Death Proof
October 26, 2007
Rated: R Runtime: 113 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
GRINDHOUSE was the homage Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez made to 1970s exploitation movies (Previously reviewed here on MoviesforGuys). Unfortunately the movie bombed at the Box Office. I suspect part of the reason was because of the boneheaded decision to release the film on Easter weekend.
It was a fun movie, but the experience of watching it isn’t quite as fun as someone else telling you about the experience of watching the movie. Particularly if that person is Quentin Tarantino being interviewed.
The two films contained in GRINDHOUSE, DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR, were split up and released on separate DVDs. The theatrical version of DEATH PROOF was about 90 minutes long; this new version is 113 minutes. Some incidental dialogue, and two major scenes have been added (or put back in, as the case may be).
DEATH PROOF tells the tale of Stuntman Mike, a serial killer who targets women with an unusual weapon: his car. Kurt Russell does a great job of making him both charming and creepy.
The first half of the movie involves him terrorizing a group of women. The second half involves another group of women, who may get the opportunity to strike back.
One feature of many 1970s exploitation movies was that the audience gets to experience the action from both sides. They can be frightened as the victims run from evil baddies, but they also get to have the vicarious thrill of seeing through the eyes of the sadistic bad guy. And, in the end, the Bad Guy gets his come-uppance, thus assuaging any guilt the audience may have for enjoying the pillaging a little too much.
DEATH PROOF captures the feel of those 1970s movies better than PLANET TERROR. The pace of the movie is languid. This is a talky movie, and even more talky in this expanded version, with people spending a lot of time shooting the breeze in restaurants and in cars. In this case, it’s all women, but, lest this veer into chick flick, they like to talk dirty. How much you enjoy this probably depends on how much you enjoy other Tarantino movies during the chatty non-violent down-time parts.
But this movie is also something of a Shaggy Dog story. The first 3/4ths of the movie is a gradual setup to get you to buy into a completely preposterous but outstanding finale. I can’t say “one of the best car chases ever” with movies like THE ROAD WARRIOR in existence, but this is a pretty amazing chase. It also spectacularly displays the talents of stuntwoman Zoe Bell, who plays herself… sort of. At least, herself as seen through Quentin Tarantino’s eyes.
If you’ve seen the theatrical version, the major additional scenes are the lap-dance we didn’t get to see (”REEL MISSING”), and then a sequence in black-and-white. And lots of minor extra lines of dialogue here and there.
The movie tries to look like a film you’d see in a second-run theater by having the film scratched, with skips, as if it’s been broken and spliced many times.
This 2-disc DVD doesn’t have any commentary track, but the second DVD has a variety of Making Of documentaries.
Note also that this DVD set doesn’t contain any of the fake trailers from the theatrical version of GRINDHOUSE.
I strongly suspect that eventually a super-deluxe double DVD “Grindhouse” edition of DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR will be released, which will probably have commentary tracks and those missing fake trailers.
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
(6 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)
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I concur with the 4 star rating.. the movie was a bit slow at times, but I like Tarantino’s style so it didn’t bother me.
The trailer for Machete is on the Planet Terror DVD, but that’s it. We’re still missing the others.
I noticed Zoe Bell (woman riding on the hood of the car in DEATH PROOF) was listed in the opening credits of LOST this week. Apparently she did the fall-from-the-entangled-parachute stunt for the actress who played Charlotte.