Movies From Beyond: Hooper & Death Proof

Now it would be a little too obvious to talk about another Christmas film this week on Movies From Beyond.

If it was your thing, you could always fire up Emo-kid favourite The Nightmare Before Christmas directed by goth god Tim Burton or, for real frights, you could always just sit back and watch the Queen witter on for half an hour. Our tip is none of the above.

Instead, we'll be looking at Hooper and Death Proof…

Our first choice for this week is a definite forgotten gem; Hooper starring man’s man Burt Reynolds and directed by the same guy that did Smokey and The Bandit and The Cannonball Run. This seventies classic follows the exploits of a Hollywood stuntman and his mates as he jumps out of and over things and does that one last stunt; jumping a red Trans-Am over a 300ft canyon whilst shooting a movie starring Batman and Family Guy mayor himself, Adam West. It is all good stuff with the obligatory bar-fight, country music soundtrack and vehicular high jinks. We love nothing more than guilty pleasures and this is definitely one of them. What isn’t there to like?  

We are nothing if not consistent with our movie-watching and along the same stuntman theme is Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof starring a really old-looking Kurt Russell as serial killer, Stuntman Mike. It was part of the Grindhouse concept movie that tanked at the US box office earlier in the summer. Death Proof is finally out on DVD in January and is pretty much an uber B-move, plenty of snappy dialogue and over-the-top storytelling but it reminded us a little bit of someone trying to make an homage to QT, almost like he was trying too hard to be cool and shoehorn pop culture references in at every possible opportunity. It’s not bad but it’s not that good either and the attempts to make to film appear old and cheap actually get a bit annoying after a while. Our vote goes for the other volume of the project, Planet Terror.  

Merry Christmas movie geeks!

[story by Simon Woodley]