comment #1

thevisceral says ...

Kevin Smith draws from personal observation and life experience, and he's a wanker too. Difference is he has no potential to piss away.

comment #2

Goulet says ...

Bullshit.

DEATH PROOF might be QT's most personal film since TRUE ROMANCE. I very much feel that it's about the women in his life and/or women he's observed. Of course, it goes through his point of view, and they come out like Tarantino characters, but at the start, they're born from someplace real.

comment #3

Jack Price says ...

Amen Goulet, I was just about to chime in with the same observation.

Of the two films, Death Proof was the more loosey-goosey in terms of actually paying homage to the Grindhouse films of old. Hell, the scratchy film veneer even dropped out after the first "reel missing" card.

Death Proof is fantastic entertainment, and the premise itself was uniquely Q's own. I'll see if Mike White has anything to say about that, but from my vantage point I failed to see the blatant referencing that's so apparent in every one of his other films. It's still there, granted, but character reigns supreme in this effort.

comment #4

EOTW says ...

Grindhouse sucked. Both parts. QT was over after JB. RR has always sucked and always will. Yes, KS sucks too.

comment #5

christian says ...

qt has plenty of films in him and it's obvious he wouldn't be able to go much further than GH so what's the big deal? this film was made pretty fast given qt's schedule and again, the worst strike against GH is length and cost. i'm seeing it again today. harris shouldn't be so smug about GH not raking in dough. it just means more PERFECT STRANGERS.

comment #6

Mike Ock says ...

Jeff is being generous, it looks like Grindhouse dropped 74% from opening night to last night.

http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/Weekend-Box-Office.php?chart_id=3373

I guess all of you who blamed Grindhouse's failure on the fact the fact that it opened on Easter, had a point. Ditto for all who said it was gonna have legs due to the great word of mouth.

Grindhouse aint even gonna be in the top 10 this weekend. It got beat by Pathfinder,Redline, Wild Hogs (in it's 8th week), and the Aqua Teen movie!!

comment #7

Mike Ock says ...

Check out the per screen average, $494 per screen last night. It's gonna start losing theaters today.

comment #8

christian says ...

ouch.

but it just adds to GH's insular charms.

i've heard people are walking out after PT, not understanding it's a double feature...this is how i felt after BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA opened, i dragged all my friends to it to no avail...

comment #9

EOTW says ...

A shitty movie not making money? What's not good about that?

comment #10

Jay says ...

For me, the EW writer nails what ruined Death Proof for me. It was the head-swiveling, "nigga please" factor. I was looking forward to great dialogue and interesting characters. My problem was that these characters' personalities were unlikable, abrasive and boring. If I were at a party with them, I would go into the next room. I think the film was skillfully made (obviously) it is just that Tarantino trusted his film to charmless actresses (for the most part) and gave them shallow dialogue. Those kind of conversations are fun if you are part of them, but tend to annoy when overhearing them.

comment #11

christian says ...

qt has said he thinks it's the best dialogue he's ever written.
that worries me a bit.

comment #12

Craig Kennedy says ...

I went to see The Hoax last night (thanks Wells, all I could think about were the missing towers and whether or not Gere was to old) and I timed it so I could walk into a screening of Grindhouse just as Planet Terror was ending because I wanted to see Death Proof again. I was expecting a mostly empty theater and I was surprised to find that it was full. Meaningless anecdotal evidence. I'm certain Grindhouse is a box office stiff but it doesn't change my opinion of it.

comment #13

Mike Ock says ...

"qt has said he thinks it's the best dialogue he's ever written.
that worries me a bit."

Dude, you didn't expect him to say it was the worst, did you?

comment #14

Craig Kennedy says ...

Mike Ock, you know, a reasonable person who saw a movie and hated it would move on with their lives rather than obsessing over it with repeated (and often identical) postings on message boards.

You're the one who's been burned here. You wasted your 3 hours and your 10 dollars and now you're compounding it. Some of us enjoyed ourselves and your ranting doesn't diminish that and neither does the box office failure of the movie in question.

comment #15

jeffmcm says ...

It's a good movie and film culture is poorer for its box-office failure.

comment #16

Mike Ock says ...

How am I being unreasonable? All I'm doing is telling the truth, because the truth needed to be told. So many people went out of their way to spin last weekend's disastrous opening, saying "It failed because it was Easter." If that was the case, what the reason this weekend?"

Others were like "It failed because it was 3 hrs long, and it didn't have enough show times" Again, not true. Most theaters here in NYC, had it playing at least every hour on the hour. One theater had it playing a total of 12 times a day, on at least 5 screens.

I'm glad it failed, because maybe this is the wakeup call that QT and RR needed to step their game up, and get back to making great movies, that someone other than their diehards, apologists, or critics who pretend to liked this piece of crap so they'd seem hip, would go see.

It's funny how QT said a few years ago that he split Kill Bill into two movies because he thought it'd be too pretentious to release a 3 hr Kung Fu movie, but then he went ahead and released a 3 hr Grindhouse movie with RR.

comment #17

Craig Kennedy says ...

I guess my take on why it failed was simple: because most people didn't want to see it. After my experience last night I am a little surprised it's off so much this weekend, but I still don't really care. Box office is a retarded measure of a film's quality. I'm sure it means a lot to Harvey and to QT, but as a consumer I couldn't care less. Lots of movies I like never reach a large audience.

I just don't understand why you seem to get so much joy out of a movie tanking. I don't question your opinion on the movie, a lot of people hated it and even some of the ones who liked it didn't like Death Proof, but I don't understand why you haven't moved on by now. You're trying to be 'right' about something that is purely subjective. There is no right and wrong.

comment #18

Mike Ock says ...

The only reason I'm getting so much joy out of the move tanking, is because I happen to LOVE QT and RR. They're two of my favorite filmmakers, but I have to call it like I see it.

They made a shitty movie. Planet Terror was a bad movie, but Death Proof was an embarrassment.

The same way fans boo, when their favorite ball player is half-assing it, audiences let out a collective boo this weekend.

When QT and RR make another good movie, I'll be first in line to support it, but until then...BOOOOOOO!!!!!!

comment #19

Craig Kennedy says ...

As you probably guessed, I liked Death Proof a lot. I hope to see it again by itself and I'm open to the possibility I might change my mind. Once the glow of the car chase business gets old, the dialogue everyone seems to hate so much might bother me more.

I'm on record elsewhere though as saying I hope QT next attempts something a little more dramatically ambitious instead of just stylistically so. To that end I think we actually agree on something.

And I should just shut up before trying to quash anyone's opinion anyway. I'm sure this summer when Pirates 3 comes out and I'm ranting about it endlessly I'll look like quite the hypocrite.

comment #20

Craig Kennedy says ...

And seriously though, doesn't anyone else find it odd I stumbled into a packed theater last night? Granted, it was an 8:30 showing on a Friday night in a large urban environment, but still I was expecting way fewer people.

comment #21

jeffmcm says ...

Obviously you _don't_ love QT and RR or you would understand the points of their films and enjoy them. It's like saying "I love Scorsese" and then complaining because he made Bringing Out the Dead instead of Casino 2.

comment #22

Craig Kennedy says ...

I don't know Jeff, maybe 'love' is too strong a word but I can see plenty of leeway for fans of QT to not like Death Proof. And some people who love Scorsese do hate Bringing Out the Dead. I think they're misguided, but their opinion of Scorsese and their opinion of that specific film are not necessarily inconsistent.

A guy can love his wife but hate it when she farts in bed, right?

For some people, I guess Death Proof was a massive, noisy bed fart. I can't explain it, but it seems to be so.

comment #23

christian says ...

cj, people are going to see it by word of mouth. if you check out the imdb posts, you'll see a lot of young people inspired by GH.

i think GH will do well in urban areas and again, if it was shorter and had been dirt cheap it would have been a successful experiment.

okay, time to spliff to the GH matinee...

comment #24

D.Z. says ...

visceral: Actually, I think Kevin has potential, but he's pissing it away by focusing too much on vanity projects. And that horror project he's doing just seems more like a political statement than something entertaining.

Goulet: They seem more like guys he's known transferred into female characters. But I think what really annoyed me about DP was the way they played that 70s romantic comedy background music while some girl texts her boyfriend. That just reeks of pretension. Plus it felt like it was one step away from an iPOD commercial.

Mike: I'm surprised Harvey added more theaters. Anyway, GH could have had more legs, but everyone who saw it twice probably did so last weekend, and don't want to do it again, because even the fans don't wanna deal with a 3 hour running time. Hell, I knew people who couldn't stand sitting through Titanic, and only used it as an excuse to score.
As for Kill Bill's split, that was just a scam to make you pay three times for the same movie.

christian: Except that Big Trouble In Little China was fun, and DP is a chore.

cj: "Box office is a retarded measure of a film's quality."

Yeah, Battlefield Earth is an underappreciated gem.

Anyway, on to the article:

"He's abandoned what was great about Pulp Fiction (control, impeccable pacing, utter originality, knowing when the characters should stop talking)"

In other words, Roger Avary.

"With Kill Bill, we got four hours and seven minutes of bended-knee worship of martial-arts movies, blaxploitation, spaghetti westerns, and Japanese comic books. Some brilliant action;"

What action?

comment #25

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Mike Ock wrote:

"It's funny how QT said a few years ago that he split Kill Bill into two movies because he thought it'd be too pretentious to release a 3 hr Kung Fu movie, but then he went ahead and released a 3 hr Grindhouse movie with RR."

Regardless of your opinion of the movie, it's two movies for the price of one. Stop bitching about the running time, douchebag.

comment #26

Craig Kennedy says ...

DZ. "Yeah, Battlefield Earth is an underappreciated gem."

And Pirates 2 is a fucking masterpiece.

Or wait...were you not being sarcastic?

comment #27

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"In other words, Roger Avary."

RA didn't direct Pulp Fiction, though.

"What action?"

Um, almost all of KB part 1 was action. Here you go again throwing text up the screen you don't even believe yourself. Liar.

Liar.

comment #28

D.Z. says ...

cj: At least Pirates 2 gave people what they wanted, which is more than can be said about DP.

CitizenKane: Not action as much as shitty camera-work hiding bad choreography.

comment #29

Craig Kennedy says ...

Define people DZ. Pirates 2 didn't give me what I wanted. I'm a person. In fact, I was just looking over my Top 10 of 2006 and only 1 film appears on the box office Top 20: The Departed. The only film in the Top 10 I even liked was Casino Royale.

This applies to you as well. You admit you liked Big Trouble in Little China: box office failure.
You hated Departed: Box office hit.

I'm sure a lot of people's expectations of a movie match up with box office figures, but I doubt many of them read and post on Hollywood Elsewhere.

You can convince me you hate Tarantino and that that doesn't automatically make you a crazy person, but you'll never be able to argue that I should pay attention to box office when deciding whether or not to see a movie.

comment #30

Craig Kennedy says ...

And see, this is what I complain about when I complain about the manner of your contributions to this blog: Your blind hatred is causing you to argue tangential points that actually have nothing to do with the subject you're so obsessed about.

Maybe you're just sitting there laughing at people getting all pissed off and jumping through hoops to prove you wrong. If so, congratulations on your success but that's a pretty weird way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

comment #31

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"CitizenKane: Not action as much as shitty camera-work hiding bad choreography"

Ah, but sheer incompetence (in your uneducated opinion) doesn't change the genre of the movie.

For example, Jet Li's The One is horribly choreographed, but it's still full of action.

If Kill Bill had Tony Jaa in the lead instead of Uma, you would have loved it, admit it.

comment #32

Craig Kennedy says ...

CKCG: DZ admits nothing. I'm crazy for falling into another one of his endless argument traps, but I'm going to shake it off by going to some movies...

comment #33

The Winchester says ...

If Kill Bill had Tony Jaa in it, it could very well be the coolest movie of all time. Although, it would make the plotline about having David Carradine's kid just a tad creepy.

comment #34

D.Z. says ...

cj: "Define people DZ. Pirates 2 didn't give me what I wanted."

Ok, I'll re-phrase that as people who want to be entertained, as opposed to people who want to be dicked around, because they think it's a badge of courage.

"You hated Departed: Box office hit."

I didn't hate The Departed. I just didn't think
it was good as its source material. But I'll still take it over Quentin's remake of City on Fire.

Kane: "For example, Jet Li's The One is horribly choreographed, but it's still full of action."

I'm not disagreeing with you there. Kill Bill's action is as bad as the kind featured in most of Jet Li's American films. The only one Li got right was Unleashed, and that was because they let Yuen Woo Ping shoot his scenes without cutting them up in post.

"If Kill Bill had Tony Jaa in the lead instead of Uma, you would have loved it, admit it."

If Kill Bill could have anyone who could fight, and actually did fight, instead of quoting older movies, I might have loved it.

Winchester: It'd probably take place in a sperm bank instead of a hospital.

comment #35

Mike Ock says ...

"Obviously you _don't_ love QT and RR or you would understand the points of their films and enjoy them. It's like saying "I love Scorsese" and then complaining because he made Bringing Out the Dead instead of Casino 2."

Oh please, there's not that much there to "understand".

No director in the history of film is immune to making crap. There will always be apologists, who regardless of the quality of their films will claim to love everything they do, and will scoff at anyone who doesn't.

comment #36

Mike Ock says ...

"Regardless of your opinion of the movie, it's two movies for the price of one. Stop bitching about the running time, douchebag."

Douche bag? LMAO!! Who the fuck still says that? Did Tarantino write that for you? You must be stuck in a time warp.

Fuck you and your dumb flock of sea gulls haircut wearing, Seinfeld watching, pet rock owning, Pepsi Free drinking ass!!

comment #37

Pelham123 says ...

I went back for a second look today before the movie vanishes (& who knows what will show up on DVD) and to get a better take on "Death Proof" which the first time through I thought was pretty talky. "Planet Terror" is a riot. I liked "Death Proof" better the second time, but I still thought the second group of girls (mainly "Nigga, please") were grating at times. The audience, which filled about 1/2 the Chinese reacted as enthusiastically to both films and the trailers as did the opening weekend crowd I saw it with. I know "Grindhouse" tanked badly, but it seems to play to really happy crowds. Rodriguez & Tarantino made a film about cult films and now (thanks to it bombing) they have their very own cult film.

comment #38

Craig Kennedy says ...

DZ, believe it or not, I like to be entertained by my movies just like anyone else. Pirates 2 bored the piss out of me.

comment #39

D.Z. says ...

cj: So if Pirates 2 had more of Keira talking about her sexual hang-ups and less action, you'd like it more?

comment #40

Mike Ock says ...

"I know "Grindhouse" tanked badly, but it seems to play to really happy crowds. Rodriguez & Tarantino made a film about cult films and now (thanks to it bombing) they have their very own cult film."

I agree. They made a cult film of their own. Though I clearly didn't care for it, I'm glad you dug it though.

comment #41

Craig Kennedy says ...

DZ. No. You realize my half of the conversation is no longer about Grindhouse, right? Remember my point about you arguing tangents...? You're defending Pirates 2 and the idea that box office is a meaningful measure of whether or not a movie is any good...all because you hate Tarantino.

That's crazy talk. It makes no sense.

comment #42

D.Z. says ...

cj: I didn't say good, just more successful at reaching and appealing to audiences. Anyway, in terms of "good" movies which may not necessarily have a big box office, my point is there's a difference between films which were never meant to be huge, but which make their money back over time(for example, Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner) and films which fail, due to the director's ego. (Heaven's Gate, Waterworld, etc.) Grindhouse is unfortunately part of the latter category.

comment #43

Craig Kennedy says ...

DZ, We are now talking in circles about two completely different things. I'll give you the last word if you want it though.

comment #44

christian says ...

if not, i'll take it.

GRINDHOUSE 4-ever!

comment #45

rexdex says ...

intimlife.com.ua vip проститутки киева
sexbombs.com.ua девочки проститутки
sexbombs.kiev.ua дешовые проститутки
sexrelax.com.ua дорогие проститутки киева
sexarena.com.ua знакомства для секса
realgirls.com.ua знакомства секс фото
reflex.kiev.ua индивидуалки дешевые
sexopilki.com.ua интим досуг проститутки
putanavip.com.ua интим проститутки киев
escortmodels.kiev.ua интим услуги г киев
escortmodels.com.ua