Based solely upon box office receipts, the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez theatrical double-feature, Grindhouse, was a less than successful endeavor. The theatrical release featured the Robert Rodriguez-helmed Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, with fake trailers placed between the two. The idea was to pay tribute to the "B" movies and movie houses that used to feature various types of exploitation films.

The two films are now being released separately on DVD, the cynical would say in order to boost profits and recoup production costs. Tarantino's Death Proof made it to DVD in mid-September, and on October 16, it will be Planet Terror's turn to emerge in an extended and unrated edition. The Rodriguez film arrives in a two-disc special edition that features some of the allegedly "missing" footage that did not make it into the theatrical cut.

Planet Terror is both an homage to zombie movies and one itself. The nonsensical plot features the release of a biochemical weapon that causes some people to turn into zombies simply by breathing in the vapors. Other people have to actually be bitten or ingest the blood of a zombie to turn into one themselves. The "infection" actually takes a good deal of time to spread (at least early on in the film), which allows one of the infected, a go-go dancer named Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), to have her leg amputated in time to stop her from turning.

In a brilliant move, Cherry ends up with a gun attached to her stump which she can seemingly fire at will. She and the rest of a group of misfit survivors, including a doctor (Marley Shelton) who is running away from her abusive husband (Josh Brolin) in order to reignite a lesbian relationship, and a man with a hidden past named El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), band together in order to try and escape to Mexico.

If the entire plot sounds ludicrous, there's a very valid explanation: it's supposed to be. The sole raison d'etre of the films Planet Terror is honoring is to show beautiful women, copious amounts of blood and viscera, and feature lots of cursing. It's a simple formula, and if Planet Terror is to be reviewed solely on those counts it succeeds in a big way. The film is cheesy and ridiculous and way over the top. The movie features characters like Abby, played by Naveen Andrews (Lost). Abby was helping create the zombie gas for a military organization and, for some inexplicable reason, likes to store human testicles in a glass jar.