8 Classic Movies That Were Released Unfinished

8. Death Proof

Viewed in isolation, Death Proof is an incredibly odd movie, a mid-naughties blip in Tarantino's filmography between his name-making early works and revisionist-historical recent outings. Detailing little more than two sets of victims of Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike, it's trashy, gory and incredibly inconsequential; it is, essentially, a B-Movie.

That's odd from ol' QT. All his movies have relished in homaging genre flicks, but they always transcended mere imitation somehow - this is just basic replication. And that's the point. Death Proof was one half of the Grindhouse double-feature experiment by Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez (who submitted Planet Terror), so was purposely trying to evoke classic low-budget action pictures.

To extend the joke, both directors purposely butchered their films to fit the double-B-feature conceit, with the proper versions only released afterwards; the full-length Death Proof wasn't seen properly until it reached international cinemas. A ballsy move, which makes it all the more a shame Grindhouse didn't really pay off on its pulp-y promise.

Which Version Is Better? The longer edit is more of a movie, but despite being mostly added dialogue, it's not the calibre you'd usually expect from Quentin The Wordsmith. Being honest, neither version of Death Proof is that remarkable.