If you are at all interested in seeing the three hour Grindhouse double feature (including fake trailers), then you must see it in a theater and not wait for video, because the whole point is to recreate a specific type of tawdry moviegoing experience from the 1970s. I enjoyed it immensely, even ended up seeing most of it a second time, but have absolutely no interest in watching it again on TV. (Why did I go a second time? Because an hour into Blades of Glory, I realized I was watching a sucky movie and decided I'd rather to see Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof again, so I scooted over to the screen showing Grindhouse as the second half was starting).

When I first heard the concept and that Tarantino was involved, I got giddy anticipating him to re-use the actual psychadelic-purple-bubble "Coming Attractions" and "Our Feature Presentation" bumpers that were standard in many cinemas in the 1970s, which I vividly remember from the tail end of that decade when I became a regular. (He had already used them a couple years ago in one or both of the Kill Bill movies). The funky music makes them a hoot, sort of like the cheesy incidental music used on the 1970s Match Game TV show. If I can find a screenshot on the web, I'll include it so you'll know what I'm talking about.

I've cut back on my moviegoing quite a bit over the past several months, but except for Blades of Glory, nearly everything I've seen this year has been special either in a gotta-see-it-once spectacle kind of way (like 300) or as a truly great cinematic experience, like The Lives of Others (the German film that just won the Best Foreign Movie Oscar). Coming soon: lots of heavily anticipated popcorn movies! It's going to be a good summer....