How does a movie that boasts the talents of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez bomb as hard as Grindhouse did in 2007? I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Tarantino’s half of the B-movie double-feature, Death Proof, which features an epic performance by Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike. But the movie was indeed a dud, and Tarantino has some thoughts as to why, which he recently shared with Empire.
Tarantino thinks the big problem is audiences were completely unfamiliar with what “grindhouse” meant, with he and Rodriguez overestimating how big of an impact that would have…
“Well, in America they got Grindhouse. In the UK you got Death Proof. With Grindhouse, I think me and Robert just felt that people had a little more of a concept of the history of double features and exploitation movies. No, they didn’t. At all. They had no idea what the fuck they were watching. It meant nothing to them, alright, what we were doing. So that was a case of being a little too cool for school.”
I think the better way to put it is that audiences had a certain idea of what to expect from Tarantino and Rodriguez, and Grindhouse wasn’t it. Death Proof, as much as I love it, especially the extended cut, is very slow and chatty with very little action. This is coming off two straight Kill Bill movies, and I think that’s what people wanted more of. For Rodriguez, the Planet Terror flick was just too goddamn weird. It also wasn’t very good, despite the fun cast of B-list stars.
