Death Proof

Flicks, Andrew Hedley

Forget about the ‘Grindhouse’ experience for a moment, and imagine that Tarantino’s latest adventure exists independently. It doesn’t, and it shows, but just imagine anyway. We get a movie that feels hip but unimportant; entertaining but long-winded. It’s really a great night out in every way except one: the dialogue.

New Zealand Herald

Death Proof is certainly entertaining, but it's also baffling and will have you wondering what the point of it all is.

Newshub

But Coppola sees more in Marie than an Old World Paris Hilton. By tossing in American slang, rock music (New Order and Bow Wow Wow) and eclectic acting styles, she's crashing through the barriers of centuries and stuffy Hollywood biopics to give us a palpable sense of Marie moving through the temptations of flesh and spirit before history boxed her in. With lyrical intelligence and scrappy wit, Coppola creates a luscious world to get lost in. It's a pleasure...

Lumiere Reader

Similarly at odds with the exploitation double-bill, Death Proof defiantly – even unconsciously – stands alone, and however self-aggrandising, contains some smashing moments, builds to a considerable fck yeah, and works even better on its own terms...

Empire Magazine

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...

Dominion Post

Tarantino treats his film set like a toy box, and his movies are still a guilty pleasure to watch. Nice one...

Christchurch Press

Sure, it's full of injokes, self-indulgent references (why would two modern girls love Vanishing Point?) and self-referential indulgences (Red Apple cigarettes and Earl McGraw turn up) and Tarantino-isms abound (listen for familiar ringtones, and irrelevant, meandering conversations), but it's a hell of a lot of fun and strangely empowering.

While attempting to replicate the gloriously bad movies of his youth, Tarantino couldn't help himself. He went and made a good film...

BBC

The shift between stories is as sudden as the ending - no doubt in tribute to Tarantino's beloved cheap "grindhouse" features, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. 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...