Grindhouses jump the shark this Good Friday with the release of Grindhouse, which is just crazy in too many ways for me to go into on this blog.I will, however, recommend a few good grinds to get you in the mood before you flock to your local multiplex with stadium seating and coffee in the lobby to see, um, Grindhouse...
42nd Street Forever and its sequel DVD releases is probably the greatest compilation of movie trailers you'll ever be able to collect. Many of them are the real deal sexploitation, blacksploitation, and a few gaysploitation moments of cinema that played the grindhouses in the 70s, and for a sorbet to cleanse the palate they throw in some good old B-Movies from the 50s.
Times Square Red, Times Sqaure Blue is quite possibly the dirtiest non-fiction book I have ever read. It's a completely candid memoir of the xxx movie houses that ruled the Times Square area until the mid 1990s, and goes into much of the history of theater programming and clientèle. It's hard to wax poetic on the sight of so many porno theaters in the hood back then, but given the number of Starbucks and Duane-Reeds that have replaced them, I miss the porn palaces.
TCM Underground on Friday late-nights is Turner Classic Movies appreciation for things other than Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, or Maltese Falcon. Recent celebrations of schlock have included De Palma's Sisters and Romero's The Crazies.
IFC has IFC Grindhouse Fridays at midnight, with a collection of more modern films that would have played the grindhouses back in the day, if they weren't such instant classics in this day.
And of course the Kentucky Fried Movie, which spoofed the grindhouse when Tarantino was in PJs at the drive-in...
