Why We'll Never Get Another Movie Like Grindhouse 

The truth is that is was a "tribute-event" from two directors that love their job, love movies and are friends. And that is probably the best thing about 2007.

It’s a shame Grindhouse did so poorly. I had such a blast seeing this in theaters when it came out.

One of the best times I had in a theater. At the time, a guy I went to school with was a manager at my local theater. I was there one day to see something else, when he told me to come to the theater that saturday night at 2AM (so Sunday morning). I get there and there's like a dozen other people there. It led us inside and played Grindhouse, which wasn't releasing until the upcoming week. I can think of no better way to watch a movie like this than at a secret advance showing to a small group of horror fans. I don't know if he did that often, but that's the only secret showing like that he ever invited me to. He moved out of town like a year later.

One thing I will always support. A Director doing what THEY want and the passion they show for it. It’s not always to my liking but it’s respectable

Planet Terror and Deathproof were THE movies of 2007

Death Proof is in my top 3 tarantiono movies. It's just so intimate for Quentin (even more so than Once Upon...) and you can really see what inpirations are behind his directorial genius.

Seeing this opening night was easily the best theater experience I've ever had.

I’m so grateful I got the chance to see Grindhouse in theaters. I was 14 at the time and Tarantino and Rodriguez were huge idols to me and that experience will always be a core memory. Deathproof is still one of my fav flicks and criminally underrated. I hope the theater industry can get back on their feet and take chances like this again. There’s still a huge fan base of people who will sit for four hours to watch creative and innovative passion projects.

Nothing can top the experience of being in the theater for four hours and laughing nearly all the way through and getting hooked towards the end with the serious nature from deathproof. Just an amazing experience all in all. “Don’t”

I genuinely believe if this was released now it'd be a completely different hype. Good movies at the wrong time

Death Proof is such an underrated flick. Quite frankly, it's truly a perfect movie.

I don't think it was simply the movie's runtime that made it flop, but the fact that fewer theaters even wanted to show it BECAUSE of it's runtime (longer runtime means fewer screenings within a day). But also people just didn't comprehend the concept of grindhouse, they didn't understand the concept of double feature, they didn't get the gag of missing reels or jittery focus (I remember the theater I saw it in had a giant poster right by the screening room entrance that explained, in detail, that there would be "missing reels" and picture degradation, etc., and I suspect that turned people off too).

I'm mid 30's but there were still a couple old theaters, one with two screens and the other with 4, we also still had a drive in. Deathproof brought back so many memories for me, especially making the film quality lower with the sound having problems. Perfection. One thing I think Hollywood amd Theaters should bring back is the intermission. Let's you use the bathroom and get more snacks. Having to sit for 2+ hours is just too long and keeps me away from modern theaters. Great video!

Honestly, I still don't understand, why this failed. This movie gives you exactly what you can expect from both directors. Both of them are not making stories, pictures and so on. They give you EXPERIENCE. And it was THE best way to deliver

I actually drove 2 hours to the only theater that showed this movie, and to this day seeing Grindhouse is one of my top 3 theater going experiences. The only ones that top this was the first Avengers movie, and The Force Awakens

I contributed to that 11.5 million take. Probably my favorite theatrical experience ever, and I have watched it countless times at home as well…

As a movie nerd going to see Grindhouse on a Lucasarts screen in it's entirety is something I'll always remember fondly.

I will never forget going to see Grindhouse in it's entirety in 2007.

One of my favorite movies of all time

i’m trying to make it as a filmmaker, recently graduated high school, and have been obsessed with the grindhouse exploitative era and the grindhouse movie itself. i even made a short grindhouse film ya know with a filter over it and all that. did it with my friends.. i hope one day i can revive it

“Damn good sausage link, JT”. “Best in Texas”. All the barbecue references in Planet Terror always make me so hungry for it. And it damn looked good too, and I’m sure Rodriguez made it, since he has so many of the cooking school features on the DVDs/Blu-rays, with one specifically for Texas barbecue. Not to mention the nachos Kurt Russell’s Stuntman Mike eats in Death Proof. I don’t even like nachos but damn they looked amazing.

It's one of my favorite movie theater experiences, and I frequently go to the theater (hell I worked at one) and it was one of the most fun I've had with audiences. Leaving the theater at 5:00 am to go get breakfast really is a hell of a memory. I have Cherry Darling tattooed as a memento.

I saw Grindhouse in theaters in 2019. The dollar theater in my town hosted a viewing event for it. My friends and I had an absolute blast seeing it this way and I wish I could relive that magic again

Should be noted that the Hobo With a Shotgun trailer was not actually part of Grindhouse as it was shown theatrically, but was made as part of an online contest tie-in with the release of Grindhouse.

I loved Grindhouse and read Robert Rodriguez’s book religiously as a young guy. Definitely a core early 2000s experience, especially with the zombie craze.

I worked in a theater when The 6th Sense was playing. One of the other ushers would crank the AC in the room down to the 30s, so the entire audience would see their breath. Perfect.

Me and my buddy went and seen it the weekend it came out. The theater was MAYBE half full. But every single butt in the seat was a movie nerd. Sure it was about 4 hours, but it was a single ticket and there was a 15 minute intermission. Everyone in that theater had a blast! Especially with the "missing reel" cut. We all laughed our asses. It wasn't until the midnight showing of Avengers I felt that kind of joy and camaraderie in a theater again

I saw this in the theater and I have never regretted it. Both movie are perfect and deserve way more attention than they receive.

Planet Terror is an horror masterpiece, Death Proof is an okay Tarantino but a great hommage to old car chase movie

I agree that the theater experience is the time to be on your best behavior. I wish everybody else attending thought the same.

Planet Terror and Death Proof was an unique horror experience.

Saw it in theaters, it was an incredible experience

This was a theater experience for me, my friends and I saw it in Dennis Massachusetts, and we stocked up on Burger King bc the length(we still bought popcorn and soda to support the movie theater), all four of us had different tastes in movies and we all loved both. On our way out we saw a different foursome of friends heading in, we told them they were going to have a blast. The next time we saw any of those friends, we compared experiences and that was as fun as seeing Grindhouse. I’ll never forget it.

I saw the double feature in theaters when I was like 13. Truly blew my mind.

This movie was absolutely fever dream insanity.

I saw Grindhouse in the theater. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

I saw this film experience twice in the theater. Never regretted it.

I remember wanting to see Grindhouse on its second weekend but it was already taken out of theaters in my area. I was pissed! But eventually saw it and now own 6 different physical copies. I have posters, shirts and love all the spin offs. Rodriguez & Tarantino are the kings of bringing back the old flavor. I just wish Zombie would make “Werewolf Women of the SS” with Nick Cage as “Fu Manchu”.

I saw this in its initial run at the drive-in. It was glorious! And I believe the individual two films we see now were longer than the double feature versions.

I saw this opening day, first showing. I worked overnight at the time so a midday screening was the move for me. I had no knowledge it was gonna flop before buying my ticket and when I walked in the theater, I was the only one there. Solo the entire time. Even for midday, that was enough to know “this is gonna bomb”. Even with figuring that out really quickly, by the time I walked out, the thought was “what a shame, I just saw this how you’re supposed to see it and if you weren’t there for it, you’ll never really get it”. A great idea that fell flat. I defend this for what it is often with “movie people” who didn’t see it in theaters and it immediately disqualifies their opinion for me.

This was a blast seeing in theatres! Wish they’d do a follow up

I saw it in theatres. One of my best movie experiences of all time.

I saw Grindhouse in theaters when it was released and everyone there loved it. The fake movie trailers were so novel because we did not know they were fake. So it took thinking "there is no way they would make that would they?" while watching an already over the top pair of movies. It was a very special experience

I remember when I watched this in theaters, I was dropping out of highschool and what I was doing to with my time was just going to the movies. I went alone and I loved the movies.

Death Proof is one of his BEST the amount of slander it receives is maddening.

I’ll never forget that year because it was that perfect age where your older brother can drive you places, but doesn’t really want to, but Grindhouse was different. We were constantly trying to sneak in a showing and ended up seeing it at least 7 times. We lived in Texas at the time so it just felt like the perfect summer movie extravaganza, we couldn’t get enough. I’ll never forget the one evening show we went to at the Palladium theater, A woman had been in an accident and thrown from her vehicle and was deceased by the side of the road with a yellow tarp over her, Shoe on the opposite side of the road. We both just looked at each other like ‘ummm still up for it?’ but just kept on driving for 5 mins. in silence Until we just burst out laughing only because we couldn’t fathom it knowing we were out to see that specific level on carnage on screen. Like, could NOT fathom it. Looking back it definitely felt like a defense mechanism to make that death feel like it was a part of the movie and not something we actually lived.

Grindhouse are my favourite Tarantino movies. Planet Terror was ridiculous but amazing at the same time. The soundtrack to Death Proof is brilliant as well

I watched Planet Terror on DVD with a friend. The love scene - burning film - missing real - restaurant on fire gag got the biggest laugh of the whole movie. We got the joke.

I saw it in theaters. It was only me and five other people. I loved it so much! Its in my monthly rotation.

Had to buy this on Blu-ray recently just to watch the double feature and the trailers. This was such a fun theatre experience when it was released.

Was a fantastic theater experience watching this double feature, still some of my fave movies from them.

Death Proof is so underrated.

Everyone that I Know that saw it in theaters loved it. I was waiting for Thanksgiving for 15 years because of it.

I went TWICE to see these in theatres, went alone the first time cuz no one else wanted to go, then was blown away and DRAGGED 3 buddies to see em and they also fell in love with these GEMS!!!!...

I remember going to the theater with my friend and loving these movies and the trailers.

Just rewatched both of them recently... totally underrated gems in their genres and time. I remember reactions when they first released and people just didn't get the homage angle, but honestly, for people interested in that kind of gritty filmmaking, it really opened the door to a whole new appreciation for film.

I had the soundtrack of planet terror stuck in my head a couple weeks ago!!

I own the double DVD box set. Watch them at least once a year. Cheers

When the movie didn’t perform well they recut them both and we unfortunately only got the shorter versions in theatres in Australia. The cinema had the giant cardboard Grindhouse standee with Cherry Darling in full gun leg mode and I wanted it SO BAD for my house!

they should bring back grindhouse as a school for filmmakers that want to follow their styles

I remember watching it opening night, which was on Good Friday and the theater was packed. That being said, sitting through that kind of a 4 hour movie experience in the theater on Easter weekend definitely felt like something only the most hardcore Tarantino and Rodriguez fans would do. not for mainstream audiences

I'm so glad I saw the in the theatre. It was an experience, and while I didn't love Death Proof, Planet Terror instantly became an all-time favourite.

Once in a lifetime in the 21st century, unless alive during the double feature time. I miss those times. Without this film, we wouldn't see a machete trailer.

Death proof was one of the few DVD’s i had as a teen and it was basically on loop in my room and yet I haven’t thought about it in years until now

I saw this in theaters, fake trailers and all. I absolutely loved it, got a kick out of the missing reel bits,I got the wink wink of it.

We used to have Midnight Movies at our local small theater in town and they were $.99! Yeah, you’d hear bottles roll down under the seats, and usually it had a cloud of smoke from the weed, but damn it was good fun!

i enjoyed both back in the day. awesome movies

Best Theater experience i have evere had , it truley was an experience (kill bill 1 was a close second ), with fake movie trailers by other famous directors , and at least one or two trailers was made into actual films. the entire theater was full of all like minded people , with oohs and awes ,and shocked laughter , screams of shock and suprise ....its was a great time !

I use to watch death proof and planet of terror all the time back when they came out loved them growing up

Seeing this in an indie theater when it came out was so awesome

I never saw it in Theaters, but own the Blu-Ray and watched it so many times! I love how they made fake trailers for the the Double-Feature! It was pretty cool too see alot of them actually get made years later!

A movie experience I miss is when villains of movies didn't try to get sympathy. Now villains get sad backstories on why they are what they are. A lot off times the villains end up joining the good guys to defeat someone worse. I miss the days where a bad guy was just bad some people who are 'villainous' in real life are like that for no other reason than 'just because'. Now villains get the 'the world doesn't understand me' or 'sad backstory'. A lot of times there are no villains now. Disney tried with to bring back the idea of an old school villain with 'Wish', but failed, making him understandable (granting a lot of those wishes would be a bad/dangerous idea) and he turns pure bad by using a evil book and that was why he couldn't be saved.

This was the best theater experience I ever had

This is a very important film for me. I saw it on opening night with my sister, even bought our tickets the night before. I'd been keeping up on it through magazines like Fangoria, and it just changed me. We saw it again the very next day with my folks and again during a discount screening with a fairly large audience. April 6th will always be Grindhouse Day for me, a celebratory occasion.

I wanted to go see this movie so bad when it was released and was obsessed with when it premiered on the Starz movie channel.

I love both movies!

i saw it in theaters and it was amazing!

so glad I got to experience Grindhouse in a theater lol that shit was nuts.

I always felt that "Grindhouse" was a prime yet redundant project for Tarantino because he already made the perfect ode to those films with the epic "Kill Bill" volumes. So, "Death Proof" was a bit of that rediscovered hubris after a long writer's block to pen anything he wanted quickly. "Death Proof" had great results while at the same time feeling like a director using visual elements he'd been famous for with "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction". It was almost like he flirted dangerously with parodying himself. There also appears to be three movies shoved into "Grindhouse" that I didn't realize until the uncut version of "Death Proof" came out on DVD. "Death Proof" consisted of one half of two different B-movies that were a staple of the cinematic genre, the psycho killer movie and the revenge flick. Tarantino even made it apparent by abandoning the dated, scratchy film stock style that had carried over the entire project. It stopped being an homage and then became a meta view of grindhouse cinema. Kurt Russell even plays the villains differently. While Stuntman Mike has the character and charisma to engage with the protagonists/victims, this other "Stuntman Mike" appears to be missing these aspects, opting for a more leering, creeping persona. When I first saw "Death Proof" in the theaters this dynamic as a shorter feature kind of confused and frustrated me. It was later on I realized that, having introduced the sheriff and his son in the middle of the film without revisiting them, that Tarantino expected us to know how that movie would end, with that sheriff getting Stuntman Mike somehow. Just like we know how a revenge flick begins, with the heinous crime perpetrated. He takes the best halves of both types of stories and literally splices them together. It was a commentary on the sheer uniformity and interchangeable nature of these genre films. He gave us the experience of a viewer falling asleep in the middle of one film and waking up in the middle of another. Perhaps he'd done the same as a kid, spending all day at the theater on a single ticket, where he saw Lee Marvin and Rutger Hauer play the villain in two different movies. I still wonder if we can make moviegoin prices as affordable again to do what Tarantino's generation could. The Barbenheimer phenomenon proved that you can get people interested in binge-viewing theatrical features. As a person who loves movies I tend to try and see two features in a day when I can. It's based on love for the medium.

Wow this thumbnail is telling me I need to watch Grindhouse

Because it failed in the U.S. they were released as two separate films in Australia. I was only able to see it as a whole the following year when it was given a roadshow by an arthouse theatre chain. Where I think it fell flat in execution was that the artefacts of the grind house experience (film degradation, missing reels, rebranding, etc.) made the experience of it feel like it was more about recreating what it was like to see such a double feature in the 70s where a lot of the audience could never relate to that. Put those films as a straight presentation as a homage to the era rather than the aesthetics of the cinema-going experience, and it would have worked better.

My dad took me to see this when I was a young teen but I only remember the fake trailers and the death proof half, but I remembered the name Grind House. Probably was my first Tarantino Movie. I bet he doesn't even remember but thanks dad.

I remember my dad taking me to see grindhouse in theaters. It even has a intermission before the second half of trailers. I'll never forget that. My dad couldn't believe they made most the fake trailers by now. I want a "don't" movie

I love grindhouse glad to see it getting some love

This was a great theater experience. Left feeling that I got my full money’s worth.

I watched Grindhouse at the theatre. I loved it

I am big a fan of Grindhouse, I liked Planet Terror a little more than Death Proof, but both movies are a fun time... and the Edgar Wrights "Don't" trailer has always stayed with me whenever I say the word Don't, I have to fight the urge to repeat it like in that trailer. A movie experience I think has vanished is the "Sneak Preview", typically they were shown a week or two before the official release of a film and were only advertised by the theatres that were showing them on the local radio stations or newspaper and sometimes they were double features with an already released movie and you'd get a two for one type of deal. Another movie experience that has gone by the wayside is the "Thursday Midnight Screening", it's been replaced with three Thursday Night Screenings... but I used to love the Midnight screenings because you were generally there with people who were uber fans of the movie or just loved seeing movies at midnight....

Adventure movies like Indiana Jones, Sahara, Goonies. God i miss pure fun adventure movies

Death Proof is awesome. An awesome soundtrack too

I love the Grindhouse double feature. I really get the impression both directors made something they felt really evoked the era, and weren’t too worried whether people would get it. Tarantino’s dismissal of Deathproof feels like such a climb down and a betrayal of his audience. I don’t think he meant it.

I saw it first run in theaters, and enjoyed not only both PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF, but the trailers, especially WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS, which I still hold out hope for. I grew up going to sleazy drive ins, and having the film break half way through the action scenes or the sex scenes, so this film was a sweet love letter to that.

great movies.. hilarious too.

I saw it in theaters and it was a great time

I went to see Grindhouse in the theatre and it was an absolute delight. Honestly, I think it was a little bit ahead of its time, in some ways. Can you imagine it during the c*vid/streaming era?

These movies were so much fun!

Both movies are great, weird that Tarantino considers Death Proof his worst, I think its one of his best. Great acting and great stunt work.

It might never become a film, but we NEED Werewolf Women of the SS, just to get more of Cage doing that!

It was printed when From Dusk til Dawn came out that Tarantino directed 1st half, Rodriguez 2nd half.

we went and saw it in theaters it was great.

Beat movie experience I had in a long time. I'd say ever, but my dad taking me and my siblings to TMNT and Batman tops it.