The Good

Quentin Tarantino makes films like no other director working today.

The Bad

This movie is entirely too long.

Death Proof was the second offering in the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration known as Grindhouse. The Weinstein Company had expected the internet contingent and others to come out in droves to support this movie, and when that didn't happen it led to all manner of rumors. They were going to cut up the films and re-release them that way, they were going to shorten both films and leave them together... but what ultimately seems to have happened is that the Weinstein's took their lumps and decided to see their sins (and the sins of the filmmakers) forgiven on home video. That is why we are getting Death Proof on DVD now with the other half of Grindhouse, Planet Terror, to follow on October 16.

Death Proof is essentially the story of Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell). He drives a hot car, he drives it fast and he likes to kill people with it. Set around this are scenes of 20 and 30 somethings talking for hours on end about things that do and don't make sense. There are two segments to this movie. One that features one set of pretty girls talking at length about whatever comes to their mind. Then Stuntman Mike appears and wreaks havoc. In the second segment, the girls are different yet they all resemble the other girls. This time when Stuntman Mike tangles with them he gets more than he bargained. In fact, the last 45 minutes of this movie features a car race/chase that in some ways rivals The French Connection. The only thing that hurts Death Proof is that it is entirely too long.

In fact, I think that both Rodriguez and Tarantino would have done better to make each of their films 45 minutes a piece. At 90 minutes Grindhouse would have played very lean and then there's no way that the Weinstein Bros. could have justified cutting the films up on DVD.

Features

Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike

Kurt Russell fans gather around because this featurette gives you insights into this character. We find out why he was cast, what Tarantino thinks of him, and what Russell thought of this role. Stuntman Mike, as the name implies, is a very physical role (especially in the last section of the movie). Russell plays him with a solid mix of cool and aloofness because nothing is going to faze a guy like this. There is a richness that Russell brings to this role but I couldn't decide if it was acting, or if it was the fact that he has so many miles behind him on screen?

The Legendary Drivers of Death Proof

Finding Quentin's Gals and The Guys of Death Proof

I grouped these two segments together because they are basically the same thing. We find out how Tarantino cast the guys and girls in this movie. They talk about how they got involved and this is one big lovefest. Apparently he wanted actors that would play well off of one another, and for my money the most interesting casting job was Eli Roth as Dov. This guy puts himself in his own movies from time to time and I was actually pretty impressed with the work that he did here. This wasn't a quick cameo or even a walk on. Granted, he disappears about halfway through, I still found him as a casting choice to be pretty inspired if not somewhat calculated.

Introducing Zoe Bell

Quentin's Greatest Collaborator: Editor Sally Menke

Truthfully, I was really looking forward to this. Anyone who knows anything about movIes knows that the film lives or dies in the editing room. That is something that has been proven true time and time again. Maybe Menke makes Tarantino listen more, maybe Tarantino trusts Menke's opinion or something, but this editor has had a great and firm hand shaping this directors' movies. From making Tarantino go back and rethink scenes, to simply switching up some shots with radical ideas, this woman shows just how important editors are.

Video

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1. This movie looks good but it seems to be stuck in a hybrid from the 1970s to 2007. The characters dress retro yet they way they talk and their surroundings are very much present day. I like how this movie doesn't have any fancy camera tricks and is also simply edited. It looks like Tarantino purposely made the colors a bit muted so they would look like a film from the 1970s. The compression on DVD hasn't bumped this movie up any more from how it looked in the theater and that is a good thing.

Audio

Dolby Digital. There is a quietness to this movie that even when the characters were talking I imagined a lot of people were asking themselves, "What are they talking about? Why is this important? Where is all this leading?" As someone who loves dialogue movies even my patience was tested and I wasn't 100% fulfilled with how things ended up. The audio doesn't seem to do anything that special and to be honest I much preferred the music to Planet Terror than Death Proof. Decide for yourself...

Package

The front cover of this release has the black Death Proof car zooming forward with silhouettes of the ladies walking behind it. The back continues this artwork as it also showcases a description of this movie, a Special Features listing and technical specs. Both discs that make up this set are economically stored in this amaray case packaging. There is a class and style about this packaging that actually does carry over to the movie that it protects.

Final Word

Okay, I love Quentin Tarantino. I have seen all of his films and I will continue to do so but somebody has to make it clear to him that just because he writes some words on a piece of paper they don't necessarily have to make it into his films. In a lot of ways I think the early success he had with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction sort of hurt him. To become known so much for his dialogue and to see so many people imitate him had to have a negative effect. On top of this, some of those people went on to be successful themselves so then you have Tarantino feeling like whatever film he makes he has to bring back the magic to show how it's done. In fact, it seems like the pressure is so intense that his movies go out of their way not to have any snappy dialogue and either A) the dialogue they have feels flat or B) the dialogue seems like it's someone trying to write like Tarantino.

I honestly don't know how you get a out of a situation like this but the truth of the matter is that Death Proof was too much of nothing. It didn't have any of the zip and seemed more like a director exercising his excess (come on, he and Rodriguez made a "grindhouse" film for over $50 million, they could have made 50 movies for that price!) and thinking nobody would read passed the monotony of the fact that his characters weren't really saying anything.

Grindhouse was released April 6, 2007.