Coming Soon to a Grindhouse Near You

April 5, 2007 5:59 PM

Sleazoid Express (this post rated NSFW) was a New York film fanzine that championed the grindhouse cinema that played in sketchy Times Square movie theaters during the pre-Giuliani era. Featuring in-depth reviews of film fare such as Pets, Nanami: Inferno of First Love, and Let Me Die A Woman, the Sleazoid Express zine later inspired a book, which can probably take some credit for stoking Quentin Tarantino's interest in grindhouse filmmaking. (An excerpt from the book, Sleazoid Express, can be found here, and here's some original grindhouse trailers thrown in for good measure.)
posted by jonp72 (12 comments total)

Man, I really loved that book! Thanks for the post!
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 6:03 PM on April 5, 2007

BTW - the Youtube vids don't work! They all say " The url contained a malformed video id."
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 6:05 PM on April 5, 2007

You need to remove the quotation mark from the end of the URL. Correct URLS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRPHf90Fi24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNfNevVeebc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb_d2l6sMwM
posted by delmoi at 6:09 PM on April 5, 2007

There was a short interview with Rodriguez in today's Austin Chronicle. Not nearly as manic as the Tarantino.

I was pretty pumped to see this until I found out Fergie is in it.
posted by birdherder at 6:22 PM on April 5, 2007

Yea-hup, they don't make em like that anymore.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen any Ford Pintos around much neither.
posted by hal9k at 6:30 PM on April 5, 2007

That's a good book! One thing I particularly liked about it was that it was a combination of film history and social history. Reading the author's descriptions of the real and long-gone Times Square brought me right back. Ah, good times, good times.
posted by scratch at 6:37 PM on April 5, 2007

In Los Angeles, Tarantino is running an almost two month long grindhouse film festival at the New Beverly Cinema. I had never heard of grindhouse, but it's been a lot of fun so far and I recommend it--I love the previews and the period music played before the films, and most of the films have been great fun. Here's the full schedule, which continues through May.

(Just don't go tonight: it's the sneak preview of Tarantino's Grindhouse, and people started lining up before 6 pm for an 11 pm showing.)
posted by jjwiseman at 6:39 PM on April 5, 2007

I was pretty pumped to see this until I found out Fergie is in it.

Tarentino's acting in it too. That's enough to put me off. Though I bet he does a mean cover of "My Humps".
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:59 PM on April 5, 2007

From the Wikipedia "grindhouse" link:

Exploitation films is a loosely defined term to describe a film genre that typically sacrifice the traditional notions of artistic merit for a more sensationalistic display, often featuring excessive sex, violence, and gore.

But isn't the distinction really more a matter of degree than of kind?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:08 PM on April 5, 2007

Wow. Michelle Clifford really seems to hate an awful lot.
posted by cytherea at 9:04 PM on April 5, 2007

Tarantino gives me the willies and the shudders. I fear that if he didn't have moviemaking as an outlet for his madness, he would be acting out his shit in the real world. So I suppose it's good he has a way to work it out. Thanks for the post.To each his own, but this genre is not for me.
posted by Hobgoblin at 7:53 AM on April 6, 2007

Thanks for the Sleazoid Express web site.

42nd Street Forever, or at least Vol 1, was floating about the Intarwebs a few weeks back.
posted by infowar at 11:05 AM on April 6, 2007