20 Underappreciated Blockbusters That Are Much Better Than You Remember

7. Grindhouse

Kurt Russell Death Proof
Dimension Films

The Grindhouse experiment went over the heads of audiences in the United States and Canada, so much so that the two parts were released separately in Europe, both theatrically and on home video. Which both stupidly negated the entire point of the project, and gave Death Proof the notoriety of being regarded as Quentin Tarantino's worst movie by far when it was viewed entirely out of context.

After the full double-feature/fake trailer bonanza earned just $25.4m at the domestic box office, the money men took over and decided to release Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror and Death Proof two months apart, because who cares if you've butchered the premise when there's money to be made? Not the Weinsteins, that's for sure.

Individually, the two halves of Grindhouse are solid-if-unspectacular love letters to the genre films of which both directors are massive fans. When viewed together, complete with fictional trailers and an intermission, the whole thing becomes an entirely different and far superior viewing experience that gives both Planet Terror and Death Proof greater meaning.

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