Spring Break
Movie Reviews
David Coley
Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: Culture
However, after about the first half of it, I got the feeling Tarantino was really paying homage to, well, Tarantino. There are many references to locales or lines from his other films, and he seems to overindulge in pop-culture references and long conversations about nothing pertaining to the story. He gets lost in meandering dialogue, and the middle of "Death Proof" is a bit lagging.
Despite this, and with a fantastic car chase taking up the latter quarter of the film, it manages to be a very enjoyable piece, especially as a counterpoint to the endless slaughter of "Planet Terror." Though the energy is not always even, it has a consistent vision and tone, and takes its place well in the body of his earlier work.
If either of the halves had been a longer standalone film, they would probably be considered horrible. Together, and with all of the trappings of a trashy movie house experience, they make for an exciting time.
If you are the least bit squeamish, however, you might want to sit this one out.
In Theaters
'The Lookout'
At first glance, the storyline for "The Lookout"might seem simple.
It involves a young man who, after a car accident, has problems with short-term memory and is forced to write everything down in a little notebook. He becomes involved with some thugs who recruit him for a bank robbery, and soon after he must somehow make everything right again.
This is the film that has been marketed to the public. Strange that the plot just described takes up barely half of the film.
Written and directed by Scott Frank, the movie stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Chris Pratt, a former high-school hockey star now suffering from the aforementioned mental problems due to a car crash that also killed two of his friends. He lives in Kansas City in a small apartment with his blind roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels), and works nights as a janitor in a small bank just over the state line in Kansas.
He is soon selected by a gang led by Gary (Matthew Goode) because of his job in the bank. His role is to alert them when there is a lot of cash in the vault and then he can watch out for cops while they break in and steal it.
Despite this, and with a fantastic car chase taking up the latter quarter of the film, it manages to be a very enjoyable piece, especially as a counterpoint to the endless slaughter of "Planet Terror." Though the energy is not always even, it has a consistent vision and tone, and takes its place well in the body of his earlier work.
If either of the halves had been a longer standalone film, they would probably be considered horrible. Together, and with all of the trappings of a trashy movie house experience, they make for an exciting time.
If you are the least bit squeamish, however, you might want to sit this one out.
In Theaters
'The Lookout'
At first glance, the storyline for "The Lookout"might seem simple.
It involves a young man who, after a car accident, has problems with short-term memory and is forced to write everything down in a little notebook. He becomes involved with some thugs who recruit him for a bank robbery, and soon after he must somehow make everything right again.
This is the film that has been marketed to the public. Strange that the plot just described takes up barely half of the film.
Written and directed by Scott Frank, the movie stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Chris Pratt, a former high-school hockey star now suffering from the aforementioned mental problems due to a car crash that also killed two of his friends. He lives in Kansas City in a small apartment with his blind roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels), and works nights as a janitor in a small bank just over the state line in Kansas.
He is soon selected by a gang led by Gary (Matthew Goode) because of his job in the bank. His role is to alert them when there is a lot of cash in the vault and then he can watch out for cops while they break in and steal it.
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