Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Planet Terror
2007
**
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Stacy Ferguson, Nicky Katt, Electra Avellan, Elise Avellan

Robert Rodriguez's campy zombie movie was originally the first half of the Grindhouse double bill, and it's certainly more fun than Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's mindnumbing half. The story is set in Texas where a biochemical agent turns the local people into deformed monsters. The group of survivors who fight for their lives includes a cheating anesthesiologist who gets a taste of her own medicine, a chef who is secretive about his BBQ sauce, a lethal one-legged stripper and her ex-boyfriend El Wray, a mysterious badass. The plot is over-convoluted and totally irrelevant in the same breath. The main focus is on blood, puss and snappy oneliners, of which there are plenty. In tribute to the original exploitation flicks, the "negative" has scratches, jumps, burns and a missing reel. All of this is cute and self-consciously clever, but at 105 minutes a deliberately cheesy and awful homage slowly wears you down and becomes just a cheesy and awful movie. Rodriguez turned the opening fake trailer for Machete into a full feature in 2010.