Death Proof - an early UK review

Death Proof - written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Starring: Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell, Rose McGowan and Kurt Russel as "Stuntman Mike".
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Originally one part of an ambitious Double-Feature in collaboration with Robert Rodgriguez, "Death Proof" has been re-edited and extended for an international release - a move by the Weinstein company that has divided opinons among QT devotees the world over.
Having not seen the Grindhouse double-feature, I cannot comment with any authority on how the context of "Death Proof" as solo venture has been changed, thus affecting how it now plays. What follows is a 'cold' review of the film.

The story is lean to the point of anorexia - Stuntman Mike is a (presumably) out of work movie stuntman with an inexplicable misoygny, who has a lot of fun hunting down groups of young women and killing them in high-speed auto-collisions, from which he can be the only survivor - on account of his car being 'death-proofed'. Fourteen months after his last kill, he sets his sights on a group of movie set staff, but has he bitten off more than he can chew?

"Death Proof" is a film of two halves, each of them thrilling in their own right, but combined to create a curious and not-entirely coherent whole. We know we're in QT land when the first group of female characters get mired in snappy, fizzy, achingly cool pontifications of topics that neither drive the plot or have any relevance to anything. As always, though, when you're in the hands of Tarantino, the kind of aimless-dialogue that would make most movies insufferable make them comfortable and innately enjoyable. Working with an entirely new cast - save for himself in an enjoyable cameo - the first forty-odd minutes zip by, even though not much happens. Girls talk about guys they like; girl text messages crush; girls drink; sinister Kurt Russel shows up to steal the show; Kurt chats to Rose McGowan in a really dodgy blonde dye job; Kurt tries to solicit a lapdance from one of the girls; Kurt gets lapdance; bar patrons go their separate ways, with Kurt giving a lift to Rose; turns out Kurt's a smiling psychopath; cue coolest car smash-up in a while.

With a half-time interlude acting as exposition, we jump forward 14 months and Stuntman Mike is onto his next target. He isolates them, tries to run them off the road; they ain't having it; cue high-speed, back and forth car chase with NO CGI.

As you can see, the plot is an excuse for set-pieces and dialogue, and is functional almost to the point of arbitrariness. The first half is vintage QT; the second a thrilling prolonged chase sequence with the kind of cool, out of the box ideas that the filmmaker showed in both Kill Bill movies. Taken individually, the man's talents as both writer and director are thrillingly in their element.

And yet somehow, the movie as a whole is not up there with his best work. This arbitrariness is troublesome. Though "Death Proof" is an obvious artistic cousin to "Kill Bill", it comes off as the foolish cousin, for it lacks the earlier, superior movie's thematic through-lines and the security of an epic vision.

Of course, at this point, it becomes impossible to not mention the original "Grindhouse" experiment, especially its ethos. Without having seen it, it's obviously plausible that - in the context of an ambitious tribute to the old 70s exploitation genre, complete with fake trailers - in tandem with Rodriguez's "Planet Terror", "Death Proof" plays as an adequate brain-turned-off thrill-ride sending the audience home exhilirated. A European audience will just have to wonder about how good the complete experience was; standing alone, "Death Proof" is a merely enjoyable film - worth the price of admission, but without an obvious reason for being that leaves you a little cold once the euphoria of the action wears off.

That being said, everyone involved in the movie has reason to be proud. Zoe Bell - Uma Thurman's stuntdouble in the "Kill Bill" movies, given a prominent role her, essentially as herself - adds authenticity to the action scenes that make the climactic chases especially thrilling; Rosario Dawson, fresh from a foul-mouthed turn in "Clerks 2" is sure to crop up as a feisty chick in another Tarantino effort down the line; former CSI:NY star Vanessa Ferlito is exceptional among the first group of girls targeted by Stuntman Mike.
And then of course, there is Kurt Russel, Tarantino's self-assigned Resurrection Project for this movie. Having great fun without quite hamming it up, Russell turns in a memorably sinister villain. His performance is especially brave due to the decision to not make him overtly charming, perfectly playing into the second half theme (thin though it is) of female empowerment.

All in all, "Death Proof" is probably propping up the rest of QT's canon, but it is a highly entertaining movie and well worth your time. However, it may be time for QT to stop treating cinematic genres as his own personal playground and, to paraphrase the recent Empire review, "make a real film" now.