Review of Jackie Brown (1997) by Diego T — 11 Jul 2013

Although it might be Tarantino at his calmest, Jackie Brown is decidedly not his best work. It does, however, showcase what he was like before he went absolutely cartoony with films like Kill Bill and Django Unchained. That said, I highly doubt anyone would name this as their favorite Tarantino film. In fact, besides some swearing, it shouldn't even be rated R.

Jackie Brown follows the titular character, a stewardess on an airline, as she navigates her way through the deadly series of money drops, police interventions, drug charges, bail bonds, and random shootings that plague the characters of the third Tarantino movie. She gives it her all, but sometimes comes off as a bit of a lead-up to The Bride in Kill Bill. Tarantino seems to love his rough and ready female leads, but this seemed like too much of a test run for me, knowing what comes next in his filmography.

The film is incredibly slow, which is to be expected from Tarantino, but it's also not as involving as his other films at the time. It's pretty clear that this was his attempt at following up Pulp Fiction, and it shows. But at the end of the day, it's impossible to follow up Pulp Fiction. He should have taken his career in another direction, as he is nowadays so fond of doing.

The good news is that this is one of the best ensemble casts Tarantino has ever worked with. A movie that features Samuel L. Jackson (duh) alongside Robert De Niro really is something to sit up and pay attention to. Unsurprisingly, the scenes between the two of them are the best. Their verbal sparring is almost on-par with Tarantino's best dialogue, which is featured in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Robert De Niro casts an almost Dudelike feel to his part, and it's pretty damn funny. The parking lot scene is easily one of Tarantino's best concoctions onscreen (along with the snake-dance scene in From Dusk Till Dawn).

I might have had unreasonably high expectations for this film, but really, it was far too tame and incredibly overlong. Usually long movies have a reason for their length, but this absolutely did not. There were five or so shots that lasted a full minute that were just of Pam Grier walking and looking exasperated. Not Tarantino-level entertainment.

Final Score for Jackie Brown: 6/10 stars. Good, but not great. In Tarantino's filmography, I would rank it near the bottom, after Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, and Django Unchained. It may be better than Inglorious Basterds, but that's not saying much.