Grade: A- | “Grindhouse” is a film without morality, originality or plot.

That being said, directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez achieve their goal perfectly: to make a double-feature horror/thriller throwback with little or no thought to morality, originality or plot.

Generation Y moviegoers will benefit to see such a movie from a very different era and mentality: the 70s. Censors be damned, detail be damned; violence is king.

It is the art of intentionally creating a so-bad-it’s-good film experience that justifies “Grindhouse.” It is a dangerous method, lying somewhere between retro-cool and artistic regurgitation.

“Grindhouse” tops three hours as a double-feature film experience in the vein of the 1970s low-budget movies. “Planet Terror,” Rodriguez’s film shown as the first feature, is a cookie cutter “chemical-gets-loose-and-infects-locals, kill-the-zombies-all-of-them” flick. Don’t look for good acting or dialogue; that is not the point. Instead, there are classic 70s theater announcements, fake B-movie trailers, scratched film stock, strippers, testicles collected in a jar, zombifying chemicals, and that is just in the first five minutes.

No apologies are offered. Nothing is to be taken seriously. If a head explodes, don’t worry – it’s just a movie.

It is not often that the falseness of cinema has been so openly exposed in new films. “Grindhouse” plays out a shared dream of the duo: it’s not common, but the box office wonder-kids are able to make films how they want to, just because.

Tarantino’s “Death Proof,” following a few authentic-looking “camp” horror movie trailers, takes more liberties than Rodriguez’s. “Death Proof” follows Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russel) and two sets of women through a series of murders, attempted vehicular homicides and charming diner conversation.

Tarantino has always been known for his long-winded dialogue, and even if most action movies from “Grindhouse”-era cinema are known for lots of filler and a little bit of solid action, Tarantino lays the filler on thick. There are 30 minutes that pass without a laugh in the theater, while all the time everyone knows and pines for the killer to raise hell any minute now. The audience waits for the change from low- to high-quality film stock, marking the coming of the prized car chase.

“Grindhouse” exaggerates the distance we’ve come in action movies since the original ultra-violent features. Modern action films possess a bit more sophistication and the older films, along with “Grindhouse,” offer less apology.