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Earlier this year, directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino decided to collaborate on a three-hour retro double feature—complete with scratchy footage, lost reels, and fake trailers. They called it Grindhouse—and it was one of the most talked-about releases of the spring (in film geek circles, at least). But despite all the fanboy buzz, Grindhouse went the way of movies like Snakes on a Plane—meaning a lot of people talked about it, but not that many people went to see it. Perhaps they were just thrown off by the three-hour runtime. And maybe that’s why the two movies were split up for DVD release. But, in the end, the change is both good and bad.
Death Proof (the second movie in the original double feature) tells the story of two groups of girls—and of one creepy guy and his equally creepy car. The first group of girls meet Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) in an old bar in Austin. And the second group—an actress, a makeup artist, and a couple of stuntwomen—meet him a year later, while they’re shooting a movie in Tennessee.
Stuntman Mike is just as scary as he is smooth—and there’s obviously something not quite right about him. But when he gets behind the wheel of his beloved car—his special death-proof stunt car—the stuntman in him takes over, and the outcome is always deadly.
Death Proof is a pretty standard Quentin Tarantino kind of movie. There’s a lot of talking. It’s quirky and, at times, totally random. And sometimes it’s extremely violent. As a part of Grindhouse, it was actually rather dull—especially since it came after Rodriguez’s intense, ultra-violent Planet Terror. After all that action and violence, Tarantino’s half seemed almost sleepy. And, for that reason, it’s actually a good thing that it’s being released on its own—because it doesn’t feel nearly as slow. On its own (and with the extra 20-some minutes), it tells a decent story, complete with somewhat interesting characters—whose random conversations aren’t nearly as dull and pointless as they seemed to be before. And while it still feels a bit slow at times, it doesn’t have that same speeding-head-first-into-a-brick-wall feeling that it had as a part of Grindhouse.
The highpoint of the movie is definitely Russell, whose performance as Stuntman Mike is stellar (well, him and the infamous 18-minute car-chase scene). He’s so creepy, it’ll make your skin crawl—but, at the same time, he’s absolutely hilarious, too. And I can’t think of any other actor who could have pulled off the role quite like he did.
But now for the bad news. Although splitting the two movies does make Death Proof more interesting, it also makes it a little less fun. The gimmick of the original double feature made it unusual. The hand-scratched footage worked with the somewhat campy movies, which worked with the skips and the crackles, which worked with all those fake trailers. It was a package deal—and it worked together so very well. On its own, though, Death Proof loses the kitsch appeal. The scratchy footage and the crackles and skips come and go, and they just seem out of place. And, sadly, none of the fake trailers even appear as special features in this two-disc set. There are, however, some other interesting features—most of which involve Tarantino switching into total film-geek mode. It’s cute, but it’s no Don’t trailer.
So the splitting of Planet Terror and Death Proof was a blessing and a curse for Death Proof. If you’re a fan of Tarantino’s work (or Kurt Russell—or crazy car chases, for that matter), it’s worth checking out. But, on its own, it loses some of the eccentricity it once had as a part of Grindhouse—so it’s not a must-see.
