Film Reviews

Death Proof

• Rating:
• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Starring: Kurt Russell
• Details: US / 113mins (18).

Hands up those who think that QT's talent peaked at Jackie Brown and has since made movies for his mates only? I used to be a big fan of Tarantino; Reservoir Dogs blew me away, ditto Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown showed that he was maturing into a fine filmmaker. However, the Kill Bill movies smacked of self-indulgence, and Death Proof shows that the man is becoming more childish with each release. The barely-there plot sees Kurt Russell's psycho stuntman Stuntman Mike get his kicks from crashing into beautiful women in his death proof stunt car. However, Stuntman Mike comes up against a group of beautiful women who don't take no guff from no one. Death Proof is masturbation: Tarantino 'treats' us to the usual long, talky, pop-culture referential 'royale with cheese/Madonna' scenes - but the dialogue here is dull, flat and boring. There are editing 'jumps' as if the projectionist has fallen asleep, some superimposed scratches on the film and it cuts to black and white for ten minutes for reasons I can't fathom. It might reference this, that and a hundred other underground movies no one has ever heard of but what's the point of it? It's a tiresome film; the only plusses are Russell's performance (he looks like he's having fun up there) and one really impressive car crash. Tarantino probably has a point and a couple of explanations as to why his film is the way it is, but if you have to explain the joke. . .

Review by Gavin Burke