Grindhouse: Justine begs to differ

I know, you're getting sick of all the blogosphere "Grindhouse" love. Fair enough, and I promise I'll stop soon. But Justine Elias, proprietress of the "Film Fatale" blog over at Movie City News (and Globe movie section freelancer) has a good, provocative essay on why the movie stiffed (comparatively) this weekend. Women went to see "The Reaping" instead because the "Grindhouse" ads said they're meat for fanboy fantasies and nothing else.

Writes Justine, "I wondered if Tarantino and Rodriguez couldn't have found one female horror director to write or direct a trailer -- or at least get one of the Splat Packers to parody a Grindhouse genre that was a formative experience for boys and girls of the drive in era: the women in prison picture, complete with (male) hostage taking and escape sequence."

Good point, and the proper rejoinder is that that back half of "Death Proof" is "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" with genuine love and respect in its heart. But as Elias notes, that ain't the part they're using to promote the movie.