I've got to admit, Robert Rodriguez used to be one of my favorite directors. "Used to be" is the key phrase here. Robert has lost his edge lately and I think its because he can't quite pull off working with big budget movies and not letting other people do their jobs. Robert is the kind of guy who has to have his hands in everything which in this movie, worked against him. I think he should have just directed and let the studio experts take the rest from him. In all fairness though, I feel a large part of the movie was taken away from him with the "R" rating as well. You can tell that Robert went all out on some scenes only to have the whittled down to senseless nubs once the meat was trimmed out of them.Robert is absolutely brilliant and it showed in "El Mariachi", "Desperado", and "Four Rooms". But between "Dusk till Dawn", "Sharkboy and Lava Girl", and "Planet Terror" Robert is starting to suck. If "Sin City" hadn't been thrown into the middle of that list I probably would have given up completely on him by now. And when you set him next Tarantino, who is obviously much more talented than Rodriquez, it makes him suck that much more.
Planet Terror is a splatter-gore, zombie movie. The story is bad, the acting is bad, and the camera work is bad. The only thing that keeps it going is the campy humor and the over-the-top gore. But the movie needs a little substance to keep the style going and Rodriquez fails to deliver. Rose McGowen was a bad choice for the title role. I'll give Freddy Rodriguez all the credit for keeping this film mildly enjoyable.
I think the unrated DVD is going to be a much better tribute to this style of movie.
Rating: 4 out of 10
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