Music Box Goes Into Tarantino Overload With Double Feature Double Header

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 11, 2012 8:20PM

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is expected to be one of the most anticipated movies opening this holiday season. (We're looking forward to seeing Leonardo Di Caprio chew some scenery in a Tarantino flick and hoping Jamie Foxx can stop clowning for a couple hours and prove his Oscar win for Ray wasn't a fluke.) There will be no shortage of local multiplexes showing Django Unchained when it's released Christmas Day, so the Music Box is taking a different angle to bring Tarantino to his fans for the holidays.

The Music Box is hosting a Tarantino double feature double header Dec. 19 that will test the stamina and attention spans of film lovers and the most devout of Tarantino acolytes. The festivities kick off at 5:15 p.m. with a screening of Kill Bill, Vol. I and II. Tarantino had to split the magnum opus starring Uma Thurman as an assassin seeking revenge against the killers who left her for dead into two parts released a year apart. Vol. I ran 111 minutes while Vol. I, which featured a scene-stealing David Carradine in the film's final act, clocked in at 136 minutes. Put the two together and you're looking at over four hours of blood, gore, inconceivable scene settings and Tarantino's pop fringe-influenced dialogue.

If sitting through Kill Bill only served to put wind in your sails, you'll have enough time to stretch and buy another jumbo coke before the second double feature starts at 10 p.m. Grindhouse, Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's tribute to the exploitation flicks of the 70s and early 80s, will screen in its entirety, including the amazing fake trailers that were the best part of the collaboration; the trailer for Machete was better than the movie it wound up inspiring.

The double feature double header may also serve as a contrast in quality control. Tarantino recently told the Hollywood Reporter his half of , "Death Proof," wasn't up to the standards of his oeuvre.

To me, it’s all about my filmography, and I want to go out with a terrific filmography,” he said. “[2007's] ‘Death Proof’ has got to be the worst movie I ever make. And for a left-handed movie, that wasn’t so bad, all right? — so if that’s the worst I ever get, I’m good. But I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned.”

So "Death Proof," while not being among Tarantino's best, would easily be Michael Bay's best movie. (For what it's worth, we feel Tarantino's worst work was his segment of 1995's Four Rooms.) "Death Proof" also reminded viewers that, given the right material, Kurt Russell is a badass.

The Music Box Theatre's "A Double Feature of Quentin Tarantino" begins 5:15 p.m. Dec. 19. Tickets are $10 for each double feature, or $20 for the entire evening of screenings. Tickets are available here.