota Block, J.T. Hague, Sheriff Hague, Rebel Rodriguez, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Julio Oscar, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Nicky Katt, Hung Nguyen, Tom Savini, Carlos Gallardo, Skip Reissig, Electra Avellan, Elise Avellan, Quentin Tarantino, Greg Kelly, Michael Parks, Jerili Romero, Felix Sabates

Runtime: 1h 20m

Category: Outbreak, Zombie

Synopsis: In a small Texas town something is amiss. The beautiful Cherry Darling quits her job as a go-go dancer and runs into her ex-boyfriend Wray (who has his own mysterious past) on the same night of a shady rendezvous between the military and a group of seedy characters, which turns into a double cross. During the scuffle, a dangerous gas is released into the air that turns the townspeople into the ravenous undead, leaving Cherry hurt. Now in the care of El Wray, he fashions her a new leg out of a machine gun/grenade launcher, only to end up as the last hope for the survivors against the military and the hungry undead.

Review: I had to watch this movie twice in order to do this review. At first, I expected this to be a horror movie. But I had to remember that Grindhouse (2007) pays homage to the B-movie houses of the 70’s.

I loved the way it was filmed; grainy and broken. It seemed to be filmed on regular film, the way it used to be done. They even included missing reels and destroyed parts of the film just for added effect. While trying to find the horror or terror part of this film I found more camp and confusion. It seems like the director tried to break the film into too many different story-lines that weren’t necessary. Most of the extra characters were just added to make the group of survivors larger, but didn’t do anything for the overall story. A lot of the things that happened didn’t even make sense as plot-points; the argument between the doctor and his wife, the arguments between the sheriff and his brother (the owner of The Bone-Shack). These are plot-points that could have either been explored upon more, or left out all together.

I would have liked to see more time spent on Cherry’s past, or even El Wray’s mysterious past. With all of these things going on, these important bits of information were left out and, in my opinion, were the most important pieces of the puzzle.

Rating: 19. I wasn’t extremely impressed with it on any level. I enjoyed Grindhouse (2007) as a whole, but even after seeing this twice, I still consider it a film student-like movie. It was funny, campy, and a little retarded. Being a little retarded myself, this movie didn’t completely turn me off, but it left me wanting more. (19of25).