It ends, pretty much, with fireworks and Sinatra, somewhat appropriate, you would think, for a film series that privileges Vegas cool over substance like the Oceans movies do.
It's a very risky manoeuvre to pull off successfully -- that is, graduating from TV to the movies, from the relatively parochial world of the Channel 4 sitcom to the bright and shiny universe of multiplexes, ancilliary revenue streams and premiers at Leicester Square.
OK, so the damage limitation process is well under way. I’ve just received this email: “The Weinstein Co. today announced that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s highly anticipated Grindhouse double bill will be released as two separate movies in the UK.
Tarantino’s Death Proof will be released via Momentum Pictures/Dimension Films on September 21 with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror released at a later date to be confirmed shortly.”
Coming from the same creative team behind the first two Spider-Man movies -- headed by director Sam Raimi -- the big question hanging over part 3 is: what the hell went wrong? Spider-Man 3 seems to have been willed into existence by the combined efforts of marketing departments, merchandise divisions and third-party licencees. The result is soulless and witless, a sequel too far.
The opening weekend takings in America for Tarantino's new film, Grindhouse, were, frankly, a disaster of Krakatoa-eque proportions. It only took a measly $11 million – less than half the sum forecast by the film’s studio, the Weinstein Company.
