Review Detail

I've always had a suspect appreciation of Tarantino's rather indulgent digressions in his films as they are generally well-written and acted and add nuances to the films. But he lately hasn't know quite when to stop, especially the last 3 or 4 (not including ...Hollywood which I consider near perfect). Of course Death Proof seemed like ground zero for this tendency: a grindhouse film with a thin plot and sequences that went on way longer than needed even if the details were generally delightful.

Dawnrazor here has distilled the spine of Death Proof down: it's really a 65-minute film at heart and he still preserves the charm of the exercise, the menace and backstories (such as they are) of the girls in danger and of Stuntman Mike, a sense of the in-joke "inconsequential" details intact, and the dynamic of the car sequence at the end (which is the whole raison d'etre).

Gone is the languid stuff in the opening bar sequence which foregrounds Mike's appearance and menace; transition to the second half is cleaner; we get to know the second group of girls in the car without the diner sense of "oh no we have to sit thorough all this again?"; and the thing just moves. Nice use of Abba music as a unifier.

Many small edits that are invisible and make things move along. As jasonflippy says I can't believe he cut 50 minutes out of this with no apparent harm. Very much recommended as a third variant after the theatrical cut and the padded extended cut.