Quentin Tarantino's DEATHPROOF (includes trailer)
August 30th 2010 14:49
A White-Hot Juggernaut At 200 Miles Per Hour!
Deathproof is a film that belongs in the relics of demolished drive in’s and treasured video cassettes, far away from the multiplexes. Quentin Tarantino’s box office kiss of death finds the director right in his element, honouring the trashy, low brow exploitation films he has, for so long, clearly salivated over. Split in to two parts, Death Proof introduces us to two packs of smart mouthed, hard drinking, shit talking, pot smoking, full of attitude, babes in heat. Cruising the country and bar hopping, each group’s, girl power excursions become prey to the twisted, psychotic antics of Stuntman Mike and his murder weapon vehicle that happens to be death proof as drives around slaying women with it.
Stuntman Mike brings the girls night out to an abrupt ending
Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russel (The Thing, Escape From New York, Big Trouble In Little China) hunts down girls for sport and then maims them with his car. There are no redeeming features to be found in this tale of sexually precocious ladies who live to hang with their girls and keep men in their place. In fact, the protagonists live to do nothing but have a good time, as Stunt Man Mike gravitates towards women of the extroverted kind.
Deathproof in generally considered to be a minor work by writer/director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Reservoir Dogs). Death Proof was the originally a back to back double feature with Robert Rodriguez in a film called Grindhouse which was meant to emulate the experience of a grindhouse cinema, exploitation double bill - Rodriguez's film Planet Terror being the first film and then Death Proof being the second. When the U.S. audiences repelled from the concept and Tarantino freaked out as they where leaving the cinema after Rodriguez’s film, not actually understanding the concept of a ‘double feature’ (hilarious) and that his was playing next, the films were released separately, in other countries and on DVD, as a result.
Kurt Russel has definitely had the most fun playing Stunt Man Mike since his collaborations with John Carpenter. As Stunt Man Mike, Kurt Russel knows his way around this character, knowing exactly how to playing with the audience – playing the big bad wolf to these women. Russel comes off as mysterious yet threatening, repulsive yet alluring; half creepy, half charismatic; half redneck, half renaissance man. Seeing him chow down on those burritos in the bar like a pig leaves one kind of impression of him, yet when he gets that twinkle in his eye he reveals an enigmatic, amusing, yet oddball psychopath. Best of all, Kurt Russel is an actor who has no delusions concerning his acting limitations and knows exactly how far he can or can’t go in playing a role.
Pam picks the wrong guy to get a lift home with....
Most of the girls in the first half come across as obnoxious, stuck up pains in the ass’, who’s aimless dialogue heavy banter creates a rapport with the audience. Having endless conversations about sex and music, which act as filler before all their body parts are severed and maimed in twisted steel, while on the road, courtesy of Stuntman Mike. The first group of woman include the cast of Sydney Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito (Wall Street 2), Jordan Ladd (Hostel 2), Marcy Harriel and Rose McGowan (Doomed Generation). The second group of woman are made up of a cast that includes Mary Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the world), Zoe Bell, Tracie Thoms (Descent) and Rosario Dawson (Sin City), each actress is one more tool for Tarantino to employ in his collage of style, making each line of dialogue all the more enjoyable to soak up, as they perfect their delivery to down the smallest preposition and sexify the screen.
Deathproof is filled with gimmicks used to create a modern Grindhouse film, as Deathproof comes complete with missing reels, purposefully scratched prints, soundtrack dropouts and other faults which are created to emulate the experience of digging up an old trashy film reel that’s been kicked around from one drive-in to the next. These flashy bag of tricks will bring grins to the faces of film geeks who appreciate the small details and confirm why DeathProof remained more in cult status as a result.
Deathproof features a scorching soundtrack of forgotten pop gems. The film is eye popping with it’s flair for detail and the production design is filled with endless and perhaps empty but always entertaining references to previous films, creating a different, more colourful world than most films. Each shot excels in production design, filled with little touches that go into creating a world and style that far transcends the limited content of the story itself. Tarantino himself photographs the film and he certainly rises to the challenge using each small detail in the frame to create moody, slick, bubblegum imagery.
The bigger picture in Deathproof, is it’s paying homage to the great car film Vanishing Point (see my review here) as the final move by 'Stunt Man Mike' backfires on him and we have ourselves an old fashioned duel of death car chase extravaganza which attempts to rival the very film it’s paying homage to. After sitting through endless talking, which I really found entertaining (many will be bored by the conversations but I found all of it to be sleazy precocious fun) – we get to the real meat and it’s all worth it. Saliva will flow as your jaw drops during the car chase scenes as three females with an axe to grind go after Mike and it’s one hell of a time. Two classic muscle cars going at it on the open roads, having their showdown like we used to see – real driving, done real fast, real recklessly by stunt guys doing real dumb shit.
I can actually picture the big fat nerdy grin on Tarantino’s face as he wrote and shot these scenes, I doubt the writing took too long to do but the shooting is meticulous and masterful as usual, proving once more that he could film some one reading a phone book and it would still be a blast! The writing is self indulgent and plenty of people had complaints about this. Deathproof finally proves that Tarantino is no genius, simply a film geek doing what he loves and doing it well, which might explain the majority reaction to it. For me however, it was one hell of a fun time! Seriously satisfying trash!
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
If a film is to be judged on how well it achieves its own goals, this one had no allusions and delivered admirably.
Man that lap dance is something to behold and Sydney Poitier fills the frame with sauce all her own.
"Black men and a whole lota' mother fuckin' white men have had plenty fun adoring my ass. I don't wear their teeth marks on my butt for nothing. "
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Man, every time I see this film it's makes me feel like a grand nacho platter *drool*
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
This didn't do much for me. I enjoyed Kurt, but Zoe annoyed the hell out of me.
Loved Sydney!
Loved the car crash.
Loved the original title - Thunderbolt - being quickly slapped over with Deathproof.
I love Planet Terror, and wonder if it had played second would Grindhouse have feared better or worse ...
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Bryn - QT clearly had an agenda in casting her I think ie. he fancied her or something I reckon, she's pretty annoying when she speak her lines. I didnt like Planet Terror much so looks like we are on opposite sides with this one
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
And casting Zoe was very ill-conceived and self-indulgent.