Review of Jackie Brown (1997) by Luke N — 04 Mar 2014

Seeing as I don't consider myself a fan of Tarantino's work, I really expected to hate this when I watched it last night. But fortunately, I can now say that I do like Tarantino - at least in some respects.

I understand that this is considered to be his most mature and mellow film to date, and I guess I can love the more subtle side to this director. This movie certainly did have its fair share of gritty violence, but in no way did it feel like it was placed there just to make the guys (and girls as well, I guess) happy.

This was a very well made film in that it kept to being simple - it literally felt like I was watching a caper from the late 1960's. The dialogue and characters are marvellous, but that's no surprise considering that Tarantino has always excelled at that.

Jackson and De Niro were very enjoyable - especially the latter, who provides some comic-relief when the pacing gets more intense. But the chemistry between Pam Grier (who was absolutely perfect and essential in making this movie work) and Robert Forster was the best part about this film.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that is capable of having protagonists that aren't gleeful murderers and actually have moral principles. But that aside, everything else just came together in this movie.

I guess I'll have to watch his other films again and see if my opinion of those has changed.