Cinema review
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Zoë Bell
Release date 21 September 2007

A stuntman gets his kicks from murdering women in his ‘death proof’ car…

Rudely severed from Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror following the Stateside failure of Grindhouse, Death Proof is the first of the exploitation double bill to wind up on European shores. So does the movie stand up on its own? The film is undoubtedly Tarantino’s most simplistic feature to date – this is a world away from the clever multi-stranded narratives of Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, with the result being that it does feel slightly insubstantial. But if you can get over the fact that you’ll now need to fork out twice for the Grindhouse experience (Planet Terror is to follow later this year) then Death Proof contains about as much unadulterated fun as you could wish for – well, short of hurtling down the highway in a Dodge Challenger anyway.

Tarantino has managed to pull off the difficult task of fashioning a hip, big-budget movie based on the low-budget exploitation pictures of the 1970s. The dialogue is self-aware and sharp (if not as memorable as Tarantino’s quote-a-minute early work) and virtually every shot contains a reference to an obscure title from the annals of cinema history. Yet, as usual, Tarantino is also very revisionist in his approach – the parade of pretty girls actually keep their clothes on for one thing. This is a film that is smarter than it first appears.

The attempts to make the picture quality look ‘authentically’ damaged are amusing if a little arbitrary, with an overload of burns, jumps and scratches in some segments, but other stretches of the film in pristine condition. The good news is that Tarantino has re-inserted 27 minutes of extra footage into this release (what would have been the ‘missing reel’ in the original), while retaining a choppy, slightly disjointed feel in keeping with the grindhouse tradition.

The film itself is firmly split down the middle, with two sets of female pals running into Stuntman Mike. The talky but lurid first half (which mainly features its characters hanging around a bar) has an effectively sleazy atmosphere and a few nasty shocks, but it’s in the second half that Death Proof really delivers with a heady combination of laughs (“Gulp!”) and breathtaking CG-free car chase action.

Kurt Russell is key to the movie’s success, and he’s the perfect choice to convey Stuntman Mike’s evolution from charming to sinister to ultimately pathetic. But this is a female-driven movie (albeit it a movie nerd’s fantasy of women) and there’s an impressive roll call of strong performances. Particularly likeable turns come from real-life stuntwoman (and Uma Thurman’s stunt double in Kill Bill) Zoë Bell and Rosario Dawson’s as the down-to-earth Abernathy.

You know what to expect from Tarantino by now. Hip soundtrack? Check. Long debates about movies, fast food and fast cars? Check. In jokes and amusing cameos? Check. Tarantino’s celebration of pop culture has become so imitated over the last 15 years that at times Death Proof feels a little too self-conscious, as if the film is basking a little too much in its own coolness as conversation turns to Vanishing Point and the original Gone in 60 Seconds. But then it helps that, from the cars to the girls to music, Death Proof is just about as cool as movies get. Skimming between exploitation genres (this is no simple slasher movie) and infused with Tarantino’s usual microscopic attention to detail, this may not be a particularly weighty movie but it’s one hell of a ride. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
A glorious celebration of trash cinema and pop culture.