GRINDHOUSE (2007) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Vanessa Ferlto, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Zoe Bell. “Planet Terror” written and directed by Robert Rodriquez. “Death Proof” written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

If, like me, you have a soft spot in your heart for those exploitation films you used to sneak off to see at the nearest second-run house or drive-in during the late 1960s or ’70s, you will get a kick out of Grindhouse, probably the best — and most expensive — guilty pleasure movie to come along in a long time.

Grindhouse is really a double feature — Planet Terror, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Death Proof written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

It is not the movies themselves that are great, though the flesh-eating zombie thriller by Rodriquez is the better of the two. Rather, it is the way they are presented.

The filmmakers create the ambiance of a grindhouse cinema, with made up coming attractions, scratchy and splicy prints with missing reels, even ads for a fast-food restaurant next door to the theater.

Both directors ably recreate the cinematic style of those films. Lines are delivered with punctuation marks, the camera work is a bit shaky at times, the acting a little outlandish. All of which, at about 3 hours and 10 minutes, offers a time machine of a movie experience that has faded from the American scene.

For these directors, style definitely trumps substance. They do, however, hedge their bets.

While they rough up the prints to look as though they’ve been dragged though the mud and run through about 1,000 projectors, their special effects are too good and, as such, appear at odds with the directors’ intentions.

Tarantino’s Death Proof cannot sustain the momentum created by the Rodriguez film. While the first film is basically non-stop blood, gore and action, Tarantino’s little opus is a lot of talk, talk, talk.

When he finally does bring on the action, it is hard driving, but somewhat too late.

The opus is saved not by nominal star Kurt Russell, who plays a psychopath named Stuntman Mike, but by stuntwoman Zoe Bell, who was featured in the 2005 documentary, Double Dare, in which her career as a stuntwoman — most notably for Lucy Lawless in Xena, Warrior Princess — was profiled.

Sure, Grindhouse is long and loud. However, it will appeal to film buffs who will get a kick out of this loving homage to a genre of film that has all but disappeared from today’s multiplex screens.

Bob Bloom is the film critic and DVD reviewer at the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bloomjc@yahoo.com. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal & Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com.