Planet Terror

I’ve previously made my thoughts clear on the Siamese-twin-separation of Planet Terror from its Grindhouse sister, Death Proof, in a previous pick, so I’ll spare you the bitch-rant this time. Truth be told, both films are enough fun to recommend outside their original intended context… Robert Rodriguez’s no-holds-barred zombie bloodbath perhaps even more than Tarantino’s slasher pic. While the latter adheres to then upends the conventions of its chosen genre, Planet Terror dives straight into the night-in-hell apocalypse of your horror-loving dreams and delivers a nonstop thrill ride.

Somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, a military black-market deal gone horribly wrong releases a toxic government-developed gas into the air that rapidly turns Joe Q. Public into the festering, entrail-munching undead. Which of course begins happening in droves, while numerous luckily (or is it unluckily?) immune denizens struggle to stay alive, among them Rose McGowan’s snarky-sad gogo dancer and her towtruck-driving ex, Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under’s sweet undertaker reincarnated as a tattooed desperado); Marley Shelton’s shifty, sexy emergency room doc who picked the wrong night to try and ditch surly hubby Josh Brolin; and gruff, still-hot-as-his-Terminator-publicity-still Michael Biehn as the sheriff who wants to know just what the sam-hell is going on, goddammit. That’s just the principles, by the way – look for genre faves and horror kingpins in supporting roles as well as big-name uncredited cameos

Rodriguez’s extended cut does not add a whole lot of drastic changes to the original theatrical edit; the missing reel gag, removed from the Death Proof DVD, is still here (eyyy!), and most of what’s been reinstated are extensions of scenes that either heighten the character development or maximize the gore. Either way, WIN! . At least one of the fake trailers from the theatrical Grindhouse presentation – Rodriguez’s hilariously bad-assed Danny Trejo-starrer “Machete” – does precede the feature here. And RR has put together a pretty decent package including commentary and multiple featurettes.

Also recommended this week: Ab Fab: Absolutely Everything; The Hoax; The Jazz Singer: Deluxe Edition; A Mighty Heart; Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: The Complete Series; Transformers: Special Edition

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 9:29 pm by nic campos and is filed under DVD New Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.