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Grindhouse


The NZA

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Father Cheech.

 

Saw this one last night. I think people here have been hard on WW/SS. I mean, it had the most outrageous plot of all, a secret Nazi plot to create a race of werewolf women super soldiers?

 

Also, while I was right that Planet Terror would be the better film*, I thought Death Proof was great. The dialog is exactly what I excepted from Tarentino. Do you people even remember Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and both Kill Bill? If it weren't for Kevin Smith, QT would be the most dialog heavy writer to come out of the 90s. I got everything I expected out of Death Proof. One difference between QT and RR is QT doesn't always go in trying to top himself (Jackie Brown), and RR does. RR doesn't always succeed, but when you're making an exploitation film, over-the-top RR is going to be the champ.

 

* Suck it all y'all RR haters and RR doubters! Fucking "Robert Rodrigeuz? What did he do again?" Assholes.

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Well this kinda takes out the coolness factor....

 

Harvey Weinstein told me this morning that he's "incredibly disappointed" with the half-than-expected $12 mil box office for Grindhouse released on Easter Weekend (a controversial move itself). So much so, that he's considering abandoning the double feature as a single feature concept and re-releasing the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez movie around the U.S. "in a couple of weeks" as two separate feature-length movies with additional footage put in. grindhouse_bigfinalposter.jpgThat's what Harvey says The Weinstein Co. is already intending to do with the film's release in Europe: split it into two separate pics, Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror. "Quentin's movie goes out first in competition at Cannes. He'll do an extensive 4 to 5 month tour. And the trailer will be all Quentin's," Weinstein told me about his European plans. "Then we'll release Robert's a couple of months later. By splitting it up, we're going to do a hell of a lot better internationally than we did here." Weinstein noted that, even in Grindhouse's video deal as well as its TV deal with Starz Entertainment Group, it's been sold as two separate movies. "Our deal with Encore is that they can play it any way they want." So this is why The Weinstein Co. is now deciding to suck it up and do in this country what it probably should have done all along. "First of all, I'm incredibly disappointed. We tried to do something new and obviously we didn't do it that well," Harvey told me today. "It's just a question of how is it going to hang in there. But we could split the movies in a couple of weeks. Make Tarantino's a full-length film, and Rodriguez's too. We'll be adding those 'two missing reels' that's talked about in the movie." (At one point in Grindhouse, a sex scene is interrupted because of "two missing reels".)

 

grindhouse_bigfinalposter.jpg

 

Weinstein pointed to several reasons why Grindhouse did so poorly in theaters over Easter weekend. "Our research showed the length kept people away. It was the single biggest deterrent. It was 3 hours and 12 minutes long. grondhouse1.jpgWe originally intended to get it all in in 2 hours, 30 minutes. That would have been a better time. But the movies ran longer, the [fake] trailers ran longer, everything ran longer," Harvey told me. Weinstein also criticized his own marketing plan. "We didn't educate the South or Midwest. In the West and the East, the movie played well. It played well in strong urban settings. But we missed the boat on the Midwest and the South." But he denies other's thinking that the Grindhouse subject matter was too foreign for mainstream audiences in mainstream theaters. He's wrong, of course. (In many theaters, before the pic began, the house lights went up and an usher came out to tell audiences that Grindhouse was designed to look old and scratched and to have "missing reels", and that the intermission, including the fake trailers, was also part of the movie, so nobody need complain to the management. Obviously the managements had received some complaints at earlier shows -- astonishing, given the hoopla this film has been given.) Yet The Weinstein Co. wouldn't give the film to actual Grindhouses, or even the Grindhouse Film Festival, to screen and create buzz. That may be one reason the advance tracking on the film prior to Friday was only so-so. The hype seems to have been all Internet-generated, which is why New Line's Snakes On A Plane flopped.

 

grondhouse1.jpg

 

Weinstein admitted spending at least $30 million on U.S. promotion and advertising for Grindhouse, which, added to what I'd already heard was a $67+ mil budget and not the low-50s cost he has claimed, makes this a $100 mil movie. So the first weekend's take of just $12 mil is all the more disastrous. On the other hand, Harvey (and independent observers) says the movie is heavily pre-sold overseas and expects it to do well there. That's not surprising, since many movies recently (Babel, Apocalypto) have run out of gas here only to pump up the total with international box office. But a re-release in the U.S. could prove almost prohibitively costly for The Weinstein Co.: new prints, new marketing, new everything. It may nto be worth it, especially with Spider-man 3 and the rest of this summer's tentpole onslaught is just around the corner.

 

Weinstein admits that he thought the film would do much better than it did and sees the failure of Grindhouse's U.S. release as a rap on his reputation for movie savvy. He can't blame the directors. After all, he is closely tied to Tarantino and Rodriquez personally and professionally and, what's more, he and brother Bob made that relationship and Grindhouse a cornerstone of their fledgling company's financing. grindhouse2.jpg(No doubt, that's why Harvey, who has a long history of imposing his iron will on filmmakers, gave the two directors a pass when it came to Grindhouse's extreme length.)

 

grindhouse2.jpg

 

But Harvey is adamant that the flop will not be a body blow to The Weinstein Co., even though it's still a fledgling firm in business since only 2005. "We're smart businessmen. Thank God, we protected ourselves economically. I've spent the last year diversifying the company. We're making profits everywhere but the movie business. But on DVD sales, we're doing well," he claims. The Weinstein Company's diversified investments include the home video company Genius Products, the private online community aSmallWorld, the cable TV hit show Project Runway, the independent cable channel Ovation, and, most recently, the Halston fashion brand. Harvey admitted to me that his attention may have been too diverted from the movie biz as a result. "This Cannes, I'm going to change all that. I'm back to being me. We wanted to diversify immediately. Now I have to go back to being Harvey."

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hah! i like how you tied all that togehter, and then asked me why youre on the snide liberal list. heh.

 

im guessing this had to do with competing with family movies over easter weekend (this wouldve been awesome in october, no?) but if the studio says length, i guess thats it. Odd tho, dont people go in drones to 3 hour epics with pearl harbor and such?

 

i second SB's statement and quietly endorse LL's

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well, to be fair, I don't think this shit was marketed well at all. I don't think anyone other than us readers of movie web sites and such had any idea this existed, and what the hell it was. Most people have no idea this is two movies in one. I enjoyed watchign the trailer, but I don't think it was very clear about what either movie is. I thought planet terror was set in fucking outer space when I saw the trailer. People like zombie movies, and they pay top dollar to see them. In the trailer, TV spots, and posters, there is little to no indication that planet terror is a zombie movie.

 

The average viewer sees the trailer for grindhouse and their synopsis is probably:

"Kurt russel is the bad guy in an action movie about a girl with a machine gun for a leg"

 

I think all of the advertising was targeted at people who were going to see the movie whether it were advertised or not.

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I honestly think it's just because the teenage crowd - the sad, tasteless, idiotic group that makes up most of the theatrical market now - just didn't really get what Grindhouse was supposed to be. But I guess that's to be expected since you'd have to either be at least in your late 30s or have a knowledge of pop culture that extends beyond American Idol to understand what QT and RR are going for.

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Not to mention with a 3 hour movie you have far fewer showings than the average film. At the Kendall Village last friday grindhouse was playing a grand total of 3 times. The latest showing was at 8:05, probably too early for its intended audience. If its in one theater, and 'Are We done Yet" has 12 showings a day compared to Grindhouse's 3, how well do you expect the movie to do?

 

Then there is the whole thing of PlotDeathproof being god fucking awful. Though that wouldn't have affected the opening weekend.

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You missed about a half hour of the film. And absolutely NOTHING.

 

Oh, and Death Proof was fucking great. Wash your mouth out with gasoline ya nogoodnik!

:Please:

 

Well, you might want to do the same it'll get the taste of Tarantino's jizz out of yer mouth. Look Deathproof had about 20 minutes (if that) of cinematic brilliance that was surrounded by an hour of absolute shit, the female characters sucked, the pacing was awful, and Stuntman Mike was underutilized. If I want to listen to nappy haired ho's talk about bullshit for an hour I'll hang out with a group of liberal arts majors at FIU. Anyone who thinks that Deathproof was actually a good movie probably had their vision of it obscured by the position they were in. Namely having Quentin's balls resting on their chin. Cut about half an hour from the film, and MAYBE it would have been good. As it stands, it was awful, self indulgent, tripe.

 

Tarantino can make good movies, or at least he could, but he needs someone on set to tell him when he is going crazy.

 

It's rare that a movie pisses me off as much as Deathproof did.

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Okay, Death Proof came out on Easter weekend! Let's see I'm going to see the family and the kids want to see a movie? What am I going to take a herd of 8 year olds to see? Oh I know, the one that prides itself in gratuitous sex, violence, and other stuff not for the kids.

 

Also Disturbia is a much more broad horror film, it's for a wider audience and it is good, don't hate on it just because it beat out Grindhouse.

 

Grindhouse is a great film but in the end do we really expect it to do any better than the movies it's paying tribute to? Honestly?

 

P.S. There's talk of Grindhouse 2 with Edgar Wright/Eli Roth and Don't/Thanksgiving so go watch it a half dozen more times so that plan can come to fruition.

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That Roth/Wright thing is bullshit. However, my sources tell me that QT and RR are collaborating again! This time they're going back further in time to ressurect another cinematic experience not many in this day and age have had before.

 

It's gonna be a silent movie. QT is directing and RR will be sitting in the movie theater playing the piano as the pretty pictures flicker on-screen. It's gonna blow your freakin' mind. There'll be loadsa Harold Lloyd and Clara Kimball young references for the fan-boys and the closing scene is going to put "Birth of a Nation" to shame. And did you like the tango sequence in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 'cause they're taking that and using green screen to put Michael Parks in there with Rudolph Valentino!

 

Can't wait!

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  • 2 weeks later...
In the wake of a disappointing U.S. box office performance for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse, it appears that the U.K. release of the film has now been put on hold temporarily as the Weinsteins and U.K. distributor Momentum Pictures try to regroup and figure out the best possible strategy. Officially the movie was planned for release on June 1st, with the same double feature format as North America. However, now it sounds like they are seriously considering splitting the two movies up (this approach has already been confirmed for the rest of the world as well), and they may also be rethinking the release date. I’m not sure how many of this year’s massive summer blockbusters will be released simultaneously in Europe, but there could be some stiff competition (incidentally June 1st is one of the few summer dates that doesn’t have a huge tentpole picture attached as of yet). I guess I can understand being cautious about the release, but it remains to be seen whether or not anything can really be done to recoup the losses that Grindhouse has incurred. Will U.K. audiences react more favourably toward the movie?

 

source

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  • 4 months later...

Fucking assholes

 

Death Proof and Planet Terror will be released separately on DVD in fall 2007. Death Proof is scheduled for a September 18, 2007 region 1 DVD release.Planet Terror will follow on October 16, 2007. Both releases will be two-disc special editions.[62] Best Buy will also release exclusive steelbook copies of Death Proof and Planet Terror, each containing a bonus disc. Extras on the third disc are unknown at this time.Neither disk will feature fake trailers, the exception being the trailer for Machete in Planet Terror. Amazon.com and Play.com both advertise a Boxed Set featuring both films. Neither give information regarding price, release date or bonuses.

 

Death Proof will carry the extended cut of the film shown at Cannes and across Europe, documentaries on the casting of the film, the various muscle cars and Tarantino's relationship with editor Sally Menke, an interview conducted by Tarantino with cult director Cirio H. Santiago, trailers, and an international poster gallery while Planet Terror will have an extended cut, audio commentary with Rodriguez, deleted scenes, behind the scenes featurettes, trailers (including the faux trailer for Machete), and, as with previous Rodriguez DVDs, 10 Minute Cooking and Film Schools.[63]

 

The DVD release of Grindhouse has sparked debate across the fanbase, with many being upset that the film is split instead of following the theatrical single-film release. Members of some internet message boards have called for a boycott of the DVDs

 

I am not buying into this bullshit. I'm going to fucking download this shit and be done with it.

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Don't sweat it man, neither did I.

 

 

Now I don't mean to instill false hope but I'm sure they're going to release a 2-disc box set and the reason they're withholding trailers is so that they will be the selling point of the box set so people who own the individual versions will be scammed into buying the double as well.

 

Also recall those shitty bare bones DVDs released for Sin City that everybody bought and I was like the only one who held out for the super-kickass-awesome-special-edition (of ultimate destiny) of Sin City that came with the first complete graphic novel? Yeah well I figure they'll do that here.

 

Have faith youngling, the capitalism is strong.

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I also held out on the bare-bones edition of Sin City. It was a tough few months to wait, but you know what's been tougher? Waiting fucking years for Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair! What's the deal with this release! 2T, you're my man on the inside (in more ways than one), what do your sources say on this?

 

Also, I wish I'd waited on Serenity. The new 2 disc edition looks sweet.

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