Planet Terror [2007]
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Actor: Naveen Andrews, Bruce Willis, Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodríguez, Jeff Fahey, Stacy Ferguson, Michael Biehn, Michael Parks, Josh Brolin, Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Robert Rodriguez
The Robert Rodriguez money making machine is showing its weakness, I think, in his latest film, Planet Terror. Where first his films were almost instantly considered cult-classics (El Mariachi, Four Rooms and even Spy Kids come to mind) and he had such success doing this that I have the feeling that even he started believing everything he touched turned into a cult classic. Sin City was a primo-example of this; there’s nothing cult about that film, but still people label it a cult classic because of its innovation and dark subject matter. This all paved the way for Grindhouse, in which Tarantino, who is also afflicted by the over-inflated belief of being a cult-classic-making-machine, and Rodriguez pair up to make two feature length films as an ode to the drive-in, low-budget, cult, exploitation films.
Trust me, there’s nothing low-budget, nor drive-in, nor exploitation about these films, and they’re about as much cult as I am a fucking monkey. I reviewed Death Proof, Tarantino’s feature here as well, and I liked it a lot. I don’t like Planet Terror nearly as much, but it’s definitely enjoyable.
The story is about a little town in Texas, close to an military base where a mad scientist (Andrews) is selling a biological weapon to a group of rogue soldiers under the leadership of Lt. Muldoon (Willis) who have been exposed to it, and have turned into crazed zombies, unless they keep exposing themselves to it from time to time. It’s like a drug to them. The sale goes bad, and instead of giving up the bio-weapon, the mad scientist shoots it, and lets it escape into the air. In the nearby town, people start to turn into crazed, disgusting (really!) zombies, and the infestation starts to spread. Only a few people seem to be immune to it, among others the mysterious El Wray (F. Rodriguez), a gun-slinger extraordinaire, and his girlfriend Cherry Darling (McGowan), who ends up losing a leg, but replaces it with a machine-gun. They, together with the other refugees, fight to get out of the area while battling hordes of oozing, puss-infested zombies.
I like this film, because it’s unashamedly bad. Plot-holes, bad acting, gratuitous cleavage, violence and gore are the main dish of this film, and I must admit laughing more than I did watching Death Proof, which is a far more conventional film than this one. Both films incorporated different elements to make it look dated, visual scratches, bad soundtrack, faded colours, etc., but I think Rodriguez nailed it a bit better than Tarantino did, even going so far to let the tap burn through and let one reel go missing (which incidentally contains most of the sex scene, and the explanation of El Wray’s history, and all kinds of little odds and ends, but it was done in a good, fun way.)
I recommend you watch Death Proof first, and then Planet Terror, since you might be a little numb after watching the latter in order to enjoy the first.