With its endless gore and cartoon-ish action, Planet Terror will be more popular with moviegoers; by contrast, Tarantino gives us copious freeze-frames, vibrant colour schematics and the chick-ogling that emulate drive-in movies. The action itself is some of the most amazing stuff put on film in recent years, with exciting shots of high-octane car chases, none of which were accomplished with an ounce of CGI.

With the superior Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez has paid a fine tribute to the zombie flick of the 60s and 70s that has inspired him, and has ended up with what could be the best script of his filmmaking career.

As a side note: While Canada and the U.S. have the Grindhouse package released as one combined double bill, European distributors will be releasing each picture separately in longer versions. - S.W.