Great experience

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2007)

I must say it was a good experience although Planet Terror was a much better film. For me Death Proof had some really fantastic parts but it seemed too misogynistic for it's own good. And the camera movements during the long dialogue scenes seemed a twinge arrogant. Overall it was fun though and the outcome for the women is almost trying to make up for the disgusting nature of the story. Indeed it feels great to watch. The end stunts were mind boggling and the freeze frame classic. It should be noted however that the experience may not have worked if it weren't for the phony-trailers kicking it off. I can't imagine the extreme nature of Planet Terror without the trailer for Machete. Also the break in the middle was a much needed departure from a long narrative. Those trailers, as hilarious as they were, act as a catalyst to get the blood pumping in the audience again. They prepare us for the next film. The soundtracks were good as well. As always Tarantino's use of music gives the film fresh energy. Not to mention that shot of a woman's feet kicking the film off. A keen audience immediately sees Quentin's name all over Death Proof. Even more impressively, Rodriguez did a fine job scoring his film with his "Mariachi style" electric guitar (if I could get away with calling it that). The music he used seemed to provide a pulse to the entire event. In a superficial, unconscious way it also gave the audience a connection with the story. Even if that connection can only be in a raw and animalistic way given the ridiculous nature of the film. That same quality is what gave Planet Terror a more "Natural Grindhouse Appeal" than it's counterpart Death Proof (at least within the artificial Grindhouse atmosphere the two have created for their Double Feature). This is something that Tarantino's could have used to his benefit. Instead, Quentin seemed to rely on his editor Sally Menke to make artificially bad cuts just to let the film fit into the atmosphere of the night. Without these bad edits Death Proof would seem to stand alone as just another Tarantino film. Perhaps that is appropriate enough though. In just taking a look at the "Stuntman Mike" character, we see that his style is imperative for the film to work. Without it, would Kurt Russell be able to get away with that John Wayne impression that makes him out to be so suave and geek-cool? Tarantino gets away with this countless times, whereas other filmmakers do not (even though many may try). But that is what people go see his films for right? And much as was expected with the Rodriguez film there was a playful, campy, and almost cartoony quality to it. Perhaps this is one reason why many go see his films time and time again. Those qualities are certainly what I like from these directors but the dichotomy of Rodriguez's style to Tarantino's gritty dialogue driven style works much to the entire experience's benefit, although that seems like a miscalculated contradiction to my previous statement about the "Natural Grindhouse appeal" and Death Proof. It is important to note because it provides some kind of balance between the self-referential qualities of each of the filmmaker's pictures (that stand within the Hollywood system) to the more obscure "Grindhouse" pictures that they aim to honor. For me what it comes down to in the end is: Did they aim well and honor those pictures? Yes. Thumbs up.