Strangely enough, an 11th hour rural Daylight car chase (with a strap-grabbing roof-ride ala TEEN WOLF) pales to the Nighttime group of empty souls drinking, smoking pot and otherwise doing and discussing absolutely nothing. With layers thinly disguised and partially revealed at the primary rainy-night location: a BBQ tavern where Tarantino himself plays Warren, a movie-geek owner and bartender: as director and especially as cinematographer, some of the best shots are of what's actually his own jukebox that, as usual in QT cinema, plays awesomely obscure, vintage tracks.Īs other subtle and ultimately futile plot-points include Julia's desperate and lonely attempts to connect with a famous filmmaker on her cell phone, when she's not trying to score pot with a dealer/friend as the otherwise annoying, parenthetical stoner chick camaraderie becomes more worthwhile and edgy once Kurt Russell is introduced, in the flesh and outside his formidably foreboding car: an example of Alfred Hitchcock's theory of how an otherwise mundane, superfluous dinner conversation becomes genuinely suspenseful when a time bomb's revealed under the table: shown only to the audience. So to really get off on what's intended as a b-movie exploitation tour-de-force, the first story is terribly flawed but after several viewings can be extremely addictive, and effective. Then again, her more legitimately trained on-screen cohorts, including Rosario Dawson, are equally dull and forgettable. Leading to the second story headed by real life Uma Thurman KILL BILL stand-in Zoë Bell, who, while doing her own stunts, isn't very interesting, attractive or talented as an actress/character. The fact she'd trust an old man with a DEATH PROOF vehicle that includes a working driver's side while the passenger area, separated by Plexiglas, has only a removable metallic bicycle seat, is farfetched and ludicrous.īut horror/slasher victims are usually way too gullible here resulting in the only truly nightmarish death as the following "four birds with one stone" slaying occurs much too quick, and after the amount of time spent with these girls, is downright anti-climatic. Which is just about the only thing resembling an actual plot-point or plot-driven device, and the significance involves who eventually gets that dance.Įnter Kurt Russell's weathered and leathery, facially-scarred stalker, who's somehow intriguing to these hot young girls, especially lone "skinny hippie" fox Rose McGowan, who fatefully needs a ride home. The usual Tarantino cult pop culture product placement Meanwhile, the buried lead and most interesting overall, is sexy, full-lipped Vanessa Ferlito as Butterfly, who Jungle Julia sets up on what can only be described as a "blind date lap-dance." As does Quentin Tarantino's dialogue, spoken by the two groups of pretty young girls: the first with local billboard-famous leader, Sydney Poitier as the Austin, Texas morning disc jockey, Jungle Julia.Īnd while Tarantino's no stranger at placing characters inside a contained, often claustrophobic setting, from RESERVOIR DOGS to FROM DUSK TILL DAWN to THE HATEFUL EIGHT, there were reasons to be there, and basically, no way out as opposed to merely harboring spontaneous, incessant chatter.
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