Early rumors about the Grindhouse DVD release was that they would be cutting the two movies up and selling them separately, with the missing reels intact. Looks like that is true. Death Proof will be released first in a two-disc “special edition” packed in with the art you see to the left. It’ll be packed with extras. On October 16th, they’ll be releasing Planet Terror with the usual Rodrgiuez milieu of extras (ten minute film school, cooking with Robert, etc.) and the same missing reel treatment. I don’t claim to know why that is, but I suspect that the unfortunate failure of the movie leads distributors to believe that a conjoined DVD presentation, like the theatrical release, will lead to flatline DVD sales as well.
I’m holding out for a high end DVD treatment similar to the Sin City special edition that pulled out all the stops but the amount of extras present on both discs leads me to believe that this will be it. Those of us waiting for the proper release are going to have to bite the bullet and dish out for what they’re selling. Time will tell.
It hardly seems ironic that two exploitation tributes would be so horribly botched in their home video release. How many times have these sorts of movies been bought, recut, retitled and then released in various running times to the rental market in the 80′s?
I just want more faux trailers.
August 6, 2007 4:26 pm
I can’t begin to explain my split feelings on this DVD release. I am looking forward to the unedited editions of both movies and the great extras but at the same time it’s really a single movie experience with the great transitions of the fake trailers!! that is essential to the movie experience.
Both movies are amazing and I can’t wait to get them both.
August 7, 2007 8:26 pm
Since I missed “Grindhouse” in theaters, I’ll gladly pick up both films when they hit DVD. And if another set is released later, well, I’ll probably get that, too.
Because I’m pathetic like that.
August 8, 2007 5:23 am
I’m always trying to think ahead for these sorts of things because I hate buying a movie twice. My track record so far has been pretty good, so I’ll probably hold out for more news about this coming out in its theatrical cut.
August 31, 2007 1:38 pm
The theatrical release in Europe of GRINDHOUSE was made that way. Because of the failure of GRINDHOUSE in the U.S. box office, the distributors had released PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF separately (and with a month of difference between each of them) in European cinemas, in an attempt (I presume) of multiplying the income by two. It is a fact well known that Tarantino use to have better results in Europe than in U,S. (as happens with Woody Allen, and I’m NOT implying that they are not well appreciated back home), so they are trying to cash in the “artistic” people who thinks that Tarantino is the heir of Orson Welles but turns their nose at the sight of Rodriguez,, the freaks that love the latter and his “hommage-rippoff genre movies” but cannot stand up for the former, and, of course, those who would gladly enjoy the whole movie and now have to pay twice to watch it butchered’n'splitted.
PLANET TERROR flopped in Europe, and DEATH PROOF is going to be yet released the upcoming weekend.
September 15, 2007 7:11 pm
Majorly disappointed with the splitting of the two films. Back in the day when drive ins used to play grind house films and hammer films and the like, the draw was the unavoidable clash of two horrible films that left you breathing heavy and spitting up your stale popcorn. The wonderful nostalgia of this film is the combination of the two films, and as the previous replier indicated, the captivating nuance of the buffer area of fake trailers. To be honest, the trailers were better made and more perfectly replicated than the films. The trailers were a perfect example of how these films were viewed and to be taken in.
I loved seeing this movie in the theaters and very upset that the true meaning behind the film will be lost to all those who missed out on the theatrical experience. I for one will be, in lack of a better word, boycotting the release of these films until a version is released with both films combined back to back.
September 16, 2007 8:22 pm
I’m holding out for the proper release. It’s inevitable. I also understand why this movie didn’t go over well in Europe. Split up, the joke gets lost. You don’t have this drive-in movie tribute, you now have two intentionally lackluster movies and some trailers for movies that will, most likely, never be made. The drive-in, as far as I know, was pretty much a North American thing. Why they suffered here in the states, though. That’s the tragedy.
Hollywood makes shitty movies, too. I’m cynical enough to make the ridiculous declaration that 90% of the movies released by major studios every year are worthless pieces of shit. The thing is, they put more money into them and that, in itself, convinces producers and studio suits that they make good movies. When two directors with a well-known love of exploitation set out to pay homage, it went over people’s heads. It was also released Easter weekend against a slew of VERY family friendly movies. Such a great movie, doomed from the start. A market of dumbasses who just want more Tokyo Drift and shitloads of stressed out parents dragging their bratty, screaming broods off to see the latest animated flick that they’ve been buying the merchandise for at Walmart for the last several months.
Somehow we suffer. Funny how that keeps happening.
September 24, 2007 12:19 pm
Bryan White said:
“The drive-in, as far as I know, was pretty much a North American thing. ”
I agree, but the grindhouse concept was also widely known through Europe until the late seventies (some grindhouse-dedicated cinemas lasted well until the early eighties in my country, Spain). Though, here it was labelled as “doble sesión” (“double session”, because you could watch two films with one ticket) or “cine de pipas” (“sunflower seeds cinema”, because those seeds, toasted and salted, were the Spanish equivalent to US pop-corn)