At first glance, Grindhouse seems a little off-putting, which is one of the main reasons I plan to see it. Might be the reason others don't want to, along with the "R" rating and the fact that it's hard to tell what the movie's concept is without visiting the web and looking it up. Let's be real, to the casual viewer looking at the TV spots, it might be a little too avant-garde, even if it's sole purpose is to provide sheer thrills.

If Grindhouse achieves cult status, I'll conclude it's done it's job well.

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C'mon, you really think that Grindhouse was the picture by which we set the bar too? I mean seriously...A guy that flips cars and a chick with a leg-gun. Yeah. THAT'S rrreeeaaallll quality. Tarantino and Rodriguez just wasted our time with this crap when they could have been doing much better movies.

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(applause)

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I'm with Dickens. I (used to) expect more from Tarantino, but this "opus" hardly reflects quality and is simply an exercise in over-the-top updated nostalgia.

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and a P.S. to my last comment: by THIS film's failure you think that American only wants crap at the movies? I actually don't necessarily disagree with your conclusion, but some of America doesn't equate an overindulgent gorefest like this with quality.

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Whoa whoa whoa - calm down a moment.
This is a movie that showed in its commercials 1.) A woman with a machinegun for a leg, 2.) a disfigured and burnt Bruce Willis, and 3.) a helicopter chopping down people on the ground with its rotor blade.
You are making a gross generalization about 'quality films' on the first-night opening numbers of a fringe flick, as quality as it may or may not be. What if this ends up being a word-of-mouth winner?
To be honest, it sounds like you have conceeded defeated based on the rubrics of success promulgated by the very people you disparage in the industry. Calm down.

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I am surprised this movie didn't do better. Unlike most of those commenting I do think there is cinematic value to these films from a nostalgia standpoint. Good or bad it is good to look back at our history. And really, I don't think filmmakers owe anyone anything--as a writer I write what excites me and what I have a desire to do....not what I hope the world wants. Robert and Quentin have never followed the rules or been about the system so why do you expect that now? These movies reflect what they enjoy...I applaud them for having fun with their craft.

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Well, when talented directors waste their time with efforts the likes of "Grindhouse," well, I guess they're part of the crapfest of cinema, too. The thing no one wants to face is that a lot of the movies they are paying homage to were just noisy junk, made for about 50 cents. Spending millions and treating it like some artistic "labor of love" doesn't change the fact that "Grindhouse" is a film geek exercise in turd polishing.

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Grindhouse is just another perfect example of the crap at the movies that America wants to see - not
some sort of exception that we should be sad to watch as it tanks.

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It's length also keeps it from showing as many times as Blades of Glore and Are We Done Yet? I think that might have played a factor as well.

I also agree with Nova (first comment)that the film might have been perceived by some as being a little too out-there and three hours of that might have put some people off.

The older people that have 'nostalgia for this kind of film will probably not be rushing out to see it either. They'll probably just wait for DVD.

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I totally agree with Kate. Is a movie that imitates bad movies any better than a movie that is actually bad? In twenty years, some acclaimed director will probably make an homage to movies like Saw and Hostel and everyone will think it's great.

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Grindhouse is a gem for everyone who loves and knows genre movies, and I totally admire the dact that these guys, Tarantino and Rodriguez are part of a group of American filmakers (I would put in it another Austin-based director like Richard Linklater) who make they films THEY want to make, and they invest their work with passion and love.
Quite frankly I think, and it pains me to say it, that Grindhouse is too sophisticated and different, too personal, and too wild for contemporary American audiences.
Just put this in line with the box office failure of movies like Zodiac and Children of Men.

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Jessica, Grindhouse doesn't imitate bad movies. Exploitations films and genre films in general, and bad movies are not synonymous.
And if you have problems with horror, that's your own baggage.

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By "not good," I mean that exploitation films generally have bad production, bad acting, and bad writing. It doesn't mean that they're not enjoyable. But if they were released today by major studios, critics would definitely put them down. I don't have any "baggage" with horror at all, but I'm making the comparison because a lot of the horror movies that have been made lately have the same sort of production values.

I'm not trying to insult anyone.

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Hi.

I actually went to see Grindhouse with my wife this morning...and I have to say, I think its a victim of 1. Planet Terror 2. its advertising.

Or to put it another way...PT seemed very "eww" and juvenile...gross. I think if they would have cut it back a bit on the (obviously fake, to the point of cartoon-y) gore and got a PG-13 out of that one, it would have done a lot better.

Death Proof, on the other hand, while heavy on the QT-esque dialogue (Tracie Thorns was a *waaay* better "chick Sam Jackson" than Sydney Portier...WAY.) as a grown-up over 30 adult, I found THAT movie *much more* "frightening" and "tense"...because you got to know the characters as people (as opposed to caricatures ala PT's crew) and cared what that nutjob was gonna do to them...much more accessible. I mean I was *afraid* for Zoe Bell's life. I was scared...for real.

While the concept of the back-to-back double feature was nifty, i think overall the two movies would have done better apart.

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The real problem is that producers now measure success as winning the opening-weekend box-office, instead of actually making a good movie. I think Grindhouse is probably the best movie opening this weekend, but maybe not the most profitable. Those other movies play to kids and families, and you'll always make more money from four admissions than one. When your only motivation is greed, you start thinking "hey, let's target every movie at families" and you get a lot of PG-13 rated crap like Blades of Glory.

On the other hand, you have to recognize that Grindhouse will only play to a niche audience. Whoever thought that this type of material would cross over and find a mainstream audience was an idiot.

Personally, I think that Grindhouse will become a cult favorite and make its money back on the DVD sales.

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Though Grindhouse didn't get me chomping at the bit (I'll buy the DVD) I do have to agree with the crap thats comeing out these days. I am so sick of the mindless Family garbage thats coming out. Don't get me wrong a good family movie is great, but the movie market has been overflooded by endless brainless crap. Has it dawned on Hollywood that adults like to go to the movies too. Hell I'd love to go see a movie made with adults in mind with my fully grown family and friends. But the only thing offered to adults is a barage of badly written, mindless ripped from other scripts and peiced together to form a new romantic comedy crap. Yeah, I really want to go with my male friends to see some overdramatic fluff. But hell I figured things were going from BAD to WORSE when AvP was rated pg-13 to get the twinks in the theatre.

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A bit churlish dude. Your idea of good obviously isn't everybody's idea of a good movie. Sorry about that. And The Reaping was a good movie. I enjoyed it greatly. And Grindhouse wasn't on my go out and see list cause it doesn't matter to me what you think a good important movie is, it's what I want to watch. I see the previews and say, umm, not so good. It's how folks decide what to go see or not see. I don't care what you say, an amputee with a gun in cut off let just doesn't seem like fun to me. You need to not take it so personally, stop calling people names cause they don't share your important view of what they should see and relax a bit.

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I totally agree with Kai, Planet Terror dragged the movie down. I guess that was why they showed PT first. After watching Death Proof I realized that Planet Terror kinda sucked but I didn't care when it was actually on. I thought everything was better in DP, the directing, acting, dialogue, even the action was better! With Rodriguez being touted as the action king, I was disappointed with all the CGI he used as well as over-the-top comic style gore. Tarantino's film, though, was refreshing in the way that you don't see too many car chase movies anymore, especially ones where you care about the characters. Just go see the film instead of bashing it from the previews. When I saw the preview I thought it looked like total crap, I got to see it free the night before it opened but I will totally pay to see it if one of my friends says they wanna go. It's over 3 hours long, has zombies, some of the best car scenes I've ever seen, a couple brilliant fake previews and it's better than anything else out right now. I wanna throw in real quick that I hated the Rob Zombie trailer! Why does he have to put his wife in everything he films? She is the worst actress of all time, she's able to ruin a one minute trailer for a fake movie. Well, her and Rob Zombies heinous directing.

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I'd also like to comment about the gun leg. When I saw that I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever seen...and it was, well, one of them. BUT, she gets it near the end of the movie. I was very pleased by this because 10 minutes of gun leg is 10 minutes too long.

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