Under Review: Grindhouse

Grindhouse was a novel concept devised by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. This movie is actually two movies pasted together with some fake theatre screens and fake advertisements.

The movie is a giant homage to certain kinds of films from the 70s and 80s. These films were usually very low budget and exploited sex and violence in very interesting ways. These films usually didn’t have wide releases, but ended up in run-down theaters on their last leg.

I was not around to see these kinds of films during their theatrical runs, so I never actually got the Grindhouse experience. However; around middle school and early high school, these low-budget exploitation films were the ones that caught my attention.

Tarantino and Rodriguez attempt to give you the Grindhouse experience with this “Back-to-Back Double Feature.”

The Grindhouse Experience

Machete Trailer

Rodriguez regular Danny Trejo stars in Machete. It’s rumored that this might actually become a movie, and I hope it does. Machete is the name of the man who fights for the little man in this very fun looking movie.

Feature #1: Planet Terror

Written and Directed by: Robert Rodriguez

Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Marley Shelton, Naveen Andrews, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Tom Savini

The Set-Up:

A business deal with ex-military men goes awry and a deadly drug agent escapes into the air around a small Texas town. In short, it turns people into zombies. “Go-Go” dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) feels like her life is going nowhere and feels like she just has useless talents. Dr. Dakota Block plans on taking her son away from her husband and run away with her lesbian lover. Basically…hardly anyone is happy with their life, and people want to move away.

The Review:

Planet Terror was an adrenaline packed rollercoaster with not-so-mindless action and decent dialogue. It was over-the-top. It may have even gotten corny at parts, but that was part of the experience.

This movie started off fairly complex. We have a few different stories. Cherry quits dancing to start a new life. She runs into El Wray, an ex-boyfriend. She also loses her leg to some zombies and Wray takes her to the hospital, to be in the care of Dr. William Block, Dr. Dakota Block’s husband that she was running away from. There is also tension between Wray and the Sheriff, as well as tension between the Sheriff and his brother J.T. who runs the local BBQ restaurant. Oh… and zombies are running around eating people.

Quick Sidebar: Michael Parks is in this movie… as Earl McGraw. If you were unaware, that was the character he has played in both Kill Bill Volume 2 (directed by Quentin Tarantino) and From Dusk Till Dawn (another Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration).

We have all of these stories flying around, and then we get a missing reel… after which, all of the problems are solved, some people ended up dead, and we have all of the survivors now gathered in one place. Pretty convenient… wouldn’t you say?

It turns out that Wray is some sort of legend with weapons, and he and Cherry had now rekindled their love. They lead the survivors out of town, but they are soon captured by the ex-military. From here, the survivors must break out of the military base before either the military officers of the zombies kill them. It’s simply a classic standoff. It’s excellent.

This movie was just simply fun. It completely felt like old horror films I used to watch at 2 am. Usually… these movies were considered “so good they’re bad.” I don’t necessarily believe in this concept. If a combination of film elements that usually present a bad movie end up pleasing, then the film itself becomes pleasing and rises above these attributes. Planet Terror played with this concept and purposely played to the people who enjoyed these types of movies.

Rating: 8.5/10

Werewolf Women of the S.S. Trailer

This is the Rob Zombie directed trailer starring Nicholas Cage. Nazis and werewolves… sign me up.

Don’t Trailer

This is the one directed by Shaun of the Dead helmer Edgar Wright. It’s a very strange mix of images, but very cool. Notice how no one talks except for the narrator. This was done because the film was British. Films from the Grindhouse era usually didn’t have people speak in the trailers for foreign films.

Thanksgiving Trailer

This was probably my favorite trailer. This is the one directed by Hostel director Eli Roth. After seeing this trailer online, I actually looked for it in the video store a couple of times before I remembered that it was fake.

Feature #2: Death Proof

Written and Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Sydney Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito

The Set-Up:

Stuntman Mike owns a car that is “100% Death Proof.” He picks out women to stalk and kill with his car.

The Review:

This is where the film slows down. Planet Terror was very fast-paced. Death Proof is not. Tarantino is somewhat known for his strange use of structure in film. This one does not time shift like the others, but it does have a strange structure.

First, we get to meet a group of girls. Then, Stuntman Mike kills them. Then, we meet another group of girls. Then, they stand-off against Stuntman Mike. It makes a little bit of sense, but it seems to be lost on some people. I wasn’t in love with it myself, but it was different and interesting. I went with it.

The first group of girls that we meet are Jungle Julia (Poitier) and her friends. They hang out at an Austin, Texas bar for a while. They meet and chat with Stuntman Mike. After they leave the bar, Stuntman Mike tracks them down to kill them.

The second group of girls are in the film industry. Zoe Bell (the actual New Zealand stuntwoman who did the stunts for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill) played herself. These women didn’t take that kind of crap from Stuntman Mike. They fought back.

I dug this film, but I see where it would be lost on some people. I wasn’t in love with some of the elements myself. The tone of the movie drastically changed between the groups of girls. I would almost consider this one of its saving graces, because each half of the movie actually moves fairly slowly. Because of the structure, it might be considered somewhat experimental (like most Grindhouse films), but it could also be considered a somewhat broken movie.

Rating: 7.5/10

The entire thing is a bit self-indulgent. Same actors are used. Tarantino not only appears in Rodriguez's film, but also his own. And some of Tarantino's dialogue comes off a bit pretentious.
It's over-the-top, and maybe too violent for some.

However; I enjoyed the over-the-topness of it all. I also found the film to be a little less violent than a lot of the movies I used to watch. The experience was fun and sexy. I really really enjoyed myself.

Overall Experience: 8/10

Under Review: Strangers With Candy

Starring: Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Dan Hedaya and Ian Holm

The Set-Up:

This is a movie based on a Comedy Central show of the same name. It also starred Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello. Amy Sedaris stars as Jerri Blank. Jerri is returning to her childhood home after 32 years of living on the streets and in prison. When returning home, she discovers that her father, Dan Hedaya, has been in a coma for 32 years and is now remarried with a teenage son (Yes, I realize that the father could not have a son if he was in a coma… or could he?). Jerri decides to pick up her life right where she left off. At the age of 47, she’s returning to high school.

The Review:

This movie assaults you with hilarity from the very beginning. The movie opens with Jerri leaving prison and reflecting on the lessons she learned in prison. A monologue asking “Can I change?” is going in the background as images of Jerri surviving prison by brawling and stabbing fellow inmates plays on the screen. Amy Sedaris knows this character and knows all of the humor behind the character. The delivery of the monologue mixed with the physical humor on screen shows us this from the very beginning.

That is what this movie does. The comedy in this movie works because of the blend of over-the-top performances with the soft-spoken acting of the rest of the cast. This movie would not work as well as it does without each aspect. Certain characters present the crazy situations, and the comedy comes with the flat responses to these situations. It also works the opposite way. Characters overreact to situations.

So how well does the movie work? It works pretty well. The script gives us many memorable lines and the cast gives us great performances. The pacing is pretty good, but starts to lose it’s footing about three quarters of the way through. The film does pick up and gives us a good ending, though.

Favorite Quote: “I think I deserve better, don't you? Hey, I know this is hard on you. It would be hard on me, too, if I broke up with me. I know what you're losing.”

Rating: 8/10

New releases at The Station

The Da Vinci Code
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is informed that the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci - clues visible for all to see, and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - an actual secret society. In a breathless race through Paris, London and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless power broker who appears to work for Opus Dei - a clandestine, Vatican-sanctioned Catholic organization believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory's secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10

John Tucker Must Die
Three teenagers two-timed by a local lothario decide to turn the tables on him in this romantic comedy. John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) is the big man on campus at his high school -- he's the captain and star player of the basketball team, he's got money, he's good-looking and charming, and he can have any girl he wants. However, the latter attribute is about to get him in serious trouble when three different girls at his school -- Heather (Ashanti), Beth (Sophia Bush) and Carrie (Arielle Kebbel) -- discover they've all been dating John at the same time. Determined to bring down the campus ladykiller, the girls devise a plan -- they pick a cute but socially clumsy girl who is new at school, Kate (Brittany Snow), and give her a crash course in stealing John's heart. Once Kate has John wrapped around her little finger, she's supposed to drop him like a bad habit and give him a taste of what heartbreak is really like. However, it seems that the early stages of the plan work a little too well, and John and Kate end up falling for each other for real. John Tucker Must Die also stars Jenny McCarthy, Penn Badgley, and Dan Payne.
IMDB Rating: 5.1/10

Accepted
Bartleby (B.) Gaines is a fun loving slacker who, unfortunately, gets turned down for every college he applied for, much to the charign of his overly expectant parents. So, with a little cutting and pasting, he creates the South Harmon Institute of Technology, and lo and behold, he is accepted (along with his friends Rory, Hands, and Glen, whose college plans were also all but dashed). However, his parents want to see the website, the campus, and the dean. So now he has his other friend Sherman (who has been accepted to the prestigious Harmon College) build a web page, they lease out an abandoned psychiatric hospital, and they hire Sherman's uncle Ben (played to perfection by comedian Lewis Black) to be the dean. Problem solved? Not quite. The web page was done so well, that hundreds of students show up at the front door, all of which were turned down by other colleges. Faced with no choice, Bartleby decides to proceed with turning South Harmon into a real college, and sets about figuring out what to teach and how to teach it. Meanwhile at Harmon, dean Van Horne meets with Hoyt Ambrose, a rich law student and head of the KBE fraternity (which Sherman is trying to become a member of), to discuss building a gateway for Harmon using land presently being used by South Harmon. He tries finding the leaseholder of the land, to no avail. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Monica, catches him cheating on her, and a big party at South Harmon lures a chunk of Harmon's students away, including Monica into the arms of Bartleby. Now Hoyt uses Sherman, knowing he has been bouncing between the two schools, in an attempt to bring South Harmon down for good. However, Bartleby has an accreditation appointment with the state Board of Education to prove South Harmon's worthiness. Can he legally bring the South Harmon Institute of Technology to life and win the love of Monica?

New Item: Movie Showtimes Hangar

Today we introduce yet another new item for you guys. I know, we have been introducing a lot of new items lately. We've got Local Gas Prices, Weekly Organizational Meetings, Weekly Releases at The Station, and now, the newest addition to Bearcat Underground: Movie Showtimes for the Hangar.

We hope you guys enjoy all this new content!

French Movie @ IIC living room

it is the International Education Week and the French Club has come up with the idea to show a French movie tonight (Tuesday) in the IIC living room. The movie deals with French culture and Indochinese culture at the same time, and sets the roots of the American War of Vietnam.

Twenty years before the United States lost the war in Vietnam, the exact same thing happened to the French army. This time was pretty hard for France and for Indochina, and mostly for Eliane (Catherine Deneuve), a French woman owning a plantation there, and Camille (Linh Dan Pham), her adopted vietnamese daughter.
And everything goes a lot more complicated when both of them fall in love with the same French officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez).

The movie won one American Academy Award (oscar) and five French Academy Awards (cesar) in 1993. Linh Dan Pham won a French Academy Award in 2006.

The movie is subtitled in English and the movie will be shown today, Tuesday, November 14 at 7 P.M.

New releases at The Station

Cars
Successful rookie racer Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has, to his pleasure, just won a 3-way tie with elder rival Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton) and champ "The King" (Richard Petty), but is also proud and unappreciative of long-time (mostly older) supporters enough to have his ignored pit-crew desert him. Accidentally lost en route to California for the tie-breaker, he crashes through Radiator Springs on Route 66, destroying the road and some property. Forced to remain in town until he repairs them, he's stuck in a small community whose tight-knit inhabitants accept neither his selfishness nor bad attitude. Refusing to respect them initially, he eventually returns the friendship of redneck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and falls in love with Sally (Bonnie Hunt), but can't seem to get gruff Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who keeps a painful secret, to change his mind about him. Soon Lightning learns the inhabitants of the town as a whole, who are almost a secret to the outside world, also had a past now painfully absent, and tries to help them enjoy it once more.
IMDB rating: 7.7/10

Little Man
Hired to steal the fabulous Queen Diamond, pint-sized jewel thief Calvin Sims (Marlon Wayans) and his dimwitted partner Percy (Tracy Morgan) stash the stone in Vanessa Edwards' (Kerry Washington, Ray) handbag when their getaway plans go uproariously awry. Discovering Vanessa's husband, Darryl (Shawn Wayans), who's hopelessly obsessed with becoming a father, Calvin trades in his duds for diapers and poses as an abandoned baby. Suffering through a host of hysterical humiliations and outrageous family outings, Calvin desperately tries to retrieve the gem before his cover is blown, and Darryl and Vanessa really cut him down to size. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans (White Chicks).
IMDB rating: 2.3/10

For more information goto: http://thestation.dvdtorent.com/

New releases at The Station

This is a new item on Bearcat Underground, each week we are going to post which new dvd's you will be able to rent at The Station. This week there was only one release.

Mission: Impossible III
Super-spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active duty to trains new IMF agents. But he is called back into action to confront the toughest villain he's ever faced - Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons and information provider with no remorse and no conscience. Hunt assembles his team - his old friend Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames), transportation expert Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and background operative Zhen (Maggie Q), to rescue one of his very own trainees, Lindsey (Keri Russell) who was kidnapped while on a surveillance detail of Davian. It soon becomes evident that Davian is well-protected, well-connected, and downright malicious, forcing Hunt to extend his journey back into the field in order to rescue his wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), and uncover IMF double agents in the process.
IMDB rating: 6.8/10

For more information goto: http://thestation.dvdtorent.com/

Movie Showtimes for The Hangar