Movie Notes: Death Proof

December 8th, 2008

= 4 stars

Starring Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson
Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Synopsis

Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) uses a “death-proof” stunt car to stalk, hunt, and kill two groups of women.

The Good

• As with its counterpart Planet Terror, Death Proof continues with the seventies “B” movie homage, but differs in that it uses them as a jumping-off point. Tarantino has taken various plot elements like bands of women, car chases, sudden violence, and a psychotic stalker and made his own movie from them. This keeps the film remaining in the same general family as Planet Terror but is its own work with different strengths and weaknesses.
• Kurt Russell — macho, manly, driving a cool car — you don’t want to piss him off.
• Its long stretches of girl-on-girl dialogue, then followed by brutal violence, is quite audacious, and the contrast is quite exciting and sometimes horrifying, delivering the promised thrills.
• Odd structure of two movies in one, both essentially the same movie, almost as if the first is a rough draft for the second. That said, the second go-round has enough odd plot twists and turns that kept me watching.
• Really tense car chase scenes, in particular the second stretch with actual stunt-woman Zoe Bell.

The Bad

• In the second half, Tarantino seems to abandon on the seventies style by moving to full color and dropping the scratchy, film stock simulation.
• Tarantino shows up as the bartender. I really dislike his tendency to put himself in his films — totally gratuitous and unnecessary.

Conclusion

Despite the graphic violence and sexist subject matter, I enjoyed Death Proof, mostly due seventies jumping off point and Kurt Russell’s rough-guy performance. In addition, Tarantino is a talented director and you can see the love he has for film in every sequence. I just wish he’d give up on the acting.

IMDB: Grindhouse
Wikipedia: Grindhouse
Rotten Tomatoes: Grindhouse