I think this might arguably be Robert Rodriguez's best, and he has some pretty ones ("Sin City" is probably a close second). Rodriguez is not an art-house director by any means, but he is a director of wildly entertaining films and I think this may be his most entertaining, though I'll also say this film probably has the narrowest audience appeal. The story is a zombie one about a government experiment gone wrong that infects the populace of a small Texas town, but this film is unique in that it was one half of Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" double feature, that tried to recreate the experience of going to rundown theaters and watching low budget explorations films of the 1970s, complete with fake exploitation film trailers, damaged film prints, and missing reels to round out the experience. That's what I think limits the film's appeal to a wide audience, because not only does Rodriguez embrace the visual aesthetics of these films, he also fully embraces the ratcheted up sex and violence of these same exploitation films that he's celebrating, which is not going to appeal to all audience members. I can't speak from personal experience in regards to attending grindhouse theaters, but I can attest to watching many of these films during the VHS heyday. Those VHS video gems did include cheesy trailers for cheap low budget films and often did include poor film transfers that included damaged film prints, so even for a gen-xer like me, this film provided a lot of nostalgia. Freddy Rodríguez is the hero of the film who helps save his stripper girlfriend, Rose McGowan, from zombies. In the process McGowan loses her leg, which is eventually replaced with an M-16. Josh Brolin plays a terrifically villainous doctor after his ex-wife Marley Shelton. I think this was the first film I saw him in where I realized this guy can really act and isn't just the guy from "Goonies" and "Thrashin'". You also have Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Fergie, Nicky Katt and Bruce Willis. A great touch is that Willis is never shown in the same shot as the rest of the cast, which was a favorite trick of exploitation films who would hire one major (usually fading) start to film one or two days worth of footage that could be inserted into the rest of the film, then giving producers the opportunity to boast about the films' fabulous cast. Rodriguez pretty much summed up this love letter to exploitation films of yore when he said, "The posters were much better than the movies, but we're actually making something that lives up to the posters." and he absolutely did!

First let me explain that I am a huge fan of Zombie Apocalypse type films and television, which one could easily classify in the same genre of science fiction which I am also a huge fan of. And it has always been up for debate amongst fans and critics of the genre how far you can bend the logic where logic does not exist rule without breaking it.This movie defies almost ALL logic. I understand it's meant to be a gore-fest shock thriller, and I can say Resident Evil would be classified as the same type film and I enjoyed any film out of that series twice as much as this junk, and I would put the best resident evil at about a 5.6/10. I know a lot of you guys out there reading this are shaking your heads thinking that I don't "get it". I'm not a film critic so I don't know the terminology but I understand the way Quentin Tarantino makes his films in a sort of comic-bookie fashion like this seems to duplicate, and I loved most of his stuff, kill bill, true romance, basterds, django. This does a good job of coming off as that type of film, even with the old grainy film markings and cut reel in sex scene.This just goes so far beyond logic that I couldn't simply ignore it and it ruined the entire experience for me. The toxin is airborne and most certainly extremely contagious, when we see Wray first enter the hospital to get Cherry he avoids the blood splatter, later on they are just running over zombies in trucks getting splashed in blood, were they immune somewhere along the line? how did the girl not get infected after losing her leg? the simple explanation by the wacko doctor just simply says oh some people are immune...OK.Then the LEG GUN, HOW DOES SHE FIRE THE AMMO AND RELOAD MAGAZINES? and at the end when it becomes a FUC**nig MINNIGUN where do the bullets come from? her tail? she goes soaring at least 30 feet in the air towards the end and pops off 100 rounds in every direction from what appears to be a 30 round mag in an m-16, I wasn't paying that close attention, then I counted at least 3 rocket blasts from her, one minute shes a stripper next minute shes a trained assassin that defies gravity and can somehow telepathically fire a gun from her leg. Hell I would have even settled for a string or something she pulled on connected to the trigger.I could list a dozen more points but i'm not wasting another minute of my life thinking about this, plus you guys already have your own high or low opinions anyway without me pointing out more of the obvious. I've never written a review and thought i'd be in for a treat with some of the actors and the 7+ rating and loving Zombie flicks, but wow what a disappointment. I honestly can not think of a worse movie at the moment. I think I saw something called tank girl late night SyFy channel that was pretty close to being this bad, but i'd rather watch that. HOW could you give this anything above a 4/10!!!!!!!?? -rant over

Robert Rodriguez's love of all things trash come together perfectly in Planet Terror. The film isn't simply tongue in cheek, there's real wit throughout. The atmosphere is so overly bathed in horror, that no matter how ridiculous the events get they seem to fit into this nightmare comedy with ease. It also helps that he gets some great work from his cast and a good enough performance from Rose McGowan who is a bit too self aware here. I actually prefer the longer version of the film, as apposed to the abridged version that played in Grindhouse - there's more humor and the characters are a bit more fleshed out. The gore is well done and mostly played for laughs and while the narrative is basically stitched together and light as a feather, Planet Terror is Rodriguez's best work.

This is one of my favorite movies, and in my opinion, one of Tarantino's best films. Its hilarious, has plenty of action,gore,violence.....and zombies. It also has plenty of big names in it, including Tarantino, and you can tell that they all had fun making it. In terms of comparison, i'd put it back to back with from dusk till dawn, replacing that films vampires with the afore mentioned zombies. Its just as over the top, if not a little more so. The only real complaint I have, is the little scratching noises, the parts that are supposed to look like they were over exposed, and every once in awhile, the card that would come up with "scene missing" on it. Yes, as I said I know this was all done deliberately, to make it look like a drive in movie, but it still became annoying after awhile. This movie is worth seeing just to see the fate of Tarantino's character, and the infamous "melting dick" scene.