Death Proof

(18) 113min

HORROR/ACTION

Like the best roller-coasters, Death Proof takes an eternity to get moving, but once in top gear, Quentin Tarantinos thriller will leave you hanging on tighter than poor Zoe Bell, who clings grimly to a speeding cars bonnet during much of the climactic car chase. Uma Thurmans stunt double in the Kill Bill films, Bell plays herself in Death Proof, one of the eight feisty chicks who find themselves under attack by misogynist throwback Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), whose custom-designed car makes him invulnerable while in the drivers seat.

Like Jackie Brown, Death Proof reprises the look and feel of 70s exploitation cinema, replacing the male anti-heroes of 1971s Vanishing Point or 1974s Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry with feisty girl-power chicks who enjoy nothing better that putting macho men like Mike firmly in their place. Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan and Tracie Thoms all hit their targets for the girls team, while Russell comes over as genuinely creepy, but the real star is Tarantinos kick-ass eye for high-speed stuntwork.

Yet despite its many endearing qualities, the strong meat in Death Proof amounts to weak half-measures on Tarantinos part. Never intended as a feature release, Tarantinos film originally followed on from Robert Rodriguezs Planet Terror as the second half of Grindhouse, an elaborate attempt to recreate the feel of cheap-theatre double bills.

After the three-hour package flopped at the US box office, producer Harvey Weinstein repeated his Kill Bill strategy, literally cutting the film into two pieces. As a result, Planet Terror, plus the faux interval trailers created by Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie, are all currently sitting on the shelf with no scheduled UK release date at present.

That means the UK wont be seeing Bruce Willis as The Man Who Shot Bin Laden, Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu, or a close up shot of Tarantinos genitals melting on to the floor like pizza topping.

But more frustratingly, we also wont really see the point of Death Proof. With characters, dialogue, performers, music cues, story elements and sets doubling up in each film, the Grindhouse feature returned Tarantino to the heights of the post-modern, reflexive storytelling of Pulp Fiction. But what the hell, if you only see Death Proof, you are still in for a bumpy, occasionally exhilarating ride.

General release from Fri 21 Sep.