Death Proof (2007)

Elevator Pitch: A group of young women meet in a bar where they become acquainted with Stuntman Mike unaware that he has been stalking them. He offers to give one a ride home, but she finds that his car is  stunt vehicle, where he is in a rollcage and she is cannoned about until she dies. He then pursues the others and crashes into them head on, killing them all. He survives and later stalks a similar group of young women, now driving a Dodge Charger. The women take a replica of the Vanishing Point Dodge Challenger for a test drive and are pursued by Stuntman Mike. How will it all pan out?

Content: In both segments of the film the young women apend a long time in irrelevant chatting in the bar and so there is drinking and smoking, and although they talk about sex there is none in the film. In the first case the the repartee involves the villain and various members of the bar staff. In both cases they drive about a bit “having fun”. The first crash is particularly unpleasant, involving blood, gore and severed limbs, the seconf car chase is – well – different.

A View: I might have wondered what the hell was going on here had I not read that it was one of a double Grindhouse bill, the other “Planet Terror” by Robert Rodrigues.  The films were intended to give the cinemagoer a taste of the genre, and while it is an interesting concept this particular outing was a bit boring – intenional I think, although many of the critics did not like this either. So probaby a watch for Tarantino fans, but not for anyone else.

Additional Info: The film was physically damaged, and had an alternative name at one point, and well as instances of being black and white, in order to make it appropriate for the genre.