Jackie Brown

Quentin Tarantino, a genius who brought us Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs returned with Jackie Brown, a tale of deception in the world of drugs-smuggling business. Heavily inspired by the 1970s blaxploitation flicks, it tells the story of a stewardess, Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) who was pinned inside the cash-smuggling business as shes tormented between two choices, becoming a cash-mule and in the end snitching her own boss or being smart by keeping the money for herself. Its quite rare to see a film where the leading role is a female. Even though the plot relies quite much on Elmore Leonards novel Rum Punch, Tarantino really did great in giving his own personal touch to the existing materials by adding up a fine composition of clever dialog...

Booyah!

Coming as it did after critical darlings "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", it's perhaps not surprising that Quentin Tarantino's next film failed to - at the time - scale those giddy heights. Yet on reflection these days, when viewing Tarantino's career over twenty years later, it's one of his tightest works.

Working from master pulper Elmore Leonard's novel "Rum Punch", Tarantino had a concrete base from which to build on, which he does with aplomb. Cleaving close to the spirit of Leonard, "Jackie Brown" is rich with glorious chatter, each conversation either pings with a biting hard ass edge, or alternatively deconstructing the vagaries of the human condition.

Oh for sure this is a talky pic, but nothing is ever twee or...

Outstanding, no two ways about it.

'Jackie Brown' makes for a great watch, I personally found the pacing excellent; which is obviously important for a 2hr 30min+ production. The cast knock it out the park, while the story is riveting. It's worthy of the hype, one of Quentin Tarantino's best no doubt.

Pam Grier is fantastic as the titular character, Samuel L. Jackson is quality as well - the scenes that those two share are top notch. Robert Forster plays a much larger part than I was expecting at the beginning, which is only a massive plus as he gives a great performance. You also have the likes of Michael Keaton, Chris Tucker and Robert De Niro involved - I actually would've like to have seen De Niro used more meaningfully.

Not muc...

Samuel L. Jackson really steals the show here as the petty criminal "Ordell". He sells guns - gradually accumulating a small fortune which he smuggles in from Mexico using the services of the eponymous air stewardess (Pam Grier). When his well oiled machine starts to splutter, he avails himself of bail bondsman "Cherry" (Robert Forster) and so starts a complex story that sees people drop like flies; policeman "Ray" (Michael Keaton) get involved and we build to a sting operation not seen since Paul Newman in 1973. A great soundtrack that doesn't overwhelm some good performances, a pithy and dryly humorous script with the foul-mouthed tirades from the rather ruthless "Ordell" working well to develop his character and a really solid effort fro...