Review of Death Proof (2007) by Lord N — 02 Aug 2011

People say that this is Tarantino's weakest film to date. I'm inclined to disagree actually. I enjoyed it.

One thing though Mr. Tarantino, we get it you LOVE FEET. Tarantino has more foot shots in this film than in any of his other films combined and if you know Tarantino you know that is hard to do.

Acting/characters: I think that Kurt Russell was the best part of this film easily. He was just so awesome in his role and I enjoyed seeing him onscreen. I do feel that he wasn't on enough though. I enjoyed the other 8 protagonists too. I did think that the second 4 overshadowed the previous 4 quite a bit and once the story focused on them you totally forgot about the other 4. Not that he wanted you to linger on them but it seemed like they almost didn't have a point. They did a good job and all but...hmmm...I dunno. I will say that no one in this film was very developed as a character but that suited them all. We aren't meant to marvel at the character development but we just want to see them get into a big car chase. We get that for sure. I enjoyed the characters. 8/10.

Plot: The plot in this film wasn't there so much. It was incidental but not like say, Michael Bay incidental. Michael Bay pretends to have deep character driven plots (that's what's so frustrating) but Tarantino in this film seemed to be saying "I don't give a rats about having anything but the framework of a plot. I just wanna have car chases and violence." It really suited this film. It was just supposed to be an homage to a cheesy '70s action flick and it succeeded in that. But having said that, I still kinda would have liked something a little more. I'm not sure what. I feel that they got the length down perfectly. If the film had gone on for another 20 minutes it would have been way too long for me but it was the perfect length. 7.5/10.

Screenplay: Most of Tarantino's films are 95% dialogue. This one is no different. It is a risk for a director to make an action film like this one mostly dialogue but as Tarantino showed us with Reservoir Dogs, he can make it happen. It had the usual Tarantino charm ad flair to it. It was quick and witty and just what I've come to expect from him. It made me laugh in a good way. It does a good job of driving the film along and it really kept my interest. It was a typical screenplay from him and in this case that is a really good thing. I liked it a lot. 8.5/10.

Likableness: I enjoyed this film. It had great dialogue, excellent action scenes, and I enjoyed how artistic it could be. I like how he makes music diagetic but he makes it seem like it is non-diagetic. I suppose I can still see why people cite it as one of his weaker films but I just have to disagree. I had a very fun time watching this film. The performances were good, the screenplay was solid and the plot did its job. It was a far from perfect film but I liked it. 8/10.

Final Score: 32/40 80% (N).

Tomatometer Rating: 64%.

Tomatometer rating if my review was added: 65%.

TRIVIA TIME: 1. Quentin Tarantino named the character "Jungle Julia Lucai" after his personal assistant, Victoria Lucai.

2. The original name for this film, which pops up for about a frame, is "Quentin Tarantino's Thunder Bolt".

3. Zoe Bell does all her own stunts (she was the stunt double for Uma Thurman in the "Kill Bill" series, which was also directed by Quentin Tarantino).

4. In an interview with Newsweek, Quentin Tarantino stated he came up with the idea of "Death Proof" when he was talking to a friend about buying a car. Tarantino wanted to buy a Volvo because he "didn't want to die in some auto accident like the one in Pulp Fiction". In regards to the safety of the car, his friend had said, "Well, you could take any car and give it to a stunt team, and for $10,000 or $15,000, they can death-proof it for you." The "death proof" phrase had stuck to Tarantino after that.

5. A conversation takes place among Abby, Zoe, Kim and Lee in which it's revealed that Abby's last boyfriend, a film director, cheated on her with a stunt double for Daryl Hannah. Monica Staggs, who plays Lanna Frank in the first half of Death Proof, was the stunt double for Hannah in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

6. Quentin Tarantino admitted later in an interview that he believed he "over-tweaked" Death Proof, but was still very proud of it.