Double Dare (2004)

Wonderful character development!

Why so much hype?

Best movie ever!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A documentary from 2004 charting the rise of stuntwoman Zoe Bell (Death Proof) and one of the first stuntwomen Jeannie Epper as she takes Zoe under her wing.Zoe is a naturally enthusiastic person and Jeannie has years of working on the big Hollywood projects like Romancing The Stone, Wonder Woman and she was even given a role in Kill Bill Vol.2 as the preacher's wife. After Xena: Warrior Princess finishes, Zoe is out of work and travels to LA where Jeannie helps her eventually land Uma Thurman's stunt double role on Kill Bill. Interviews with Steven Spielberg and Tarantino himself blend wonderfully with the rest of the movie but it would have been nice to see more of the girls in their movies (prohibited by copyright in a lot of cases).Great fun and one of those films you wish would just keep going all night. The DVD has some decent features for such a low budget affair, with over an hour of interview footage with Spielberg and others that is just as fascinating as anything in the main movie. There's also deleted footage such as Zoe working on Kill Bill scenes and a jovial commentary by Bell and Epper where they drink champagne and end up slurring their words.Well worth a look if you like stunts, movies, Zoe or all three.

This movie completely blew me away--and I'm not easily impressed. It is so much fun and so joyful and inspiring, especially to women. I'd highly recommend it to anyone. I saw it at the Independent Fim Festival of Boston in 2004 and it was such a thrill to see it with a sold-out crowd and have the crowd be so deeply into it the whole way through. It's impossible not to fall in love with Zoe Bell, the younger of the two stunt women featured--but on seeing it for a second time I was even more impressed with Jeannie Epper, the 64-year- old grandma who is still doing stunts and whose kids and grandkids are carrying on the tradition. Also for Tarantino and Xena fans the scenes involving the Xena shoots and the Kill Bill auditions are delightful. And I was moved by the joy and passion these two women--and Amanda, the director--bring to their work. Rock on!

Double Dare is an excellent funky cool inspiring documentary! It features two rocking stunt women. One was a pioneer who worked on wonder woman and is now in her sixties and the other is most well know for her several years working on Xena. I just saw Zoe Bell at the 2005 Xena con. She did brilliant work on Xena & was also Uma Thurman's double for Kill Bill! It is also very heart warming to see the support that Lucy Lawless & Quentin have given her! At the Xena Con Lucy found a few fliers for the film leftover on the stage and she threw them out to the audience encouraging everyone to see it. The DVD has just been released & has some highly recommended extras!

In case you didn't already know, Double Dare is a documentary about two Hollywood stuntwomen--the Xena and Wonderwoman who really encounter danger (within five minutes of the film, one of them is lit on fire... on purpose.) I don't know what it was about this doc, but it really hit home with me. I got the feeling that the filmmaker really wanted to let these stuntwomen tell their story, and you could feel the trust between the subjects and the crew. These women not only aren't afraid to jump of five story buildings, but are fearless in their fight against the sexism that is evidently still rampant in the film industry. Without Hollywood romanitcization or cheesy glorification (or a big budget it seems), Double Dare brilliantly tells the stories of these captivating stunt women.