Planet Terror

👍🏻

Planet Terror

Best 💯 Horror Movie

This movie seems to be quite divisive. Some people love it while others absolutely hate it. There is actually a pretty simple way to tell which side of the coin you will find yourself on: Within the first 20 minutes of this movie you will see the following: 1) A guy gets his testicles cut off by another guy who carries around a jar full of testicles. 2) A patient comes into a doctor's office with growths on his tongue. The doctor squeezes one and it pops like a zit spewing blood all around. Now. If you are thinking to yourself "Cool! I want to see that!" then by all means give "Planet Terror" a watch. On the other hand, if you're saying to yourself "Um...no thank you" then take a pass. I don't judge. Looking all the comments here on the IMDb, it appears that there is quite a market for this type of movie. As for me, I gave up after 30 minutes. Life is too short, you know? Oh, okay. I will judge just once: Robert? Quentin? Is this really the sort of schlock you want to be remembered for?

Planet Terror is a homage to the trash that used to play at drive-ins back in the 70s, particularly, its a zombie film. Being a lover of zombies I was stoked when I sat down to watch it. The movie delivers everything a fan of the horror-comedy-action genre could want, over the top action, over the top gore, and at times over the top acting. We follow a few main characters, all of which are enigmatic and end up having connections that no one would have seen coming, which reminded me of the low budget films that used to come out back in the day, where the director would try to weave in so many subplots the whole thing becomes silly (and a lot of fun)... The movie is heavy on gore and there's a ton of beautiful women, therefore its a visually pleasing film to watch, especially with the premature aging effect they use to make the movie seem old. Another factor I was excited about was Micheal Biehn, I haven't seen him in an action oriented roll in a while and it was good to see him back in action (whatever happened to him anyway?). The plot is fairly simple, a zombie outbreak in which the survivors are the cure for the zombie infection and have to survive. Its a really fun movie, and is the better half of Grindhouse (Death Proof seemed like a very ODD chick flick). I recommend it highly to anyone who likes zombies...

WARNING: I advise anyone who has not seen the film yet to not read this comment. I must tell all, that in my honest opinion, Planet Terror is one astonishingly magnificent masterpiece. It was wonderfully exciting and filled with great action parts, hilarious tongue-in-cheek humor, and non-stop entertainment. Next to it's sibling, Death Proof, there's no doubt that Planet Terror is the better of the two. Death Proof was great, don't get me wrong, but as for Planet Terror, it was flawless. There's just more exciting, fun, and catchy scenes and lines in Planet Terror than Death Proof, like when Cherry gets a table leg as a leg to walk on and is stumbling out of the hospital, and later in the car uses the line, "It's splintering", and when she gets her machine gun leg and blasts her way through endless zombies with kick-ass maneuvers. They even manage to bring out a bit of sorrow when Cherry's lover Ray dies, which is hard to find in a movie of this genre. Regardless of which flick you think is better, if you have seen both features of Grindhouse, you must admit that Planet Terror had better action than Death Proof and that the performances were so just a bit more enjoyable, at least, I certainly thought so. In my honest opinion, this feature is a wonderful movie that could attract just as more attention off by itself than if it was shown in theaters next to Death Proof, which, it was. Planet Terror was spectacular, and I tell this to everyone, if you aren't into great scenes of gore, non-stop action and suspense, and horror/comedy dialogue, you just don't know what you are missing out on if you don't love Planet Terror, especially if you didn't find yourself laughing or being mesmerized at any scene in said film.

Rodriguez's half of the original 'grindhouse' double bill , which consisted of his TERROR PLANET with Tarantino's DEATH PROOF. Likely audience reactions led to the two titles being separated and issued apart. As a homage to the drive-in tradition and genres beloved by Tarantino et al, the two films are resolutely exploitative, but PLANET is the most overtly tongue in cheek, and the most enjoyable, being a good old shoot 'em up Zombie flic. Unlike SIN CITY which was inspired by good source work which led to it being rather self consciously 'cool', PLANET tries hard to mimic bad work that, by definition of its admirers is *unconsciously* cool. This reviewer at least found the results less pretentious, the trash origins not being made more of than they ever were - the sexist treatment of women for instance less insidious. The illusion of viewing much watched, much loved bad 70's junk cinema is extended even to the point of deliberately introducing blemishes to the film, also plot holes, as well as a whole 'missing reel' which interrupts the continuity, with suitable management apologies, half way through the action. Interestingly these artifacts on screen have a vivid presence, counterpointing key words and moments with an abstract, but deliberate commentary of colours, flares, clicks and splices that practically qualifies them as a 'character' in their own right. One especially relishes the colour balance slide to red as Tarantino (in a self-directed sequence playing a rapist) works his menace, or the apt film flare or burn outs during the erotic moments. Some great lines (e.g. Bruce Willis' opening words "Where's the sh*t?") and over the top gore add to a fun mix. Perhaps the only miscalulation is the length of the film; most cheap exploitation flicks struggled to reach the 80 min mark, which meant their weaknesses did not always outstay their welcome. Clocking in at almost 2 hours, PLANET TERROR forgets eventually that more of the 'bad' to the Nth degree is not always to the best, revealing the self indulgence common to some of the later works of the Rodriguez-Tarantino school, but this is a minor quibble and fans won't mind. Whether or not those unfamiliar with the original inspiration will get the joke for that long is a different matter, although an audio track which includes live audience reaction makes things easier. The DVD comes complete with a splendid fake trailer for MACHETE, a supposed Mexploitation revenge drama - which incidentally IMDb seems to think is actually slated for production next year!

Okay, this film was supposed to be a parody, but even with that low standard, it could have been better. The whole bit about the machine gun attachment for the one-legged woman was extremely insulting to even the lowest level of intelligence. How could she possibly have pulled the trigger? How?? The thing with the jar of testicles - does this really pass for entertainment in western civilization? This film suffered because it was crude and pandered to the lowest of lowlifes. I'll admit that it had a better take on the "living dead" than most films of this genre. I have to go back to the machine-gun to leg attachment: it may have been the singularly most stupid thing I've seen outside of a Popeye cartoon. By the way, this woman had just gotten her leg amputated earlier in the evening. She sure recovers from surgery quickly - no pain meds, no post-op drowsiness from anesthesia....really stupid; too stupid to be a successful parody.

Planet Terror, before becoming it's own movie-animal of sorts as a stand-alone feature released in most parts of the world (and on DVD), was a slightly shorter, near-perfect first part of a double-bill of the Rodriguez/Tarantino double-feature Grindhouse. Not to sound like I'm in a rocking chair rambling like it's old times (and it's not even a year since its North American release), but Grindhouse contained in it two features that just very simply, quickly tapped into that genuine spirit of B-movies out there, the art and power of sleaze and trash that might not be that when done right. And also as a treat, each film showcases, in all fetishized and stupendous glory, the skills of the respective filmmakers (this goes as well for the directors of the 'trailers' that ran between the two films). For Tarantino it's stylized long-shots, intellectual-*-vapid dialog, and a penchant for bad-ass ladies and some sick violence. For Rodriguez, it's what we've come to see as a sort of mix between his Mariachi films and From Dusk till Dawn: slam-bang action, truly absurd twists with the occasional shock factor (in this case the "accidental" death of a child), and raucous humor from dialog that, in its own right, is probably just as self-consciously clever as QT's. On its own, and in its extended and unrated cut form, as recently watched on DVD, Planet Terror luckily doesn't suffer as much from the added footage as Death Proof nearly did. There isn't some big block of specific scenes stuffed back in from the original cut, however the bits that are noticeable for those who are aware of the original 90 minute version- i.e. waking up at night to see the green-tinted moon, the extra bit at the police station, some extras at the hospital- don't really add much at all to the proceedings to make it any better as it is. For what it's worth though, to those who will seek it out having not had the luck- as imposed by the what seems to be ironic monacher after the Machete trailer "Brought to you by your friends at the Weinstein Company!"- Planet Terror is a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners zombie flick, filled with enough ballsy attitude for two B-movies that deserve to get immediately dusted off and played to packed audiences of sick f***s who cant get enough of gruesome, over-the-top horror violence and tongue-in--so-deep-it's-breaking-the-cheek dialog. A simple premise is that a noxious gas is let loose by a military group, somehow in some deranged plot involved with a post Bin-Laden atmosphere, and it creates total havoc on a small Texas town over one night. And over this one night a go-go dancer, a crafty but vulnerable nurse, a Chicano who's "got the devil in im'", a BBQ maestro, and some various tag-alongs and police officers bind together to fight the combat the infectious plague. Made with panache and visual as well as verbal wit (maybe funniest is how a sex scene is so hot it burns up the screen, literally, and when the scene comes back on the place is on fire!), Rodriguez has a nifty little classic of a comedy almost in the guise of an action film inspired by both Fulci and Carpenter (however much better than the former would ever produce). Watch it friends!

For some reason the original double feature movie of Grindhouse combining Planet Terror with Tarantino's effort was never released in the UK! Regardless, i was still curious to watch both efforts, and the first of which I've had the chance to see is Planet Terror. It's simply about a small town that comes under attack from a virus which when it affects the town-folk makes everyone into zombie like creatures (e.g. attacking others to infect them also, appearances become inhuman etc etc). Add into this mix a Go-Go girl, her ex-boyfriend (an expert at gunslinging), a doctor with a cheating lesbian loving wife-*-doctor and a bunch of others and you have your pulp fiction movie. Story wise its crazy but surprisingly its still quite fun. Dialogue isn't too bad, and is very entertaining. The film never really twists but plays along for the action as that's the main gist of the whole thing. Explosions, mass shootings, more explosions, zombie pulverising and even more shooting are the order of the day. Most importantly this has been filmed in the style of the old b-movies, with grainy pictures and a couple of homages to old b-movie filming (including a comical starting fake preview of a film called "Machete"). Overall, I very much enjoyed it. Switch off and you'll like and enjoy it. Worthy of a good night out.