Planet Terror

Planet Terror is writer/director Robert Rodriguez' paean to the old horror films of the early '60's, you know, the bad badass and cheap Universal-International films.

Planet Terror displays things you've always wanted to see in a horror film. You know, like beautiful women being dismembered. Zombies being killed over and over with their guts hanging out. One bullet producing a gallon of blood when it hits its fleshy target.

Yeah, I can tell you: these are the things I've always yearned for.

The movie is too bloody even for my taste, even though a lot of it is comically done and dramatically overdone. Ick.

There is a script here, but it never really mattered and everybody knows it. There are some notables here, including Michael Biehn as the dumbfounded sheriff, and Josh Brolin as a doctor who encounters boils on all of his patients. Biehn is getting a little too old for this stuff, but Brolin's appearance is perfectly understandable. After all, he's in every movie in 2008.

There are some really neat things here, like a grainy picture, and "prevues" that feature the movie "Machete," a mock trailer for a film that will never exist. Plus some eye-popping special effects to show you those "things" you'd always wanted to see in a horror movie. And there is an often understated and then sometimes blatant and silly sense of humor about the whole thing. But unless your taste runs to bloody and bitter BBQ, skip this one.

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