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Well, I have to say that I wasn’t at all impressed when I found out that the Weinstein’s had decided to chop ‘Grindhouse’ in half for the UK release, and at one point I wasn’t even going to make a trip to the cinema to see each individual part…but then Death Proof got it’s release and I ended up having to be there. It’s always been clear that Tarantino is a fan of seventies Grindhouse, and he does an excellent job here of setting the scene and putting the movie squarely in the seventies…well, he would have done if it wasn’t for the mobile phones shots and characters who mention the internet and CGI. Anyway, the plot is typical seventies B-movie trash, and focuses on a stuntman named Mike who gets his kicks by meeting and chatting up hot young women, before brutally smashing them to pieces in his specialised ‘death proof’ stunt car. We are introduced to a trio of hot young ladies early on in the film, and it’s not long before Stuntman Mike sets his sights on the group and has his fun with them…

One of the major problems with the extended cut that I saw is the fact that it’s too long! Quentin Tarantino obviously values dialogue, but there’s just too much of it and it’s not as interesting as the chit chat in the likes of Reservoir Dogs. However, I did find out after seeing the film that the ‘missing reel’ in the American release was actually the lap dance scene in this version - and since it’s the best part of the movie, I think I can stand a bit of boring dialogue! Tarantino lovingly implements many of the problems with cheap seventies exploitation flicks - stuff like bad editing and glitches, as well as a scene that suddenly switches into black and white…it’s well done. Death Proof is a film of two halves, the first half being the far better of the two, though it never completely grinds to a halt and the second half of the film features an excellent car chase. The cast is one of the most interesting things about the film - I was extremely excited to see Kurt Russell back on the big screen after far too long, and he makes the best of his role as the deranged psycho at the centre of the film. There’s no shortage of eye candy either - with ladies including Vanessa Ferlito, Rose McGowan and Sydney Poitier (that’s Sydney with a ‘y’!) providing the film with enough highlights! Overall, this is not a film without problems - but it’s highly entertaining stuff, and fans of seventies Grindhouse flicks will no doubt enjoy it!