Quote of the Week

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." (Pablo Picasso)

Built to Last

Completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge took just four years to build. But the design and construction teams did a thorough job. When it opened, the Golden Gate was the largest suspension bridge in the world. Seventy years and several earthquakes later, it is still standing -- a monument to good old-fashioned slide rule engineering.

Bring Back the "Elite"

As the Bush years draw to a close, is the era of anti-intellectualism coming to an end? Bill Maher has this to say:

Grindhouse

Now this is one seriously guilty pleasure. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have teamed up for a double-feature tribute to the low-budget horror and action movies that screened at seedy theaters in the 70s. Check out the trailer:



The result is a 3-hour-long exploitation genre extravaganza, interspersed with hilarious and absolutely outrageous fake trailers for nonexistent movies. Fans of Rodriguez's El Mariachi and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction will love the experience; others should stay home and lock their doors.



The dirty fun kicks off with Planet Terror, Rodriguez's hyperkinetic, maximum-volume spoof of the zombie horror movie genre. Fully realized and faithful to genre conventions, the film goes beyond a mere parody by amping up the action, gore, and sexuality to ridiculous new levels. Shot with a grainy, distressed film stock, it's also a jaw-dropping expression of visual style. The tight script keeps the action moving along at a maximum clip, while Rose McGowan brings just the right kind of smoldering, campy performance to the screen. This brand of hip, visceral filmmaking packs a wallop and has long been missing from contemporary movies.



Tarantino's contribution, Death Proof, fills out the second half of the double feature and shows that Rodriguez can be a tough act to follow. Starting out at a slower pace and with a lot more expository dialogue, Death Proof suffers initially by comparison to the amped-up zombiefest that preceded it. Ostensibly an homage to slasher flicks, revenge movies, and car chase films a la The Vanishing Point, Tarantino's film doesn't pay as much attention to genre conventions and style; it feels more like the director is doing a Tarantino flick than anything else. Self-referential bits such as a mention of the fictitious Big Kahuna Burger chain from Pulp Fiction also expose Tarantino's penchant for navel-gazing. Those quibbles aside, the movie is good fun and picks up the pace in the second half, finally speeding toward one of the best non-CGI car chase sequences ever filmed. The ending, abrupt and unsentimental, is an appropriate bookend for this tribute to a genre that might best be described as "dirty deeds done dirt cheap."

More info:

• Wikipedia
• Everything Tarantino

Alternate trailer:

Quote of the Week

"I try to work on things that won't happen unless I do them." (Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and inventor of Java.)