Death Proof (extended)...

[MinionZombie]

Bassman, I have no idea but I thought it was cool as hell. MZ, I think the reason that the grainyness ceases in the 2nd half is because the first reel(s) take the brunt of the damage, and the projector is warm and running smooth by the last reel(s). Just a guess. Mmm...no I wouldn't say that's the answer to be honest. They did get it right in that near a reel change (on either side) the print gets worse, and there might be skips and so-on, but a print still has glitches and scratches and missing bits at any point. The second half seemed too clean in comparison to the first half, which was odd. That's my only grievance with the film, and it is most likely intentional - but I wanna know why. I haven't found any quotes from QT about that issue. It reminds me of watching restored prints at uni on the film course, at the time I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now, but it was cool to get to see films on restored prints - the likes of The Maltese Falcon and suchlike. There'd often be times when the print would break and burn up and have to be re-started, or there's be frames missing here and there, the sound would change completely with a reel change and then you re-adjust to it, the picture would also get more faded after a reel change and then work back to the original contrast, it might get a little out-of-synch at times too...it's actually a fun way to watch old movies. It's how I watched "The Pit and the Pendulum" at the Bloodbath Film Festival in Bristol, the print broke at least once, nay twice actually, it went out of synch occasionally, had missing frames and so on...took me right back to my uni days watching films on restored prints. Anyway...ahhh memories.

[zombie04]

I thought that the reason for the quality change from the first to the second parts was that they were really two different movies in one. The first part shows Stuntman Mike as the killer who gets away with it, but in the second half you have all new characters and the hunter becomes the hunted. Plus I also think Tarantino wanted us to really pay attention to the car chase at the end, something I was still impressed with watching it last night.

[MinionZombie]

Mmm...I was thinking it was like two Stuntman Mike films put together, like the "second" one (with the second group of girls) never got completed in the Grindhouse universe of proceedings, so they took the "original" Stuntman Mike film and recut it with that, to now make "Death Proof" ... that seems more possible as the "original" film would have been called "Thunder Bolt" (as seen briefly at the start)...so it could be a case of the two films being a few years apart, or the "company" behind it got better equipment and processing available to them...still though, I think the clean up in the second half was a bit too much, especially when you look at the first half...it's my only niggle, my only minor grievance, as I've said before. Still, I really dig Death Proof. I was a tad cold on it at first, just a smidge, but I really like it now.

[zombie04]

The first time I saw Grindhouse, I thought Planet Terror was the better movie and Death Proof was just a little too talkative. Then the second time I saw it I started to appreciate Death Proof more because Planet Terror was really just there to be a sort of parody of grindhouse flicks while Tarantino was actually trying to make a movie that could be passed off as a real one. And just for that I think Death Proof was the better movie. Although if they ever did another movie like these two than I'd hope they could have Michael Bein and Kurt Russell in a movie together.

[AcesandEights]

The two films are different and people will have different tastes on the matter (refer to previous thread on this for an example).

[MinionZombie]

Exactly, Planet Terror is more like a modern-day exploitation movie made by a studio, instead of independent financiers. Death Proof is more like a real exploitation flick from the era. It's in the story, how it was actually made, the advertising, it's throughout the entire film. PT, while brilliant fun, takes the "loads of gore n sex" vibe and does it in a modern way...that's also probably more the case because RR had the idea for PT since The Faculty, so it's like fitting a sort-of-square into a round hole, kinda...but it's still awesome fun... And hell yes - Biehn & Russell together would be superb. We need more Biehn on our screens anyway.

[MikePizzoff]

I'm going to have to buy this along with Planet Terror and screen them in our mini-theatre. Should be a good night. Too bad none of you live around me!