Planet Terror (2007)
Last Watch Date - November 8, 2022
Total Times Watched - Once
Comments
Well well well, what do we have here? I heard of this (and its respective hype) when it came out along with Death Proof as a "grindhouse double feature." I'm not a Tarantino fan, though, so I skipped it. Yes, I know this is not a Tarantino movie, but he's in it and he was involved to an extent.
Before I get into this, I need to make it clear that I understand this is a bite of a satire (or possibly homage if we're generous) of 70s exploitation flicks. I don't like those, so why would I even watch this one? After all these years, I still hear a lot of good things about it. THAT'S WHY!
We'll start with the plot. It's not very unique overall. This same premise happened with Night of the Living Dead (and Return of the Living Dead), though this one has a cheeky tone to it. ROTLD is a horror-comedy but doesn't go as over-the-top as this. It really plays up the goofiness of the whole thing. There's a guy who is obsessed with testicles. Cutting them off of people and.. keeping them? There are bumpkins gathering up to fight the infected. There are deceptive characters. Cover-ups, intrigue, etc. You have to know going in that it's REALLY playing things up and you have to be into that or you're going to be annoyed.
The cast is pretty solid but the material is so corny that it's difficult to say it's a good showing. Bruce Willis is fine I guess. Marley Shelton plays it somewhat straight (heh.. you'll get it when you watch it) and she's good. Rose McGowan is awful (as usual). Quentin Tarantino sucks.
The special effects are really quite good overall. The worst bit is probably Cherry's leg-gun when she gets that going. It also makes no sense that she can shoot it without a trigger, but whatever. There are a lot of practical effects mixed with some horribly obvious CGI. If you're going over-the-top, you have to do it with your zombies and kills as well.
All that said, this falls a bit flat for me. It's not bad but it's too on the nose for me to enjoy. I like bad movies that are trying to be good, not movies that are trying to be bad. I do like the other trailers for Machete and such, but Machete was a better movie than this (even if it was only a goofy idea at the time). I wanted to like it more than I actually did. It feels a bit like something you'd watch with a group of people and everyone would say "ohhh man this is so funny and awesome" but if they ever watched it alone they'd wonder how they ever thought that.
Recommended?
Nah, it's not worth bothering.
