MovieChat Forums > Death Proof (2007) Discussion > My thoughts after revisiting this film.....

My thoughts after revisiting this film...

posted 4 years ago by CinemaDemon989 (1286)
5 replies | jump to latest

So it's been many years since I've watched this movie. Watching Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is what inspired me to revisit this film. I used to bash this film as being Tarantino's worst, mostly because of the endless chick-talk dialogue throughout the whole film. But now, at age 25, I fully understand that Tarantino is obsessed with dialogue, and that when entering a Tarantino film, hefty dialogue is to be expected. That's just his style. I've come to accept this, and appreciate it. So here are my thoughts:

- For what it's worth, Kurt Russell's performance as Stuntman Mike was great. Seriously. He was intriguing, funny, and kinda creepy. Which I assume is what's supposed to be the persona of his character anyway. But he did a really great job as portraying a psychotic stuntman.

- I'm not even gonna pretend to understand what the whole 'grindhouse theme' is supposed to be. But some of the intentional rough cut edits throughout the film, particularly in the beginning, were slightly annoying. But I quickly got over it. Aside from that though, I did like the way that the film was shot. Interesting and creative cinematography.

- As usual, with all of Tarantino's films, the soundtrack was great. And on a side note, Tarantino's role as the bartender was pretty cool as well.

- My biggest complaint and maybe the only one, would be the first segment / story of the film. It's not that the actresses / cast were bad. I just found some of the dialogue so utterly uninteresting and boring. It just didn't interest me.

- The second story though, with the second set of characters, was by far the best portion of the film. In fact, I wish the entire film would've stuck with those characters. They were much more likable, humorous, and interesting.

- That car chase scene at the end was EPIC. Pure awesomeness. And the final ending scene was just as awesome.

- So I take back all the bad things I said about this film. This is certainly not Tarantino's worst. In fact, I actually enjoyed it, and will probably watch it again at some point. Put it this way, I enjoyed this film more than Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20414) 4 years ago

So cool that you have come around to Death Proof. I acknowledge that Tarantino has better formed films Like Pulp Fiction but damn, Death Proof as a slasher - car film is my favorite. There are a lot of things going on under the surface in it that most miss. I absolutely love all the nods to grindhouse / B films too.

[–] Anotherday (6823) 4 years ago

I prefer the theatrical version over the extended cut. Fun regardless.

[–] L1 (1316) 4 years ago

There are more issues with this.

[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 4 years ago

Like what?

[–] ccr1633 (1411) 4 years ago

"I'm not even gonna pretend to understand what the whole 'grindhouse theme' is supposed to be."

Really? I thought it was obvious. They were trying to recreate the kind of slapdash junk that turned an acceptable profit at drive-ins in the 1970s. Hence the artificial film reel defects, skipped frames, and so forth.

I don't think the problem was that it was so dialog driven. All of Tarantino's films are that way, which is one of the key reasons why we love so many of his films. The problem is that the dialog wasn't witty and was far too self-aware for its own good. Meaning, I didn't feel for one second I was watching real, colorful characters (except for Stuntman Mike, which is attributable to Kurt Russell's acting chops). I felt like I was listening to Tarantino name drop all the cheesy things and cult classic material that obviously was a huge inspiration for the tasty dialog he peppers his better films with. In Reservoir Dogs, for example, you get The Silver Surfer, Charles Bronson, lost songs of the 70s, and so forth, but it all felt genuine to his characters, not a bunch of hipsters farting around a cafe trying to out-cool one another with their supposed love of obscure pop culture. It didn't help that he was compelled to make an appearance himself along with douchebag friends like Eli Roth. The best part was the half hour starting with Stuntman Mike at the bar and ending with the big crash. This section had some menacing mystery to it and, relatively speaking, wasn't quite so littered with 1990s cool kids at the video store jive.