Once upon a time, Quentin Tarantino -- as a filmmaker -- could do NO wrong. ‘As a filmmaker’ covers everything that Q.T. handled behind the camera--writing, producing, cinematography, and directing. The man cannot act, and he needs to stop appearing in his own movies as well as all others. Give it up, Quentin, or hit the stand-up comic circuit like Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith.
Nevertheless, as a filmmaker, Tarantino has helmed three absolutely brilliant films: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown. The two Kill Bill epics are above-average, but they just aren't up to the incredible creative standards that Tarantino achieved with his first three directorial efforts. Meanwhile, the best film that Tarantino ever wrote, but did not direct was Top Gun director Tony Scott's immortal classic True Romance with Christian Slater. Forget about director Oliver Stone's pretentious Natural Born Killers. Tarantino penned the original screenplay, but Stone truly stoned it to death.
Next, we have Tarantino’s marginal efforts that he squandered talent on: Four Rooms and more recently Grindhouse (I'm deliberately excluding his TV directing efforts, because TV confines his genius as well as the massive amounts of profanity and violence that enliven his films). Movie audiences--bless their hearts--ground Grindhouse into the excrement that it was. Eventually, Grindhouse may turn a profit and win accolades as a cult film long after Tarantino and everybody else connected with it are cold and dead. After Grindhouse bombed out on the big-screen, executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein resorted to the age-old military strategy of divide and conquer. As a result, we have both Tarantino's Death Proof riding on its own merit--or lack thereof--and later on we'll see Robert Rodriquez's infinitely superior Planet Terror in a similar expanded and unrated edition. Now, at least, you get to hear me rant about the expanded and unrated Death Proof. Remember, before you venture any further, I hold Quentin Tarantino in high regard. His talent as a filmmaker is without dispute. Unfortunately, Death Proof proves that Tarantino cannot make a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
 Death Proof unfolds in two halves. The first half introduces us to villainous Stuntman Mike McKay (a scar faced Kurt Russell of Escape From New York) who cruises bars in Austin, Texas, searching for chicks to kill. Mind you, Mike is no ordinary killer. In fact, Mike is the only thing original about Death Proof. Anyway, he lures women into his refitted stunt car and kills them during the ride without putting so much as putting a finger on them. He gives Pam (Rose McGowan of The Doom Generation) a ride home from the bar where he met her and kills her during by careening around in his car. She doesn’t have a seat belt so her body is slammed back and forth in the passenger’s seat until she dies. Later, Mike crashes head on into another auto with three other young pretties -- Shanna (Jordan Ladd of Hostel, Part 2), Jungle Julia (Sydney Poitier of Hood of Horror), and the devastatingly sexy Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito of Descent) -- none of whom survive the collision. Mike winds up in the hospital with relatively minor injuries, and a savvy Texas lawman Earl McGraw (the incomparable Michael Parks who played the same role in From Dusk Till Dawn) explains to his deputy Edgar (his real-life son James Parks reprising his role from Kill Bill) that the District Attorney doesn't have enough evidence to prosecute Mike for vehicular manslaughter. Nevertheless, Earl believes that Stuntman Mike is as guilty as Hell. This wraps up the best part of Death Proof.
 The second half unfolds in Lebanon, Tennessee, where a quartet of babes are spending a month. Zoe Bell (stuntwoman Zoe Bell), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson of Kids), Kim (Tracie Thoms of Descent), and Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of Live Free or Die Hard) are at the same cafe where Stuntman Mike is chowing down. Zoe dreams about a Dodge Challenger, and Lebanon native Jasper (Jonathan Loughran of Little Nicky) has one for sale. The gals drive out to check the Challenger out. Abernathy persuades Jasper to let them take it for a spin and leaves Lee in her sexy cheerleader's outfit behind to keep him company. Once they are out on the road, Zoe attaches belts to the two front doors and rides on the hood with Kim behind the wheel. The gals are having a good time with twenty minutes left to go in the film when Stuntman Mike appears and begins to intimidate them. I believe the word 'comeuppance' adequately describes what happens to our macho villain when he tangles with these three babes from Hell.
The new DVD release of Death Proof here in America clocks in at 113 minutes compared to the 87 minutes that the theatrical version ran in Grindhouse. Tarantino and editor Sally Menke have expanded the theatrical version, but I am dubious about why they labeled it as 'unrated.' I know the MPAA Ratings Board is comprised of a bunch of prudish half-wits engaged in social engineering; for example, you fire up a cigarette in a movie now and the movie earns R-rating hands down. You can say the word 'fuck' at least once in a PG-13 movie. I didn't see anything in the expanded and unrated Death Proof that looks unrated. Indeed, they may curse more, but they were cursing so much to begin with that it really doesn't matter. How many times can you say 'fuck' before the word loses its impact?  Moreover, none of the babes in this chick flick -- yes, Death Proof is a film that a feminist would or should adore -- shed either their tops or their bottoms, even in the lap dance scene. As for violence, where is it? A gun-wielding babe wings Kurt Russell in a long shot, and we see poor Rose McGowan get her face smashed up to a pulp. The rest of the violence is so subliminal that you'd have to spend 113 minutes reversing the movie before you can appreciate the violence. The scene where Stuntman Mike smashes head on into another car shows closer shots of his vehicle ripping off the roof of the girl’s car, but blood and gore are held to a minimal. So 'unrated' part puzzles me. As far as the women go, I must say that Tarantino really let us down. Clearly, he was trying to emulate the movies of Jack Hill -- Switchblade Sisters and Foxy Brown -- where the women dropped their tops and showed their tits. Even on the commentary tracks, Hill said that the women wanted to display their ample breasts. Unfortunately, Death Proof is downright prudish.
 The performances -- except for Tarantino whose appearance is mercifully ephemeral -- are first-rate. Let's face it; Kurt Russell owns this bottom of the barrel road rage movie. He blows everybody away as the sleazy, sadistic hooligan. Of course, Michael Parks is wonderful, too. It's difficult to believe that this immensely gifted actor was responsible for one of the worst sequels ever -- The Return of Josey Wales -- which he starred in and directed back in 1986. All of the gals are great. The only thing that bothered me about Rosario Dawson was her chopped up looking hair. Yuck! Oh, yes, the cameos by people like Cabin Fever director Eli Roth are fun, too.
Altogether, however, Death Proof is pretty mild for Tarantino. The real-life stunts are fabulous, but the story lacks the spontaneity of the stunts. Mostly, characters talk, talk, and talk, but Tarantino’s dialogue here has little creative clout. The surprises are few and far between, and the second half reversal when women go ballistic on Mike is no revelation. You know that Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike is going to get it. Had the gals shot him 47 times Death Proof would have been better. Tarantino doesn’t monkey with the narrative flow. There are no flashbacks or flash forwards and the story unfolds in a linear trajectory. He does not scramble the narrative as he did in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.
 Presentation
The pictorial quality of Death Proof is excellent, except where Tarantino faked scratches and breaks in the film to give it the illusion of a ‘grindhouse’ movie that had been run through a projector so much that bits and pieces had disintegrated. This quality, however, is not consistent throughout the movie and it becomes an annoying gimmick. In the Lebanon section, the several minutes appear in black & white before the film reverts back to color, so don’t freak out.
Overall, Death Proof looks first rate, crisp, and clear even if the movie itself provides strictly low-voltage in thrills, chills, and spills.
The Extras
Death Proof comes with a plethora of extras. Although the first disc contains the movie, it lacks a filmmaker’s commentary. The equivalent of a commentary occurs throughout the extras are on a second disc with Tarantino contributing something about Death Proof in all the featurettes. Meanwhile, included in the Sneak Peeks on Disc 1 are trailers for Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, the John Cusack chiller 1408, a creature feature called “Feast,” and finally what appears to be a serious epic about sheep that turn into man eaters after an experiment goes wrong in Black Sheep. Definitely, you want to see the trailer for Black Sheep. Also included in the Special Features on Disc 1 are 20 music selections from tunes in the movie with extended versions of 3 as well as the usual scene selections, languages, an international trailer for Death Proof and a poster gallery of Death Proof posters from around the world.
Disc 2 contains the following extras:
First, “Stunts On Wheels: the Legendary Drivers of Death Proof” features Quentin chatting with and about veteran stuntmen Buddy Joe Hooker of Hooper, Terry Leonard of TV’s The A-Team, and Jeff Dashnaw as well as up and coming New Zealand stuntwoman Zoe Bell and African-American stuntwoman Chrissy Weathersby. Again, Tarantino appears to be imitating Jack Hill who trained African-Americans as stunt people on his movies back in the 1970s when there were no black stunt people. (5:05)
Second, Tarantino devotes a feature to her as an actress and stuntwoman. (8:58)
Third, Kurt Russell appears in a feature about Stuntman Mike. (9:33)
Fourth, "The Girls of Death Proof" (21:14). The title tells all.
Fifth, The Uncut Version of “Baby, It’s Fun” performed by Elizabeth Winstead. (1:47)
Sixth, "The Guys of Death Proof" (8:16). The title tells all.
Seventh, in “Quentin’s Greatest Collaborator: Editor Sally Menke” (4:37), we learn how Tarantino and Menke collaborated with his one and only editor.
Eighth, the “Double Dare” trailer details the lives of stunt coordinator Jeanine Upper and Zoe Bell. (2:35)
 Mind you, most of these are a waste of time because it’s about the filmmakers patting themselves on the back for their achievements, but in some cases it is as close as you will get to a Tarantino commentary. However, people who like to watch behind the scenes stuff may find this stuff useful.
Perhaps the best Extra is the coupon that you can get when you buy Death Proof that enables you to purchase Planet Terror for $5.00 off the sticker price.
The Bottom Line
Death Proof isn’t worth buying unless you are a gear head or you want to have your friends gaze in awe of it alongside your other favorite Tarantino movies. If you want to see a real ‘grindhouse’ style movie, then check out director James Wan’s Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon when it comes out on DVD.
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