I noticed that this weekend the horrible-looking Spy Kids 4 is coming out. I looked back fondly on Spy Kids and remembered the great first and the good second films. I decided to take a look at director Robert Rodriguez and find something of his worthwhile to watch. I found Planet Terror. I remember seeing the preview for some reason and, being twelve, decided it would be the most amazing thing ever. Seeing as it was a hard “R,” I never saw it. That is until now. My twelve-year-old self wasn’t completely correct, but Planet Terror is a campy, hilarious, and downright gross piece of cinema.
The plot in Planet Terror is mostly left aside, but it goes a little something like this: An experimental toxin is leaked into the air at a military base in rural Texas. This toxin has an interesting effect. It turns people into flesh eating “sickos,” which can be described as a covered-in-boils zombie. The story has no true center, but rather follows several people including recently retired go-go dancer Cherry (Rose McGowan), her shady ex Wray (Freddy Rodriguez, no relation to Robert), a doctor (Josh Brolin) out for revenge on his cheating wife (Marley Shelton), the local sheriff (Michael Biehn), and several others. All of these characters try to survive as blood and guts fly everywhere with the recent outbreak.
Before I go my usual way of talking about actors, I must talk about this movie for just a while longer. The interesting thing about Planet Terror is that it is shown as though one were watching it in an old 70’s movie theatre. Grain is everywhere and the flecks of dust pop in and out of the screen all the time. Some might take this as a bad thing, but I think that it was a risk worth taking. The campy vibe of the movie along with the rampant blood and guts work extremely well to keep a 70’s exploitation movie vibe. I was amazed at how much I loved it even without ever experiencing it in real life.
It’s difficult to talk about just one actor, so I’ll try to wrap up all of them. Every actor knows very well that this movie is meant to have somewhat subpar acting due to its homage feel. Although this is taken into account, I can’t help feeling that some of the actors took this a bit too far, or just can’t act. Brolin was great as the vengeful doctor and so was Shelton as the runaway. Freddy Rodriguez and Biehn seemed to have the best feel for what to do along with a special guest appearance about an hour into the movie. I don’t want to spoil it, but that actor knows what he’s doing. My biggest problem was with Rose McGowan. It seems that she is only known for her sex appeal and that is made completely apparent in the movie. Near the end she does get to have some fun, and does a great job with those scenes, but before then her performance is nothing but bland.
Robert Rodriguez does almost every other thing imaginable with this movie. He wrote, directed, composed, produced, edited, supervised the visual effects, and even was the cinematographer. All praise and blame can be directed squarely at him, but he luckily deserves more praise. The direction is some of the cheesiest I’ve ever seen, and the visual effects probably have the most blood put in a movie ever. Images of infected genitalia are shown, and he almost always leaves nothing to the imagination. The writing is probably his best achievement. Although campy lines are spoken, Rodriguez puts some considerably funny moments into the script and then handles them with ease as the director, not to mention how back-and-forths between characters seem strangely natural.
Planet Terror may not appeal to all audiences, but if you like the idea of a campy film with rampant violence, gore, and hilarity, go check out Planet Terror. 7/10
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