What Do The Critics Say?

"Smart attention is paid to some interesting tensions between old and new in areas as varied as pop culture, photography, effects work, automobile construction, telephony and audio recording technology." Ben Walters TIME OUT "Seriously entertaining American filmmaking and definitely not the half-serious pastiche it could easily have been. No seatbelt, no airbag, no nuthin', just Tarantino driving wildly under the influence." Damon Wise EMPIRE MAGAZINE "Performances are terrific, with all the cast giving all they've got, and the stunts are rigorous, with New Zealander Zoe Bell taking line honours with some daredevil work that in itself is admirable, and remarkable. Technically clever and sometimes gripping, Death Proof is only for the Tarantino cult club." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE "Deliberately designed to look like a low-grade B-flick from the Fifties, this slasher adventure from Quentin Tarantino is a guaranteed treat for that rare film fan nostalgic about the worst era in cinema. Death Proof is yet another female empowerment flick, this featuring a trio of two-fisted cuties (Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell and Tracie Thoms) who decide to turn the tables on their maniacal tormentor." Kam Williams EURWEB

"Russell is terrific fun as Stuntman Mike and he has one glorious moment towards the end that will have you crying with laughter. The girls are well cast too, particularly real life stuntwoman Zoe Bell. Tarantino achieves exactly what he set out to do and Death Proof can be considered a resounding success, with several terrific in-jokes (scratchy prints, missing frames, jump cuts, black and white bits) adding to the whole grindhouse experience." Matthew Turner VIEW LONDON "With its scratchy print, jerky editing and retro title sequence, Quentin Tarantino's fifth film bends over backwards to establish its Seventies sexploitation-flick credentials." Anthony Quinn INDEPENDENT "I still believe that Death Proof is indicative of a new phase in Quentin's artistic career. Death Proof doesn't simply comment on its genre inspirations, it adds to their very legacy." Rob Humanick PROJECTION BOOTH "There's plenty of fun to be had with Death Proof, but its imitation of a defunct, low-budget style of movie-making is perhaps too accurate when it comes to the genre's flaws." Anna Smith BBC "While playing by the rules: scantily clad women, sudden brutality, straightforward narrative, he also gleefully subverts the genre to keep us thoroughly entertained." Rich Cline SHADOWS ON THE WALL "This is high-octane stuff, wildly enjoyable in the vein of "Mad Max", where all the action between increasingly shredded vehicles looks real because it is real. "Death Proof" leaves you exhilarated and laughing guiltily at its black comic violence. For that, it’s easy to forgive Tarantino his meanderings." Michael Adams SBS THE MOVIE SHOW

The Inside Story Though Tarantino categorizes "Death Proof" as a slasher film, upon closer analysis, he amends the film’s genre classification: "It fuses the slasher film with high-octane car chase action, which was a big staple," Tarantino says. "They’re fused so much so that the genres switch hand at some point in the movie. I don’t even know exactly where that point is, but there is some point in the film when you’re watching the last twenty minutes, you’re not watching what came before. You have actually switched genres and you’re into a different movie. You’re involved with the characters so you don’t notice it, but you’re actually in a different movie." The women in "Death Proof" are contemporary, independent, 'badass' women in a genre in which scantily clad women were typically picked off one by one. In fact, the 'final girl', a character archetype associated with slasher movies, has an unexpected finality long before the closing credits. Moreover, self-reflexivity takes an unprecedented jump with the introduction of Zoë Bell, the person, the character, the stuntperson and the actor. The role of Zoë was written specifically for Bell, who was Uma Thurman’s stunt double in "Kill Bill". Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays aspiring starlet Lee, was taken by the complexity of the film’s female characters and the richness and authenticity of the dialogue. "They’re likeable, but they’re flawed at the same time, and the dialogue is real. He didn’t try to write 'girlie' dialogue. This is the way girls really talk. They swear as much as guys do, they get as dirty just as much as guys do. I think he understood that, which is very cool." Tarantino’s absorbing, entertaining dialogue builds a connection between the audience and a stalker’s prey. Rosario Dawson references one of the film’s most interestingly filmed scenes to exemplify this distinction: "No one would shoot a bunch of people sitting around a table talking about a newspaper article," she says. "The scene seems really small, but he introduces really key points into the story in such subtle ways. Somehow you get sucked in because you’re just following the characters, and you get to learn about people in these conversational scenes. It’s striking, and it’s beautiful, and it’s incredible to watch." Sydney Poitier, who plays Julia, comments. "He lifts it to this whole other level. It is a grindhouse movie but it’s also this other sort of indescribable, artistic expression. Quentin’s voice is Quentin’s voice, and it’s so influenced by the grindhouse era. We saw the movies that influenced him, and how they influenced what he created with this movie and with "Pulp Fiction" and certainly with "Kill Bill"." Tracie Thoms, who plays Kim, adds: "It’s a slasher movie, a car movie, an action movie, and then a Quentin Tarantino movie, all at once. You have all the great dialogue that Quentin is brilliant at coming up with, and you have a crazy killer coming after you, and then you have a big car chase with dust and flips. There’s no CG. It’s just two cars going at it and ramming into each other repeatedly, and chasing each other. There’s a lot of action." Quentin Tarantino announced the casting of Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike at Comic-Con, the yearly comic and genre film convention in San Diego, just weeks prior to the beginning of principal photography. The casting of Russell goes far beyond an appreciation for his work in Carpenter’s movies. Russell has shown tremendous range since his days as a child actor and "Death Proof" provides him a departure from leading man-hood to create a truly evil, devious, deranged lunatic. Russell recalls a conversation he had with the director about the role: Quentin said to me, "I’d like for you to add this to your rogue’s gallery of characters." I said, "Boy I’d like to do that." Stuntman Mike has to charm and cajole and flirt, then incite fear and ultimately switch into someone who is maniacal and energetically terrifying. Creating a character who has such a wild range of emotion, and who is so deeply disturbed, was a true challenge for Russell: "The fun part has been working with Quentin in creating that character. It’s different from anything I’ve done. There were some key words here that I took to heart. One of the fun things I think is that character you do not see where the movie’s going, not for him anyway. His behavior is true to form, but quite radical." Thankfully for his co-stars, Russell would leave Stuntman Mike in his scenes. "He comes in everyday with the biggest smile on his face, and he laughs, and he has so much joy when he does this," Sydney Poitier says. "He made it feel so warm on set. Anytime he’s around he’s cracking up and Quentin’s cracking up. They just have these huge laughs. I can’t say enough good things about Kurt." Sydney Poitier plays Jungle Julia, the gorgeous Amazonian leader of this pack. Poitier is a graduate of NYU’s prestigious Tisch School and has appeared in several television programs, including "Veronica Mars" and "Ghost Whisperer". Poitier had at least one cheerleader in the diminutive form of Jordan Ladd, who plays Shanna. The two actors had become friends through the audition circuit and through mutual friends. In fact, they had both auditioned for a Tarantino project earlier in their careers: "We both auditioned for Quentin for his CSI episode and neither one of us got it," Ladd remembers. "When I read the script, the character of Jungle Julia, Sydney’s character, was described as a six foot Amazonian goddess." Ladd took her audition as an opportunity to chat up Poitier’s abilities. "I said to him, 'Did you read Sydney Poitier for this? Julia looks like her'." Ladd ultimately won the role of Shanna, the film’s yellow rose of Texas: "I’m a girl from Austin who likes to have a good time," Ladd says of Shanna. "I was described as a badass party animal." Vanessa Ferlito plays Arlene. Tarantino had been a fan of Ferlito’s work since her brave debut performance in the independent feature "On_Line". Ferlito met Tarantino while she was filming "Man Of The House" in Austin. She made quite an impact. The two met by accident and suddenly Tarantino said, "I have this role for you. It’s beyond, especially for an actor." Michael Parks, who plays Earl McGraw in "Planet Terror", "From Dusk Till Dawn" & "Kill Bill" makes a return appearance in the film. Zoë Bell is sensational as Zoë, fresh off the plane after flying to the U.S.A for a holiday with her friends. "She’s just a wonderful personality, and she’s an incredible physical specimen as far as all the things that she can do, and pull off. She was Sharon Stone’s double for "Catwoman", and she spent three years doubling Lucy Lawless on Xena," Tarantino says. Bell, who first met Quentin Tarantino when she auditioned to be Uma Thurman’s stunt double for "Kill Bill" recalls she had just arrived in America following the successful beginnings of her stunt career in her homeland of New Zealand. "I had never really done a stunt audition before because in New Zealand there weren’t that many stunt women. We were cast according to the size of the woman that was needed, and the skill that was needed. There was a small selection." Bell was the only actress in the group who had been directed by Tarantino before. She knew what she was in for: "He has this amazing energy. He’s just so enthusiastic, and fun, and he swears a lot which is useful for someone like me to feel comfortable." Mary Elizabeth Winstead observed that Bell was in awe of her experience through the entire production. "She’s still shocked by the fact that she’s acting, and the fact that people call her as one of the actors, and she has her own chair, and she has a stand-in. I think she just continually surprised and shocked by that every day." Tracie Thoms plays Kim, a stunt person who can raise hell behind the wheel of a car. She auditioned for the role at Tarantino’s home: "I was extremely nervous," Thoms recalls. "I almost threw up in the parking lot. But I didn’t. I don’t throw up in the parking because it was the parking lot of his house. He has a parking lot in front of his house because he’s fabulous like that. When I met him it was as though we were almost like kindred spirits, and we instantly clicked. And he instantly put me at ease." Rosario Dawson plays Abernathy, the movie makeup artist who gets to take a back seat to the action: "I am so lucky playing Abernathy. I think that all the time ‘cause I get to be in the car while they’re doing these crazy three-sixties, and doing these crazy crashes. Surprisingly, I’ve never felt so safe in a vehicle before." "I was so excited to work with Rosario," Winstead says of Dawson. "She does one really cool movie after another. I’ve always admired her for that. I was so excited to see that she really is what I pictured her to be, which is really cool, down-to-earth, smart and independent. It’s great to be around her, and I feel like I’m really learning a lot from doing scenes with her." The cars used in the film are stars in their own right. "Stuntman Mike has two cars in the movie actually, and they’re both very individualistic as themselves, but when the girls get in the chase with him, they’re not driving any car: They’re driving the 1970 Dodge Challenger made to look like Kowalski’s car from "Vanishing Point". That’s a very specific thing." Tarantino says. So what can fans expect? "It’s going to be the best car chases, it’s going to be the most bad ass chicks you’ve ever seen, it’s going to be the most sinister, scary kind of killer who’s sinister and scary in the way that you’ve ever seen before. And it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be something you’ve never seen Quentin do," says Dawson. Synopsis

For Austin’s hottest DJ, Jungle Julia, dusk offers an opportunity to unwind with two of her closest friends, Shanna and Arlene. This three fox posse sets out into the night, turning heads from Guero’s to the Texas Chili Parlor. Not all of the attention is innocent: Covertly tracking their moves is Stuntman Mike, a scarred, weathered rebel who leers from behind the wheel of his muscle car. As the girls settle into their beers, Mike’s weapon, a white-hot juggernaut, revs just feet away. Not far away, Kick-ass Kim eagerly awaits the arrival of fellow movie stunt chick Zoe for a holiday in the US. Alongside Abernathy, the movie make-up artist, and Lee a cheerleader-costume clad actress; the sassy foursome set off to welcome New Zealander Zoe to the US by treating her to whatever she likes, USA style. Being the adrenalin junky Zoe is, she chooses to spend the day riding 'shot-gun' on a white 1970s Dodge Challenger. Imagine the girls surprise when they meet Mike on the same stretch of highway. Surprise soon turns to horror.

The Verdict "It works well when there's action on the screen but the problem is most of the screentime is dedicated to trashy chick talk, a pointless talkfest that totally detracts from the moments when Kurt Russel is behind the wheel of his "Death Proof" vehicle and highly accomplished stuntwoman Zoë Bell is hanging off the bonnett as the evil, twisted Stuntman Mike does his best to knock her off. 100 minutes of talk and 13 minutes of classic, edge of your seat, nail-biting terror. Fans will feel a little miffed I'm sure because on this occassion, the name Quentin Tarantino, loses a little of its shine. 2 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "DEATH PROOF" stars .......
Rosario Dawson ["Men In Black II", "Shattered Glass", "Sin City" and "Clerks II"]; Mary Elizabeth Winstead ["Sky High", "Final Destination 3", "Bobby" and "Die Hard 4.0"]; Vanessa Ferlito ["25th Hour", "Spider-Man 2" and "Shadowboxer"]; Sydney Poitier ["True Crime", "MacArthur Park" and "The List"]; Tracie Thoms ["Brother To Brother", "Rent" and "The Devil Wears Prada"]; World Stunt Taurus Award Zoë Bell ["The Extreme Team", "Poseidon" and "Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2"] and Kurt Russell ["Tombstone", "Escape from L.A.", "Vanilla Sky" and "Poseidon"] as Stuntman Mike.
"DEATH PROOF" was .......
directed by Academy Award winner Quentin Tarantino ["Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction", "Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2" and "Sin City"]; screenplay by Quentin Tarantino ["My Best Friend's Birthday", "True Romance", "Natural Born Killers" and "From Dusk Till Dawn"]; stunt coordinator Jeff Dashnaw ["Once Upon a Time in Mexico", "Cellular", "Jarhead" and "Crank"]; costume design by Nina Proctor ["Spy Kids 3: Game Over", "Sin City" and "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D"]; production design by Steve Joyner ["Planet Terror"]; edited by Sally Menke ["Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "All the Pretty Horses" and "Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2"]; special effects supervisor ["The Santa Clause 1, 2 & 3", "Starship Troopers", "Jurassic Park III" and "The Island"]; casting by Mary Vernieu ["Spanglish", "The Dukes of Hazzard", "World Trade Centre" and "The Fountain"]. Who's Who?

Kurt Russell Zoë Bell Rosario Dawson Vanessa Ferlito Sydney Poitier Tracie Thoms Rose McGowan Jordan Ladd Mary Elizabeth Winstead Quentin Tarantino Marcy Harriell Eli Roth

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Stuntman Mike Herself Abernathy Arlene Jungle Julia Kim Pam Shanna Lee Warren Marcy Dov

Run Time 113 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - Roadshow - All Rights Reserved Enduring © All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark Laws Apply.