Jackie Brown
I saw Jackie Brown on the TV last night. It’s good - one of those films, like Fargo, you shouldn’t start watching at 11 o’clock, because you know you’re still going to be there when the credits roll at 1 in the morning.For all the film influences that Tarantino cites, his biggest debt is a literary one, to Elmore Leonard. All of Tarantino’s supposedly trademark dialogue could have been written by Elmore Leonard. But Tarantino does move beyond Elmore Leonard because in Elmore Leonard books, you know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is, and you know the good guy is going to win in the end because he is just so. damn. cool.
It’s surprising that until Get Shorty came out, adaptations of Elmore Leonard had been uniformly shit. Even the Charles Bronson-starring Mr Majestyk (which Tarantino feels he must allude to in practically every film he makes) is shit. Hilarious, but nevertheless dire. I especially love the bit where the hoods shoot up Charlie B’s melons and he vows to take revenge on them. Touching a man’s melons is a step over the line.
The only problem with Jackie Brown is that Michael Keaton appears to be acting in a different movie to everyone else. As Max Cherry says, he’s a young man having fun being a cop. Well, Michael Keaton seems to think he’s got the leading role in a Unabomber biopic. This is the same character who diggles Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, for God’s sake, what is the world coming too?
Apart from that, everyone is super. Pam Grier is Pam Grier, and Robert Forster is practically in the Bogart league of coolness, which is like being as holy as the Pope. This film is Tarantino at the top of his game, before he went off to start making bullshit dilletante vanity projects.
The book that it’s based on (Rum Punch) is pretty good too.
As for the rest of the Tarantino Directorial Oeuvre:
Reservoir Dogs: Good
Pulp Fiction: Good
Jackie Brown: Good
Kill Bill 1: Good
Kill Bill 2: Shit
Oh yeah, I forgot about his contribution to Four Rooms, ("Tales of the Unexpected"). That’s shit.
posted by Chairman Peyote @ 1:01 PM
3 Comments:
KILL BILL 2 Is GOOD. I watched it last night on DVD.
Do you review any other foriegn language films? Have you seen Filthy Farmyard? Thats GOOD.
Hi Anon -
I should get around to saying why Kill Bill 2 is shit quite soon, it has not been a popular adjudication.
Actually I am Slovenian so all of these are foreign language movies for me. We in Slovenia do not have much domestic output, apart from Prbj na Hulocj, Julia (The Turnips are Rotten, Julia).
I will look out for that film, but I am not sure my mum will like it.
Here's a NewsBlat for you, Anon:
Compared to Kill Bill I, Kill Bill II is shit.
I really don't get Jackie Brown, though.
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