death proof

Death Proof is the other half of the Grindhouse double-bill that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez attempted a few years back. Rodriquez's half was Planet Terror, which I reviewed a couple of weeks back.

It's kinda cool I've gotten to review Death Proof so soon afterwards - the system seems to have worked out well on this occasion.

I mentioned before that while I like QT's stuff, I'm not one of his uber-fans. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were very good, but I've had issues with all of his other stuff I've seen.

My main thing is with the dialogue, which, ironically, I think is one of the things people praise about his stuff. But anyway, my problem is that he sometimes ends up with these big, unwieldy monologues that the actors struggle to really say. Or at least, they can say them but they have to do it really fast, or the film would be an hour longer.

And because of that they end up sounding like QT himself. It's like QT has stepped into the film just to deliver this big monologue and it feels disjointed. What QT does tend to excel at is banter type dialogue - humorous back and forth stuff between characters.

Anyway, the point is that the same things happen in Death Proof, with some unwieldy monologues and some great banter.

However, I enjoyed Death Proof a great deal. I think it hits the mark much better than Planet Terror did. Where Plant Terror came across as being a John Carpenter film not directed by John Carpenter, Death Proof does come across much more as just a film within a particular genre.

It does have the same incongruous time elements that Planet Terror had - everything seems like it's straight out of the seventies until suddenly they whip out a mobile phone and start texting each other.

But the main point of the film - the car chases are really great. They're exciting, funny, scary - everything they're intended to be. It seems that QT has a definite flair for this type of action that was lacking in the Kill Bill movies.

In the Kill Bill movies he tried to 1) out kung-fu Hong Kong cinema and 2) out chop-sokey Japanese cinema. On count 1 he didn't quite out-do them, but made a good film in that category. On count 2, in my opinion, he failed miserably.

Death Proof was his attempt to outdo the car-chase genre and you know what? I think he just about did it.

It was certainly an enjoyable film. Although if I'm honest, I have to admit I found the ending a little disappointing - it just sort of stopped :/.