MovieComment

Grindhouse

Posted by Player under Action

Grindhouse is a throwback to a time when people enjoyed watching movies at their local theater. The idea was to give modern audiences the experience of a cheap theater show, by putting together a couple of low budget films with some funny previews of equally low budget horror movies. The end result is an action packed Planet Terror by Robert Rodriquez and the more dramatic Death Proof by Quentin Tarentino. While Planet Terror is reminiscent of a good zombie film, with plenty of action and funny character lines, Death Proof seems like a 70’s exploitation film that starts out slow and then jumps into action at the end. By far I think Planet Terror was the better film, and while it was interesting to see women talk candidly about sex in Death Proof, it was also sometimes too slow to watch after you finished watching Planet Terror.

The main star of Planet Terror is of course the voluptuous Rose McGowan, but from watching her in this film, you might not recognize her. Rodriguez is unique among directors in that he is always able to show his actresses in a totally different way. If you see Salma Hayek in Desperado or Once Upon A Time In Mexico, you can immediately see that Rodriquez shoots Salma like very few directors. He actually makes her look taller by using different angles, and for McGowan, he makes the two most noticeable parts of her appearance disappear, namely her chin’s cleft and her breasts. McGowan looks taller, leaner, and sexier in this film, and by end she kind of reminded me of Angelina Jolie.

Blades of Glory

Posted by Player under Comedy

Will Ferrell is back as professional skater Chazz Michael Michaels in Blades of Glory. By this time, we are use to seeing Ferrell in all sorts of comedies, and while some of his characters are extremely endearing, others are quite forgettable. This time the story revolves around a couple of male skaters who are polar opposites. Chazz is the rockstar of the skating world, a sexual and emotional skater who ends up being banned from skating when he and fellow skater Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) brawl each other during medals presentation. Years later Jimmy and Chazz find out they can still compete in couples skating and are reunited with Jimmy’s old coach and the skating world is never the same.

The results are mixed. While Blades of Glory is incredibly funny in some places, it feels like a half hearted attempt to make fun of skating. The movie seems to be too superficial and does not really try to insult its main subject matter, unlike Zoolander which totally makes fun of every aspect of the male fashion world. Another missed target for the film is that unlike Ferrell’s previous film in which he played the race car driver Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory really does not give us enough quirky characters. All of the characters in Blades of Glory are predictable stereo types, there are no interesting aspects. We don’t get much background on any character, other than a few background details like Chazz growing up in Detroit.

I think most movie fans wanted to embrace this film. People love comedies and Blades of Glory had plenty of potential, but it held back most of time and never took the time to grow any of its characters.