Too Good
posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 in Movie Reviews
Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof never set out to be a cinema classic. Under the Grindhouse conceit, this film was supposed to be completely cheesy, poorly acted, and hilariously plotted. But Death Proof never reaches the level of the films it seeks to emulate, which on one hand, makes a better film, but on the other, completely undermines audiences’ expectations. In short, Death Proof might be too good for its own good. Death Proof is about Stuntman Mike, a psychotic retired stuntman who spends his time stalking and murdering young women using his “death proof” car. He creates huge automobile collisions that only he can survive. A group of friends from Tennessee, two of whom happen to be stuntwomen, decide to fight back.
It is supremely difficult to judge Death Proof, and it’s even more difficult to explain why. The gist of it is that the parts that make the film a technically good movie actually hinder the experience. That’s a pretty insane statement, but it’s exactly how the film pans out. We just spend too much time on beautifully shot scenes with wonderful Tarantino dialogue; and in any other movie, that would be a good thing. But here it just gets in the way of the overall effect.
It’s a strange, postmodern complaint, but this movie is supposed to be bad. That’s the charm of those original exploitation films that this film is trying to recreate. But this film just has too much good character development, which wouldn’t even be so bad if it didn’t take up so much time in the film. The film just takes too long to get to the grindhouse-y parts that the audience came to see.
To its credit, when we do get to the hallmarks of the genre, it all works really well. There is a chase scene in this movie that is just unbelievably amazing. It will probably go down as one of the greatest chase scenes in the history of cinema. The violence is tremendous and well done, and some scenes may elicit a great reaction from the audience. Overall the film is enjoyable to watch. It’s just feels a little self-indulgent, and a little bit confused about what it wants to be.
While the film may suffer from a bit of an identity crisis, the actors all seem to know exactly what they need to do. Kurt Russell is tremendous as Stuntman Mike. He is all at once strange, charming, and horrible, just like the best exploitation villains. The various girls all perform well in their roles. The real standout is Zoe Bell, who is a real stuntwoman. She performs a plethora of insane stunts that’s just unbelievable to watch. Her stunts alone are worth the film’s admission price.
In the end, it’s just hard to describe the merits Death Proof. Part exploitation flick, part Tarantino talkie, the end result feels like two very different films smashed together to make a single plot. It confounds expectations and makes for very inconsistent viewing, even though everything in the film is actually pretty good. But despite all that, it’s still worth a watch, if only for the car chase.
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