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Jackie Brown (1997)
Rating: 6
Quentin Tarantino
Main Players: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Robert DeNiro, Bridget Fonda.
Story: A gun dealer, his courier - a stewardess, his former partner, his girlfriend, a cop and a custom's official; ... and $500,000 for the one who out-foxes the rest.
Comment: With the success of Pulp Fiction, Tarantino had much to prove with his "second" movie. Like the first, we are still waiting for a score. But he delivers yet another batch of songs; good, but not as good as his first. In all respects, this movie seems to be a pale shadow of the energy and spontaneity of Pulp Fiction. It seems to be somewhat of a rehashed Pulp but with less attention to the story - no wonder, he didn't write it.
But nevertheless, viewers who want to get the feeling of Pulp will not be disappointed with this movie. Tarantino seems to use Jackie as a testing ground, maybe, to try out new ideas and remind us of his "signatures". There is that boot/trunk scene once again ... and the apartment block filmed earlier on in the movie reminds me of the block in Pulp. Can anyone confirm this?
He now sets the movie's climax with an exchange of bags at a mall. He first tells you the what happens ... then he takes his camera, moves it a bit and ... to tell you would spoil the fun.
A welcome change is that his pacing here is much more uniformed than it was in Pulp. There we had some very boring and long scenes which just didn't go with the rest of the movie. Those scenes are here also, but trimmed down and spiced-up.
Why have I given a rating of 6? Simple; Jackie Brown feels too much like Pulp Fiction. It doesn't have any identity of its own. And the fact that the ending was too long really bored me. The songs were good, but it didn't fit neatly - the songs in Pulp fit it like a glove. And to have Samuel L. Jackson again sorts of spoils the illusion of a movie. He was good as "Jules" in Pulp, too good in fact that I had to often remind myself that in THIS movie, he's "Ordell Robbie".
A nice change in Jackie must be the inclusion of a really nice guy. It's really unlike Tarantino to give us a character so decent. But then, he didn't write the story. If he did, then maybe we'd have some more colour to the story; maybe a few more twists ... maybe ... oh well.
Review: Go ahead, watch it if you liked Pulp Fiction. But if this is your first Tarantino movie, then remember, there's a much better one called Pulp Fiction.