This is a look at VOLUME 3. (There are so far two others.)
You know how Quentin Tarantino kinda brought grindhouse to the mainstream with his unsatisfying DEATH PROOF? Well this is a DVD containing dozens of trailers for this genre from the 1970s and 80s. What is this product for? Nostalgia? Cinema education? Amusement? While the Tarantino-Rodriguez double-bill contained violence and B-movie tropes, it also had very strong female characters, in particular played by Zoe Bell and Rose McGowan. The women here, while often portrayed as tough, they seem to be just as frequently in the nude. Some of the plots are plain distasteful. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek, but the ideas depicted are for titillation, not to thought-provoke. If the DVD excised the trailers mixing sex and violence, and sex and the Nazis, then the rest could be viewed as the humorous creations they seem to be. There are titles like FLESH FEAST, SWEDISH WIFE EXCHANGE CLUB and REVENGE OF THE NINJA. A host of acting legends appear in a handful, with the likes of Martin Landau, Oliver Reed, Susan George, Jack Palance and Telly Savalas. One film, OPEN SEASON, is even from the director of THE ITALIAN JOB and stars Peter Fonda. Ultimately, at about 105 minutes TRAILER CLASSICS 3 gets to be a bit of a grind. Geddit? Ok, I’ll get my coat.