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2 Days in the Valley [1996]

Director: John Herzfeld
Actor: Danny Aiello, James Spader, Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Charlize Theron, Eric Stoltz

You know which movies I like? Not because they’re deep, not because they’re well acted, not because they’re well directed; I like movies that are based on books coming from the Elmore Leonard school of writing. You know, Carl Hiaasen type stuff. Good examples are Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Jackie Brown. The thing that these stories all share, is a seemingly disconnected cast of characters, usually set in a psuedo-crime or glamorous setting that are all tied together by one event, be that the death of a film-star, or a hurricane, or stolen diamonds, or whatever. The stories play out independently of one another, and all kind of converge on the same place. Sometimes the characters do know eachother, but it’s always a random, chance encounter.

Anyway, I love those type of stories, because they’re interesting without being pretentious or hard to digest. 2 Days in the Valley is exactly such a story, and I honestly can’t give anything of the story away without ruining the entire premise of it all. It features a hitman, a mafia-enforcer, an olympic skier, a Swedish model, a vice cop that wants to be on homicide, a disgruntled ex-film director, and many, many more. Entertaining from start to finish.

Death Proof [2007]

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Actor: Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoë Bell, Michael Parks, Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino

I had seen so many bad reviews on this film that when I went to see it I was ready to be disappointed. Little did I realise that I was going to see a great, QT-original that had me, at times in stitches or on the edge of my seat. I loved this film, and was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of what I thought I’d get, I got a great film, with a refreshing story, solid acting, a kickin’ soundtrack, fantastic dialogue and a great deal of style and violence. Considering the strong women featured in this film, I agree that this film could be called Resevoir Bitches. :)

.: Act One
This film is roughly divided up in two main acts. The first act shows local radio-celebrity Jungle Julia and her friends going out for a night on the town in Austin, Texas with her friends. After a night of heavy drinking they make the aquaintance of Stuntman Mike (Russell), a washed up stuntman who specialised in car-stunts back in the old days. Stuntman Mike drives a muscle-car, which he explains is “Death Proof,” meaning that it’s been gutted – every dangerous and unnecessary object removed from the car – outfitted with a roll-cage, and reinforced every which way, giving a stuntman the best chances of surviving whatever stunt he might use the car for. Stuntman Mike is following Jungle Julia and her friends around, and for reasons that are never explained, he doesn’t seem to have anything good planned for them.

.: Act Two
Lebanon, Tennesee; Abernathy (Dawson), a Hollywood make-up artist, has a few days off from the movie she’s working on together with her friends (two stuntwomen and an actrice) and they decide to party hard and go wild. Zoë (Bell), one of the two stuntwomen is from New Zeeland and has decided that now she’s in the U.S. she wants to drive a muscle-car. She finds the perfect car for sale in the area and goes for a test-drive together with the girls. While in the middle of doing some crazy stunts with the car, Stuntman Mike shows up and decides to harass them, but quickly finds himself seriously challenged by the women. What follows is a crazy, fantastic car-chase that’s really worth it!

I’d like to make special mention of Zoë Bell, playing herself. Zoë is the woman who was the stand-in for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. She’s so fantastic in the second act that I’ve declared her the sexiest woman in Death Proof. :)