Grindhouse - New Tarantino/Rodriguez film announced.. (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

Sure it does - he thought he was just going to run a group of silly girls off the road, and instead ran into an experienced stunt driver, one who could clearly mess him up if it keeps going. So he gets out, tries to make nice, and then finds that he has really pissed off the wrong set of women when Kim shoots him without so much as a "stay over there".

He's not less evil to Zoe/Kim/Abby - he's afraid, and trying to find a way out of the hole he didn't even realize he was digging.

 

[Matthew Marino]

But was he really planning on letting them actually go or was he just playing with them to mess with their heads some more? He doesn't actually leave them alone until he gets shot. It's not be because he had a change of heart, it's because his victims turned the violence towards him, something he's never had to deal with before. I'm sure his intentions go far beyond what we saw him do to them before they were interrupted with the bullet.

Edit: ^Jason beat me to it and said it better than I did.

 

[Matthew Brown]

If this is split into to seperate features, I hope it's not too soon. I really want to see this as a double feature. I guess by the time they create prints and everything it could be a couple of weeks.

Maybe they are just mentioning splitting it up to get people in the theaters now.

Matt

 

[AaronMan]

I literally just saw the film again. There's no way Stuntman Mike lives through that beating at the end of Death Proof. Dawson's character actually crushes his head with her boot.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Stuntman Mike says Adios and then goes to get in the car when he gets shot. Either way, we don't know for certain that he lives or dies at the end but I guess that was the "possible sequel" that Tarantino talked about (which will never happen now).

 

[Matthew Marino]

I know some of you don't care about the shooting script as evidence but the end of it says:

"Yanking him up to his feet, while pounding music blares on the soundtrack, the three girls with their fists, beat him to death.

When he hits the red asphault, Stuntman Mike is no more.

Once he hits the ground, with the three girls standing over him...

The film freeze frames like an old school Kung Fu film that ends at the death blow."

So no less than 3 times does the script remind us that he's dead. The script doesn't even mention the head stomp. While there are some deviations, most notably the deleted scenes around the convenient store, the final product stays pretty true to it.

 

[Sam Favate]

I had no doubt, at the end of the movie, that he was dead. I suspect any sequel that Tarantino alluded to involved Zoe and the other girls.

 

[Jason Roer]

QT's intent based on all the evidence is our pal Stuntman Mike is dead. HOWEVER - this is a slasher film. If it took off at the box office you better believe the Weinsteins would insist on a sequel and Stuntman Mike would be back in business (despite what the script says) And remember, the script is just a blue print anyway - it's not always what you see on screen. Nothing at the end of the movie we saw ensures Mike has kicked the bucket - and certainly not in a horror flick. Hell if the camera didn't freeze frame you could almost see Kurt reach up and yank the legs from under the girls, watch them drop, and then see him hand out a beat down. But maybe I watch too many horror films?

Again, the whole "reverse theory" was just for fun. It led to a great discussion and that was it's sole purpose. Though I'm really looking forward to whatever else Michael comes up with. I have a feeling this discussion is not closed just yet

Cheers,

Jason

 

[LarryDavenport]

Hopefully with the film being split in two they will restore the lapdance scene in Death Proof.

I think the "missing reel" in Planet Terror was much funnier and used for better effect. The cut goes from the love scene right to the place on fire, cutting out a good 20 minutes of unnecessary exposition.

 

[Michael Allred]

and as I said before, there was an interview with Tarantino (and/or Rodriguez) where they specifically tell Kurt Russell that Stuntman Mike will be another awesome character he can add to his rogues gallery of Snake, McCready, etc.

Now how could ANYBODY watch "Death Proof" and even think about Stuntman Mike being mentioned in the same sentence with Snake considering how it supposedly ended? The only way their comments work is if the film is indeed out of order.

Is STILL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE that Mike goes from ruthless psycho killer to "hey girls, boys just wanna have fuh-un, oh boys just wanna have fun!" To me, Stuntman Mike starts off as being a slightly off-kilter guy who enjoyed fucking with women on the road for the hell of it, seeing what he can get away with then once they turned it on him and made it deadly serious, that is when he went nutty and went for blood....no more playing around for fun. Those women fucked him up good and now he seeks revenge on all women.

Yeah yeah, he got his face kicked in...so? You mean to tell me that will kill him but a head on collision (at HOW fast they were going???) and he makes it out just fine? Even in a "death proof" car?

 

[Jason Seaver]

(a) Tarantino was trying to fake the audience out, and if so I applaud him.

(b) Stuntman Mike is still a great character and a great performance by Russell; the fact that his image is just a front for a coward only makes it more so.

(c) Claiming the film is out of order sucks the sense of victory out of the girls beating the hell out of him, ignores the healed-up scar, and still makes him a pathetic bully because it means he makes sure that he's going after people who are less likely to fight back.

Absolutely. He was basically driving a NASCAR-type auto, designed to protect the driver at 200mph impacts. Get him out of that cocoon, and he's as vulnerable as any of us.

 

[Matthew Marino]

1. Are you implying that Marlon Brando will NOT be remembered for playing Don Corleone because the character dies in the one film he played him in? I honestly didn't realize that living at the end of a movie was a requirement to make memorable characters.

2. How does this still not make sense? He was a ruthless psycho who prayed upon helpless young women who weren't expecting his attack. Then HE gets unexpectedly attacked by some not-so-helpless young women and the tables turn on him. He had no intentions of letting them live BEFORE he interrupted the ship's mast game but once they held their own and even attacked him (with Kim's gun) that changed. At that point he decided that he bit off more than he could chew and he just tried to play it off.

3. Yes, I think a person with a car modified specifically with the intention of sustaining head on collisions (at 70 mph as stated in the film by McGraw, not at 200 mph as the obviously exaggerated tag line states) has a better chance of surviving than a person who's entire skull and brain gets compacted into some asphault.

4. I honestly can't believe that this is still being debated. I'm really thinking that this is a joke or something.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Can't say I'm surprised, QT and RR are overestimating the amount of people that were fans of the Genre, or even attende GH movies in the 70's , what are they gonna do next some xxx porn flick? I mean I'm a fan, but I doubted the mainstream public that like dreck Like Are We There Yet is gonna get it.

 

[Michael Elliott]

He was "crying" due to the car wreck, not the women kicking his ass. He actually took the ass kicking pretty well. Russell's wreck in the first section was a lot worse than what happened in the second part. In the second part his car wasn't death proof so you have wonder why he would be using his car as a machine when he hadn't yet made it death proof.

In the second part the girls were in town shooting a movie. Who's to say Stuntman Mike wasn't also a part of the crew? That would explain why he was in the same redneck town.

I guess this "reverse order" just works for guys named Michael.

 

[Michael Allred]

and yet NASCAR drivers die too.

 

[Michael Allred]

The joke is that Tarantino actually thinks those girls could pull off being super ruthless badasses. I didn't buy it at all.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I like the idea of the second part being out of order. I agree with Michael, even if it isn't true, I think it plays out better thinking of it that way.

As for the scar, who cares? If these are supposed to mimic their low budget counterparts, then it makes perfect sense as to why the scar is different. When has a makeup scar on a lowbudget film ever been consistant? Hell it would have been just as believable to the tone of the movie if the scar was on the wrong side of his face for one section.

After reading all the discussion, media coverage, complaints and praise I'm thinking they went at this all wrong from a financial standpoint. I think they took the doublefeature aspect to far and ended up making their own 2+ hour movies (with missing reels) that might work as standalones but when combined is just too much. If you cut out all of the fluff of both movies and bring them down to 60 minutes, keeping the missing reel gags (only this time Tarantino, lose one of the massive dialogue reels and keep the sexy lap dance) and with trailers you end up with a 2 hour 15 minute movie that is easier to digest and is never boring. Then release both in their entirety on DVD.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, Zoe Bell actually is badass; I've got little doubt that the anecdotes about her that Tarantino threw into the movie are based on truth. And I bought Tracie Thoms as Kim. Rosario Dawson, I don't know.

Of course the last act of the movie, from the point when Kim and Zoe look at each other and say "wanna go after him? Hell, yeah!", is an empowerment fantasy. But I don't think we ever see anything from Zoe and Kim that suggests they wouldn't chase him back down if they could.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I thought the girl's turning bad ass was just a part of Tarantino's love of the genre. He's always written strong female characters due in large part to his love for Pam Grier and her "kick ass" films like COFFY and FOXY BROWN. T.N.T. JACKSON also crossed my mind with McGowan in PLANET TERROR.

We probably shouldn't forget that DEATH PROOF is missing 30-minutes worth of footage so there's a lot more cut out than just the missing reel strip scene. Perhaps this contains more footage with Russell and might clear up some of these thoughts on his two sides.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but I loved the homage to Fulci's ZOMBIE that took place in PLANET TERROR in regards to Tarantino's character. There were also some nice moments to NIGHTMARE CITY, another crazy zombie flick that seemed to be the main influence on PT.

My girlfriend and I are planning on going to see this tomorrow since my comments on it have her wanting to watch it now. For some reason she called and invited my mother but I'm not sure if I'll take them now since my mother freaks out at PG-rated gore.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Especially if you are driving a all steel 70's Nova with a full roll cage into a small cheap econo hatchback car as shown in the movie.

As for Mike's intent. Since he had photos of the chicks in the first part, he had already had a premeditated plan to kill them with the car.

The second group of chicks, he just came across by random and his intent WAS just to fuck with them. He saw them goofing off and wanted to join in, but pissed them off and had to back pedal.