The hot summer brings out all the stunning girls in their hot shorts, tight tops and sassy attitudes. Two such groups of girls are enjoying a carefree world of dance, music, boys and drink when they find themselves stalked by the charming but yet sinister "Stuntman Mike" a killer hunting down young women and killing them with his "death proof" car.
Much was made of this long before it even arrived in the UK and poor box office had seen Grindhouse split into two feature films. I'll comment on what I believe the impact of this was on Death Proof but first a word about the project. I have no problem with directors homaging the style of a period or genre as long as they do it well. The Good German did it pretty well recently and I had hoped that Death Proof would bring the world of trashy b-movie pictures to me, having never experienced it for myself. So basically I rented Death Proof looking for Tarantino to use it to explain to me why he loves this genre and show me how "good" it can be if met on its terms.
Sadly for me the only place he really does this is in the closing chase sequence, which is trashy, exciting and driven by a period soundtrack that is well used and well selected. Even this though is trashy stuff and cannot be enjoyed unless you meet it on its own terms and ask nothing else from it. Outside of this, the film feels really stretched to fill the time and not only that but it is "how" the film fills it. It does it mainly by having very attractive young woman hang out, chat about sex and men before then killing (or trying to kill) them. The effect is dulling and dull. At the start it is at least livened up by scratchy effects and grainy footage that reminds us of what Tarantino is meant to be delivering, but these become less and less as it goes on and gradually it does just feel like a pointless modern film with no real genre aspirations to it once the superficial is gone.
Perhaps if less had been made of it, it would work better. Maybe as a genuine labour of love without a lot of hoopla it could have been injected with the passion of a fan, but as it is, it lacks even that which I thought it would be strongest at. The talking is just about watchable because it is written by a man and is spoken by stunning women. As a result the women tend to be fantasy figures sassy women who drink, smoke, talk about cars and are free and easy with their sexuality (but yet somehow not sluts). It is pure wish-fulfilment but yet if you are sort of on the same page it works (which I suppose is the point and also a genre reference). I love Dawson and seeing her sexy and bubbly is a joy to me but even I must wonder if she is tired of this, essentially being given the same sort of stuff in Clerks 2. Thankless tasks that she does well at but she is better than this and deserves more. As a stunt woman Bell is impressive but as an actress? Well, suffice to say that she looked more comfortable hanging off cars than delivering lines. All the rest of the women are pretty much the same sassy, sexy, attractive and playful. It is what they do and they all do it well in the way that all such women know how to play up to middle-aged men to get what they want without giving anything up. This leaves Russell. In some scenes he is pretty good but there is too little for him to do. I liked the switch he put in his character as the tables turned but the script doesn't help him with this beyond the basics. He is not bad just wasted and it did feel like Tarantino had lost his golden touch in working with older (faded?) stars.
Overall then a disappointing film with too little to come to it for. I didn't think it served that well as a homage to a genre and I felt very little love which genuinely surprised me. The break into two films has maybe made it easier to sell, but it has padded this out with too much inane talking that will bore and frustrate. The fact that it is done by stunning women helps, but doesn't save. The action is impressive and memorable when it comes but I couldn't help feel that it would have had that much more impact if everything had been tightened around it. So worth a glance for the action, Rosario Dawson's legs, April March's "Chick Habit" but not much in cool points, passion and the cinema-savvy that I expected as a given.
