Befitting the theme of GRINDHOUSE, a sensational, adjective-heavy tag line review summary would be: This 254-page full-throttle expose by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez delivers a double-barrel load of sizzle and sickness guaranteed to knock readers out of their chairs!

The good news is, such a hyperbolic blurb isn't far from the truth, as this extensive making-of GRINDHOUSE book is one of the best cinematic tie-ins seen in years.

While the excellent, page-worn and ripped artistic design by Kurt Volk skillfully imitates a time-battered publication, the dense content of this book is a worth callback to the era when studios promoted movies as events across all media, not just advertising and lunch bag toy giveaways.

Though GRINDHOUSE the book offers complete script of PLANET TERROR, this gem only amounts to one-fourth of the total pages, leaving 190 pages jam-packed with photos, interviews and on-set descriptions collected during production.  Each page is richly illustrated with the brilliant photography of Roco Torres and Andrew Cooper, and there are literally hundreds of pictures filling this immense volume.  If there remains one more production or promotional photo left unpublished in this book, it would be a miracle.

It's no surprise GRINDHOUSE the book turned out this way, since both Rodriguez and Tarantino embody and enjoy a great fondness for how movies used to be experienced when their generation grew up going to theaters.   Modern home entertainment didn't exist at that time, so going to the movies was a unique and specialized event — as was the rare chance for filmmakers to take audiences behind the scenes of their films.   If nothing else, this book pays reverent and worthy homage to the days when cinematic promotion was more a skillfully wielded tool and less a bulldozing mechanism.

The incredible amount of thought, artistry and worshipping of detail makes every page a treat for the eyes and the mind.  Even the considerable weight of this large-format, hardback book feels satisfyingly heavy in a reader's hands — a welcome change from today's paper-thin on content paperback making-of booklets sold today.   The digital (and handmade) distressing of each page and image become addicting eye-candy, at times distracting one from reading the book.  In fact, when I first received the book, I just had to flip through the entire volume simply enjoying the edge-worn design: it was too much fun to look at to read right away!

Rodriguez and Tarantino provide their own introductions to both the film and the book about it, and the duo often appear together in many text passages throughout in interview form. So just like the film of the same name, this paper-bound GRINDHOUSE is also a collaborative effort with one author assisting and inspiring the other, regardless of which director's film is currently being examined.

After these two define the Grindhouse Experience for moderns audiences not schooled in such cinematic styles, the book offers Rodriguez's complete PLANET TERROR script, chock-full of publicity and still photographs from the film.  Dozens of concept illustrations also burst this book at the seams, with artwork ranging from cigarette packs to full-size film set designs.

Beginning on page 80, GRINDHOUSE shifts gears to discuss the making of this double-bill's first feature. chapters include solid studies of previsualization, production design, and creature makeup.  Digital concept leaders relate the technical problems in giving go-go dancer Cherry Darling her machine-gun leg.

But this only scratches the surface, and additional chapters follow about stunts and special effects, prop design, the brilliant period wardrobe and movie vehicles.  Another stand-out chapter details the surprisingly simple and deceptively complex solutions used to give GRINDHOUSE its distinctively scratched, faded, distressed look and sound — a creative anomaly in the pristine, high-definition digital cinema of the 21st century.

The creation of Quentin Tarantino's DEATH PROOF takes the lead in the final 100 pages of the GRINDHOUSE book, as QT and Rodriguez discuss the high-octane thrills of making this second feature.  Elaborate studies of production design, retro wardrobe which gave the girls their sexy swagger, and the death-defying stunt work designed to create an highlight car crash in the film. 

While actors like Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms did much of their own dangerous driving, they worked closely and bravely with their stunt mentors and doubles, not to mention professional stuntwoman Zoë Bell who appears as herself in the film.  Fittingly, another chapter is devoted to the gearheads and auto-erotica fans, discussing the many vintage cars, almost stars themselves, collected and recreated for lethal use in DEATH PROOF.

But hold on because the ride isn't over yet.  GRINDHOUSE the book also offers the script and many illustrations for Rodriguez's mock-film trailer MACHETE, starring Danny Trejo. Making-of insights for horror maven Eli Roth's trailer THANKSGIVING follows in a funny and gut-wrenching discussion of his hilarious fake slasher satire.

Last but not least, a collection of the GRINDHOUSE poster art concludes the book's wealth of movie material with a gallery of one-sheets and old-style lobby cards covering all the above segments.

If the book has one disappointing drawback, it's the total lack of any information on Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright's faux-trailer contributions. Perhaps these mini-productions weren't completed in time to meet publication deadlines for this otherwise extensive publication, but whatever the reason this GRINDHOUSE is incomplete without them.  Alas, fans will see WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS howling into theaters between PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF.

Outrageous adjectives really can't begin to describe the richness of this making-of book, so I urge all fans — not just of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, but ALL cinema fans — to add GRINDHOUSE - THE SLEAZE-FILLED SAGA OF AN EXPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE to their film book libraries.

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