"Boulevard de la Mort." You know it as "Death Proof."

On the press sked for Cannes, the expanded stand-alone version of Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse was listed as running two hours and seven minutes. That's almost 40 minutes more than the Grindhouse cut, so naturally there was a lot of speculation beforehand as to what Tarantino was going to put back in, or even add to, his tale of murderous Stuntman Mike and his eventual comeuppance at the hands, and wheels, of some feisty movie professionals. That the Grindhouse "missing reel" of Vanessa Ferlito's coerced lap dance for Stuntman Mike was gonna end up in this cut was a given; but what else? Would Stuntman Mike get some motivation? Would Michael Parks show up again? Good options, it seemed; but one of the less sanguine of our number moaned, "He'll probably show Jasper raping Lee in her cheerleader outfit."

Well, good for Tarantino: he does not. And as it happens, Boulevard de la Mort (the French title flashes up on screen in white on black, looking as if it's been hastily spliced in, full cheap exploitation style—and I actually like this title better than Death Proof, don't you?) runs more like an hour and forty-five than two-seven.

What's new? Well, the lap dance, which is very sexy—I like that Ferlito has a little bit of a tummy and doesn't seem to care who knows it—a bit of goofiness involving a red umbrella, a partially black-and-white sequence featuring Nicky Katt as a convenience store clerk (and in which we learn that Rosario Dawson's Abernathy has the whistling theme from Twisted Nerve as he cell-phone ringtone—where can I get that?), and a little bit more of this or that. No extra exposition at all, really. So I was pleasantly surprised not only how well it holds together—by all rights it really shouldn't—and, its deliberately jolting set-piece of sadism aside (it got a round of applause here, eeew), how pleasurably it all goes down. Grindhouse motivated a fair number of critics to implore Quentin Tarantino to grow up or something. I don't think it's gonna happen and I don't think I care. Somebody's gotta make Quentin Tarantino movies, might as well be him.

Comments

[Aaron Aradillas]

What song does she do the lap dance to? Is it the Willy DeVille tune from Cruising, "It's So Easy"? The song is on the soundtrack but I couldn't find it anywhere in the Grindhouse version of Death Proof.

[G. Kenny]

The song is The Coasters' "Down in Mexico." I'm too wiped to remember when the DeVille song comes in, but it does...

[rob]

In the words of Eric Cartman: "Kick ass!"

"Grindhouse motivated a fair number of critics to implore Quentin Tarantino to grow up or something. I don't think it's gonna happen and I don't think I care."

Thank you, sir!