Alternative Character Interpretation: Are we really supposed to feel sorry for Dakota (who was cheating on her husband and whose irresponsibility got her son killed) just because she's a battered wife?
Some can excuse her cheating on her husband by her being a battered wife.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Jungle Julia's terse text messages to Chris Simonson, whoever he is, borders on this. It doesn't come completely out of nowhere, but it is a very strange, mood-breaking scene.
The girls actually talk about Simonson before they leave Julia's house. Apparently, he's a director who Julia's interested in (and who supposedly has a "big thing" for her), but she's annoyed with how he doesn't seem to pay much attention to her. He's supposed to show up at the bar to meet with the girls, but never does.
Jungle Julia: If he had a big thing for me, he'd fuckin' call me, as opposed to disappearing for six months, and he'd get his ass down here more often than he does, and on my birthday he'd give me a fucking phone call! ...but other than that, he's putty in my hands.
Broken Base: Opinions are divided on Death Proof. Some think that the car chase at the end more than makes up for all of its flaws. Others just can't stand sitting through the rest of the film up to that point. The main issue is that other than some Stylistic Suck at the beginning with the title card and film quality, Tarantino just made a Tarantino movie, which some feel clashes with the far more comedic and over-the-top tone of the rest of the project.
Designated Hero: Both films feature examples of characters behaving in morally dubious ways. Planet Terror has Dakota getting over the grief caused by the absolutely stupid death of her son to get Distracted by the Sexy with Cherry awfully quickly, while Death Proof has the "let's leave our friend behind to possibly get raped by Jasper solely so we can take a joyride in a classic car".
Harsher in Hindsight: In Death Proof, the fact that the killer, a man who Quentin Tarantino based partly on himself, uses his car to murder women in reckless stunts became this in light of revelations that, during production on Kill Bill, Tarantino got Uma Thurman seriously injured in a vehicular stunt without proper safety measures taken. The film even stars Zoë Bell, who had previously been Thurman's stunt double in Kill Bill.
According to Planet Terror, Bruce Willis' character killed bin Laden by shooting him in the head. This movie was released in 2007, four years before Bin Laden would be killed in real life in exactly that way.
Udo Kier plays the role of the leader of a supernatural Nazi project in Werewolf Women of the SS. A decade later, he's starring in Call of Duty: WWII's Zombies mode as Peter Glucksbringer Straub, the experimenter in charge of the zombie project.
A few, such as Marcy, and later Jasper in Death Proof.
And Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu, which for some is the only thing they really remember, despite it being a grand total of thirty-one seconds. How come he still hasn't gotten the same feature-length treatment as Machete, the Hobo, and The Pilgrim?! note PR complications arising with Yellowface and Yellow Peril notwithstanding
Slow-Paced Beginning: Death Proof has a rough first half, though it improves after that.
Squick: The scene where Bill is checking out the guy who got bitten has another doctor looking at incredibly disgusting pictures of medical problems from soldiers returning from Iraq. This is before the really gross stuff starts.
Tough Act to Follow: Perhaps the biggest obstacle to enjoying Death Proof is because Planet Terror was just filled with so much balls-to-the-walls insanity, that nothing could possibly measure up to it. A frequent criticism of the Grindhouse release is that Death Proof should have played first.
The Woobie: Awful things constantly happen to Dakota Block in Planet Terror.
Jerkass Woobie: And yet, she is the reason her son died and didn't seem too concerned about her son's death.
that, during production on Kill Bill, Tarantino got Uma Thurman seriously injured in a vehicular stunt without proper safety measures taken. The film even stars Zoë Bell, who had previously been Thurman's stunt double in Kill Bill.