Grindhouse (2007) ****

As its producer Harvey Weinstein was the first to admit, to release Quentin Tarantino's ''Death Proof'' and Robert Rodriguez's ''Planet Terror'' on a double-bill was a financially disastrous decision, turning an otherwise brilliant enterprise into a monumental box office flop. Less so because of its 3 hours and 12 minutes length, and more so because no two movies could possibly be more dissimilar and more inappropriate for a ''package deal'' release. Robert Rodriguez's film is an exciting, fast-paced action movie about zombies. It's an easy-to-watch, crowd-pleasing gorefest full of humour, blood, sex and high-adrenaline action. Quentin Tarantino's film, on the other hand, is a genuine masterpiece of the cinematic art, whose highly unusual narrative structure, brilliant dialogue scenes, eccentric pacing, and truly weird characters, have turned off most mainstream viewers (who probably fell asleep long before the unbelievably exciting car chase sequence that ends the movie). Between the two films, there are some marvellous fake trailers, the best being ''Machete'' (top photo), which Robert Rodriguez wants to turn into his next movie. There is little to add to ''Planet Terror'' except to note that it is a magnificent homage to George Romero and that there isn't a single dull moment in the entire movie. But it isn’t a masterwork. ''Death Proof'', on the other hand, has few parallels in the history of cinema. It’s basically a porno movie about a rapist, except that his penis has been replaced by a race car. There is vaginal sex in the film (a head-on collision early in the film, with a girl's leg sticking out of the car’s window). There is also anal sex in the film (when Kurt Russell’s car is repeatedly bumping the girls’ car from the rear). The final shot of the film is an homage to ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'', but the fabulous and entertaining dialogue scenes prove once again that Tarantino owes far more to Eric Rohmer than to Russ Meyer. The amazing car chase scene (probably the best ever filmed) was shot in long, unbroken takes, with a girl (real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell) clinging to a hood at unbelievable speeds. The jazzy, super-quirky "Chick Habit" plays during the closing credits. Jog has an excellent review of the film here.

"Planet Terror" ***

"Death Proof" *****