The Movie:

When it was announced that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were going to unleash Grindhouse upon the world, it seemed like a surefire hit. Two of the hottest directors in the country were going to do an homage to the seventies exploitation movies that they grew up watching and present them as a double feature complete with fake trailers (from the likes of Eli Roth and Rob Zombie) and feature attraction bumpers in order to replicate the experience of sitting through a double feature at an old Times Square theater before that area became Disney-fied. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? It was! While neither film, Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Tarantino's Death Proof, was a masterpiece Grindhouse did make for a fun night out at the movies. Sadly, the venture didn't exactly set the box office on fire and as such, the Weinsteins, through Dimension, have opted to release the two features on their own on DVD (at least for now - it would only make sense that a re-release containing the theatrical experience will happen down the road) in unrated and extended editions.

When the film begins, a radio disc jockey named Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and her friends, Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito) and Shanna (Jordan Ladd) are out for a night at the bar before heading out of town for the weekend. The arrive at the saloon run by Warren (Quentin Tarantino) and flirt with a few of the local boys, Omar (Michael Bacall), Nate (Omar Doom) and Dov (Eli Roth). Meanwhile, a rough looking middle-aged man with a scar over his eye calling himself Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is talking to a foxy blonde named Pam (Rose McGowan). The parties all interact a bit until it's starting to get late at which point Stuntman Mike gives Pam a ride home in his 'death proof' car. It seems Mike really was a stuntman and that his car has been modified to ensure that the driver will not be killed during flips, collisions and what not. The four girls hit the road in their vehicle and Mike and Pam get into his. A few moments later, Stuntman Mike drives head on into the girls' car and everyone dies... except for him.

From here, we meet Kim (Tracie Thoms), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Lee (Mary Elisabeth Winstead) and Zoe Bell (playing herself). As the three girls sit around a diner we learn that Zoe and Kim are stuntwomen, Lee a model. They've been friends for a long time and are glad to be relaxing for a while. Kim and Zoe find out about a muscle car for sale 'just like the one in Vanishing Point' and head off to test-drive, leaving cute little Lee with the creepy owner as collateral. What Kim and Zoe, with Abernathy along for the ride, don't tell the others is that they're going to ride on the hood of the car, one at a time, before bringing it back. Of course, once Zoe is on the hood holding on for dear life in hope of some cheap thrills, Stuntman Mike shows up and starts to complicate matters for the ladies...

Death Proof has some problems - quite a few of them, actually. The first and primary issue with the picture is the dialogue. Not only is there so damn much of it, but every single line sounds not like a missive from an actual conversation but contrived Tarantino hipster speak. While it's fun to pick up the pop culture references (at one point Stuntman Mike is referred to as Zatoichi) and the tributes to low budget seventies cinema are charming in a rather all too obvious manner, the fact of the matter is that this is a very talky film and we've got to sit through a lot of banter before getting to the two genuine pay off scenes. Some of the references work better than others. Look for a few clever nods to some of Russell's past roles and more than a few winks referencing Tarantino's past films ensuring that we know Death Proof is set in the same universe. A clever reference to Bullitt stands out and there's even a reference to Peckinpah's Convoy.

The other problem is Zoe Bell. While she's certainly easy on the eyes and not at all lacking in enthusiasm or talent as a stuntwoman, her acting here is just a bit too perky and cute. She may very well be playing herself (the opening titles pretty much tell us she is) but maybe there's a reason she decided to be a stuntwoman and not an actress for while she excels with the physical demands required of her role, much of her dialogue feels forced and her performance contrived.

The rest of the cast do fairly well. Tarantino more or less shows up and plays himself, as he always seems to in his films, and Eli Roth is a little annoying as the frat boy (though that's likely intentional and the way that the character was written) but for the most part the rest of the cast do okay. Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms in particular really get into things in the last part of the picture and it's fun to see them embrace the ass-kicking side of their on screen personas. As far as the first part goes, Sydney Tamiia Poitier might be a little too cool for her own good but she's not bad and Ferlito and Ladd are fun in their supporting roles.

With that out of the way, there are some areas where Death Proof really does impress. Casting Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike was a brilliant idea. Not only does he completely look the part but he's got the right voice, the right mannerisms, and the perfect tough guy acting style to pull it off and make it look easy. While his performance here may not become the stuff of legend like his work with John Carpenter has, it's not because he doesn't deserve it - Russell is phenomenal in this part.

The other key factor that makes Death Proof worthwhile is the stunt driving scenes. Don't look for any fake CGI here - Tarantino wisely opted to use real cars and real stunt drivers the way films like this were made in decades past and the results are fantastic. The two key car scenes are also exceptionally well edited and really drive home the impact of the collisions and the balls out dangerousness of what we're seeing on screen.

So, as stated, this release contains the unrated and extended version of Death Proof (there is no option to watch the shorter theatrical cut) only, it is not paired with Planet Terror and we don't get the fantastic trailers that played with Grindhouse theatrically. We get the feature attraction bumper and the 'this film is restricted' opening cartoon. So given that this is the unrated and extended version of the film, what differs from the version of Death Proof that we saw in the theaters?

The main differences are the inclusion of the infamous missing lap-dance scene and a black and white scene that plays out in the second act. Without wanting to head too far into spoiler territory, the lap-dance plays out exactly where you would expect it to. It doesn't get explicit, there's no nudity involved, but it's still pretty hot stuff and it does improve the film. The black and white scene in the second part of the film also improves the picture as it gives us a bit of background information pertaining to how Stuntman Mike has been following the girls.

Minor differences include a fair bit more dialogue for Jordan Ladd in the first half of the picture and considerably more dialogue for Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the second part which enlarges her role and her importance in the second half of the movie. There's also a title card that appears in between the two sections stating 'Fourteen Months Later' which should pretty much lay to rest the theory that the theatrical version of the film played out in the wrong order.

Despite the fact that Tarantino has essentially added more dialogue to an already very talky movie, these additions do help the picture quite a bit by filling in just a bit of the back story a little bit. That's not to say that some of the dialogue scenes aren't still too long because they are but at least the additions have some substance to them and they do serve to flesh out some of the characters a little bit more. These additions, coupled with seeing the film solo (and therefore judging it as a separate entity as opposed to half of a double feature) make Death Proof easier to appreciate despite its obvious pacing issues.

Video:

Death Proof hits DVD in a pretty spiffy 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that preserves the film's original theatrical aspect ratio and which is properly flagged for progressive scan playback. As those who saw the film during its short theatrical run know, Tarantino applied some fake grain and print damage to the picture in order to give it a vintage feel and to allude to the audience that they weren't watching a new feature but an old beat up film print. These effects are still here and, just as in the theatrical presentation, they're most noticeable during the first half of the film. Once the film switches to the second set of girls, the image gets much, much cleaner and the fake print damage more or less disappears.

So with that said, how does the transfer hold up? Quite well to be honest. Despite the applied defects to the picture the image looks very strong. Color reproduction is quite strong and the black levels are pretty solid. There aren't any problems with fine detail in either the foreground or the background of the picture nor are there any problems with heavy edge enhancement or aliasing. Mpeg compression artifacts are a non-issue and flesh tones look lifelike and accurate. All in all, Dimension has done a fine job ensuring that Death Proof looks right on DVD.