GRINDHOUSE split in two

Lots of pissing and moaning about GRINDHOUSE - the biggest pisser and moaner being executive producer Harvey Weinstein, who was disappointed in "poor" box office after the opening weekend. His major complaint is that some members of the audience didn't "get" what directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were doing. In other words - Weinstein theorizes - people didn't realize it was a double bill and started walking out after the Rodriguez film - PLANET TERROR, during the fake trailers. Weinstein's solution - rerelease the films on their own.

This is a major mistake since GRINDHOUSE is ONE FILM and should be experienced as a whole...

Quoting Weinstein: "I don't think people understood what we were doing. The audience didn't get the idea that it is two movies for the price of one. I don't understand the math, but I want to accommodate the audience." Which is bullshit - Weinstein could care less about accommodating the audience - he's pissed because it didn't rake in the cash he was hoping.

Splitting the film in half doesn't accommodate the audience - in fact, it rips them off because they'll have to pay for admission twice. Cha-ching.

GRINDHOUSE demands you sit through the complete 3 hours and 11 minutes, as you start to see how the films work together - that one without the other loses its inherent power. Characters intersect - Earl McGraw, Dakota Block, Cherry/Pam; themes collide (ie - castration fixation, female empowerment).

Sadly though, Weinstein may not be far off the mark regarding the audience. I was amazed at how many people walked out of the film during the "trailers" in search of bathroom or popcorn, only to come back at the start of the next film. Obviously their loss - the trailers are worth the price of admission and shouldn't be missed. This behavior could be Pavlovian in nature - we've been trained over the years of watching movies to retreat to the concession stand, the kitchen, the bathroom during trailers - why should this be any different?

Yet, ultimately, the trailers work as the glue connecting both films - keeps up the intensity of the total package vibe. Plus there's bumpers galore and nasty looking concession food ads. And who wouldn't want to see any of these pretend films. In fact, MACHETE is being produced but straight to video...But I'd love to see THANKSGIVING just to see what the fuck that's all about.

During the trailers, this is not the time to run out to the lobby...

Anyway - there's also talk of releasing the films separately on DVD - which is a shame because the package together would be so nice. Its probably not necessary to say but, overall, GRINDHOUSE works best on the big screen and the scratches and pops on disc may be annoying - its a tough call. There's also a rumor that there will be a second disc release with the "Criterion" approach, "cleaning up" the films, remove scratches, replacing "missing reals," etc.

Now that's funny...