Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Planet Terror
**** Planet Terror. Horror.
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez.
Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Marley Shelton
I gave the DVDs of both this and Death Proof to Carl for Christmas.
Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and his men are infected with... something that makes sores pop out all over and turns those infected into violent monsters, but they've been keeping it under control with a gas (they're all wearing gas masks). Problem is, they're out of gas, and scientist Abby (Naveen Andrews) has it, but a gunfight has punctured the containers, and the green mist is dispersing into the air.
It doesn't take long before the entire town is infected.
Our heroes are Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) and El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). Cherry is a stripper, but her career gets cut short (heh) when one of the monsters rips her leg off. Helping them is Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), who's married to Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin), but in the process of leaving him for her lover; and the sheriff and his barbecue-restaurant-owning brother.
I had to re-watch the beginning to understand what was going on with the gas, but I'm pretty sure I have the gist of it now.
If you haven't heard about these, they're an homage to the "grindhouse" movies of the 70s--basically, cheesy horror flicks. Planet Terror was fast-moving, gore-filled, and funny... in an incredibly sick, warped way. The gore and the violence were so over-the-top that you (okay, I) really couldn't take it seriously. Thank goodness, because even so, some of the scenes were just too disgusting to watch without holding my fingers in front of my eyes. I'm not sure why that helps--it just does.
I'm not sure why I enjoyed this so much. I don't like horror, and while a lot of people compared Planet Terror to the Dawn of the Dead remake, I found Dawn of the Dead incredibly stupid. *shrug* I think it's because Planet Terror really doesn't take itself seriously. Everything's exaggerated, and there was a pervasive feeling that they were having a hell of a lot of fun when they made the movie that I found irresistible.
Categories: Movies, 4stars, Horror
Labels: 4 stars, horror, Movies
