Grindhouse 2 at the New Beverly Cinema

Quentin Tarantino is known for, if nothing else, grindhouse movies. You know, those movies that aren't quite exploitation movies but are so absolutely bonkers that all you can do is enjoy the ride. As it is the 10th anniversary of these movies, the New Beverly Cinema (that Tarantino owns) has decided to celebrate by showing these grindhouse movies in their original state. What does that mean you may ask. Well, it means that these films were meant to be watched as a double feature at the drive-in. Yes, a drive-in like the one Jughead lives in at the beginning of Riverdale. I can't speak for Grindhouse 1 (Planet Terror and Death Proof) as I didn't go to those showings but, for Grindhouse 2 (Machete and Hell Ride), there was a ten minute intermission. What I mean is that we got to see an original drive-in intermission where for the entirety of the ten minutes was spent telling us to visit the concessions stand and get crisp popcorn that tastes "golden good," (whatever that means), "fresh frozen" ice cream (again, whatever that means) and cigarettes. The cigarettes was when we knew it was vintage. Before I get into the films, I want to mention two things. The first is that there was a small audience as in, a Friday college class small. The only explanation that I have is it was on a Sunday night. The second thing is that as part of the program old toothpaste commercials were shown. I have never seen such ridiculous ads in my life (excluding the Old Spice ads because those are supposed to be ridiculous and over the top). These ads were acting as if normal Aquafresh was revolutionary. It was awesome.

Machete

Machete started off as a fake trailer shown with the original grindhouse movies. The basic plot is Danny Trejo as a former Federale who stops a drug cartel. The details of this plot are where it gets simultaneously awesome and completely bonkers. The success of the film in because nobody is taking this insanity seriously. Not the actors and certainly not the audience. 

Plot details: Trejo's family is killed and he ends up in Texas as an illegal immigrant looking for work. Robert DeNiro is a senator who is a hard line anti-immigration supporter and wants to build an electric fence on the border. Stephen Segal is the drug cartel leader that killed Trejo's family. Jessica Alba is an I.C.E. agent trying to bring down a group helping illegal immigrants settle called the Network. Michelle Rodriguez runs a taco truck and is the secret leader of the Network. And Cheech Marin is a priest. For reasons. Essentially, the entire movie is a government conspiracy and political message blown up to ridiculous levels with bullets and tits. It is fantastic and well worth a watch.

Hell Ride

I did not enjoy Hell Ride. The plot is a 32 year long revenge plan involving motorcycles, violence and amazing shots of desert landscape. I found the movie to be, for lack of a better word, mellow in regards to the grindhouse genre. What I mean by that is there aren't as many explosions, turns of batshit insanity, or even nudity. There is a lot of highly interesting turn of phrase happening which is slightly unusual for this kind of film. I do want some of the motorcycles shown.

It was an incredibly fun evening and the best part was that you can get Reese's cups chilled. Warm peanut butter cups are not good so the fact that there is a cold option is amazing. Also, the fact that the have Reese's cups is amazing as well. It seems like every theatre is only selling Reese's Pieces and I have no desire to eat what is essentially (to me) peanut butter M&M's.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Heavy Metal

There are many genres in film ranging from drama to family friendly. Within these genres are sub-genres and sometimes multiple genres are present in one film. One of the least talked about genres is animation. Some film scholars and critics see animation as a lesser art form and will dislike a film because of it. This upsets me as I love animation (when it's well done) especially anime. One of the vastly underrated classics of animation is Heavy Metal. Let me preface this by saying that Heavy Metal is NOT meant for children. This film is meant for older teens and adults. This is a hard R and might possibly be an NC-17. Heavy Metal falls in a category of animated films that include Fire and Ice and the entirety of Ralph Bakshi's work. It's a category that most people don't realize even exists. There are animated films that are not for young children. Some anime and non-hard R films fall into this category as well (Princess Mononoke and The Secret of NIMH to start.) I remember seeing a woman bring her toddler in to Paranorman and I wasn't surprised when he started to cry at the end with all of the scary stuff happening. Trailers exist for a reason.

Heavy Metal started off as an anthology magazine with different authors/artists having their stories published. The movie follows that formula as well. There is an overarching story of a glowing green orb of evil telling these tales to a girl in a farmhouse. This is not the opening of the film. The film opens with a classic car being dropped out of a space shuttle in order to enter Earth's atmosphere. And yes, there is an astronaut driving while rock music plays. If it hasn't been made clear by now, this movie is completely bonkers.

The best part of Heavy Metal is the sequence with the B-52 bomber over the Pacific. That could have been a film on its own. It is frakking creepy and unnerving. The one extremely effective part is after the co-pilot has gone to the other end of the plane and seen that everyone, besides him and the pilot, is dead. A jump scare occurs then, he goes back to the cockpit and... the bodies are gone. It's one of those scenes that could easily go unnoticed and does get overshadowed by the rest of the sequence but, it is incredibly effective at setting up what's about to happen.

I was able to see a screening of Heavy Metal a couple of weeks ago at The New Beverly in Los Angeles. I know I've mentioned this before but, the best part about this theatre is that concessions here aren't ridiculously expensive. A large soda is $3. Let that sink in for a moment. The downside is that the slope of the theatre floor is rather shallow and I seem to consistently have tall/large men sit in front of me. This wouldn't normally be a problem except I then have to sit on my leg so I can see the screen unobstructed. That didn't happen for Heavy Metal and I was so damn happy. There were probably ten open seats in the whole place and two of them were right in front of me. A good night indeed.


Overall Rating: 4.5/5