Travis On "Death Proof"

Death Proof

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Tarantino's half of "Grindhouse" was extraordinarily disappointing. I was really looking forward to it because I like Kurt Russell, I really like Tarantino's movies, and I love car chase movies. Tragically, Tarantino spends far too much time trying to impress you with his eclectic musical tastes, and not enough time telling an interesting story. The idea behind "Death Proof" as I understood it was that Kurt Russell played a psychotic stuntman who killed people in car accidents with his stunt car. It's a solid idea for a horror movie, but "Death Proof" is not that movie.

"Death Proof" is a movie about four women in a bar, and then it's a movie about four completely different women in the country. The common link between the two is that Stuntman Mike (played fantastically by Kurt Russell) harasses both sets of women with his car designed to protect the driver from fatal injury through any crash imaginable. The first half of "Death Proof" follows radio DJ Jungle Julia during a night out with some friends. We're forced to spend an egregious amount of time with these women speaking decidedly Tarantino-esque dialogue (almost to the point of parody) as they romp around a bar, while Stuntman Mike mostly sits idly by.

View the "Grindhouse" Slide Show (16 images)

The scenes where Kurt Russell actually gets to speak are good, but few and far between, and somewhat tarnished by Tarantino showing up in the film yet again. This first act finally comes to a close with a spectacular (yet short) action scene, but then the movie jumps to a completely new set of women and we have to wade through more suicide-inducing self-indulgent claptrap that goes nowhere. I don't care if the scene at the table where they talk about falling into a ditch is all in one cut, the story they're telling completely sucks. If you have to go to the bathroom by this point in "Grindhouse" this is the time to go.

I'd like to believe that "Death Proof" was inspired by old grind house movies, but it has much more in common with deleted scenes from "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs." Tarantino basically rips off (sorry..."pays homage") to his earlier movies, but this time without someone there to say, "Dude Quentin, isn't this scene running a little long?" "Death Proof" is far from a total loss, however, because it features a pretty badass car chase with some absolutely amazing stunts by Zoë Bell at the end. If you're wondering who Zoë Bell is and why she's playing herself in this, you'll wonder no longer when the movie ends. I'll just say she's a stuntwoman and leave it at that.

The chase is so good that it's just that much more frustrating that the rest of "Death Proof" is so terrible. Watching this right after "Planet Terror" had me crying out, "Someone make this fun like the other one!" I have to say again, though, that the car chase is exceptional. It can't be stressed enough. I'll finish on "Death Proof" with an example of why Tarantino failed at the assignment. Both of the films feature missing reels, a common result of B-movies being chewed by bad projectors in the grind house theaters. The "Planet Terror" missing reel contains key story elements and a character reveal fairly important to the story. The "Death Proof" missing reel contains a lap dance. Why does Quentin cut the exploitation but retain the poor character development?

The overall experience of watching "Grindhouse" reminded me of college when my friends and I would go to the Movie Warehouse right next to Liquor Barn and pick up a bunch of terrible horror movies and several cases of beer for a night's entertainment. These weren't movies we really cared about watching, it was just about having something on the television while talking and drinking that you could watch without requiring too much attention.

Bad horror movies are good for that because the stories are never important and the scenes are entertaining and understandable outside of the greater context of the movie. They are "party" movies, unlike say, "The Passion of the Christ." "Grindhouse" is supposed to be a throwback to the days of sex and violence exploitation movies shown in double-feature format, but to me it just felt like a college night out with friends, and I mean that as the sincerest compliment. That's how you should watch "Grindhouse," with as many of your friends as you can get to go.