Death Proof - mini-review

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I misssed the Grindhouse double feature when it was in the theaters and am only now catching up. I really enjoyed Robert Rodriguez's goofy, gory movie and was very excited to see Tarantino's offering. Unfortunately, I think Planet Terror wins the competition - I was underwhelmed* by Death Proof.

It's too frickin' long is the main complaint. I know Tarantino has a gift for rapid-fire, glib dialogue, but enough already! The story is simple: the bad guy, Stuntman Mike (played by an over-the-top but still excellent Kurt Russell) preys on young women. He picks them out, picks them up and kills them with his muscle car which has been tricked out to be "death proof" for the driver. Now I didn't time it, but it took FOREVER for the first group of girls to get killed, albeit in an impressively and horrifically creative way when it finally happened. Blah, blah, blah - they're young, sassy and sexy and Stuntman Mike likes to take their girl power away from them. Well, fine, but hurry it up. Then fourteen months later, he tries it again but this time the girls he picks are stuntwomen themselves and they fight back, eventually kicking Mike's ass in a big way. The car chase at the end is amazing (no CGI, from what I understand - all old school stunts) but again, by the time it happened, I was pretty bored from all the blah blah blah.

I still wish I'd seen the double feature in the theater - particularly since the DVDs I rented did not have all the fake trailers which were supposed to be outstanding (guess I'll go troll YouTube for them). But I think it would have been tough to sit through what with Death Proof being (or at least seeming) so long.

* Except for the soundtrack which was incredible - as all Tarantino's movie soundtracks seem to be. I especially liked "Chick Habit" by April March.