Grindhouse: One movie for the price of two

As evident in my Netflix queue, I rarely go out to see movies. As a matter of fact, I can count the number of times that I have been inside of a movie theater this year on one hand. One of those times in particular, though, sticks out from all of the rest, and that was when a few co-workers and I went to see Grindhouse on the ultra mega-screen during its opening week.

To me, Grindhouse seemed more like an event than a movie. It was two faux-low budget movies back-to-back from directors Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) and Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof), complete with fake trailers from a few other horror filmmakers (Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright) mixed in-between. The entire thing from start to finish was a little over three hours long, but the small crowd on hand that watched it loved every minute of it. Speaking of small crowds, the movie only brought in half of what it cost to make the entire picture during its box office run.

Since it is money that makes the world go round, the people at the Weinstein Company have decided to split the two movies and release them separately on DVD. Death Proof hit store shelves about a month ago while Planet Terror was released today. Both of them are two-disc sets that includes extra footage along with tons of bonus features, but that isn't enough to make a buyer out of me.

Why won't I buy them? That’s simple, because of the fact that the two movies were made to be seen as one. Grindhouse was based on a concept and seeing one feature without the other takes away from that. For example, Death Proof wasn't that great of a movie in my opinion. However, Planet Terror set the overall tone as the first feature, which made Death Proof more bearable to watch as I knew what to expect going into it. Plus, let's not forget about the fake trailers that have mysteriously disappeared from either DVD release.

Yes, you may see both Planet Terror and Death Proof pop up in my Netflix queue, but that is so I can see them once again. Other than that, I have vowed not to spend a single cent on either of the Grindhouse features until they are released as they should have been, as a single movie. Mark my words, that day will come in due time.

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