Jackie Brown [DVD]

A lot has been said about Quentin over the years - and a lot of it - although might be true, a lot of it is nonsense. It's a love/hate relationship people usually have with his work, and before Jackie Brown, I hated his work. Reservoir Dogs was just too gorey for me to enjoy; so when Jackie Brown came out, it didn't interest me at all.Ten years on and I've finally made a move to watch it - what was I thinking 10 years ago! The flair, cinematography, the atmosphere Quentin builds here is amazing, actually I would go as far as to say this movie really does eclipse everything else he's ever done.Jackie's a stewardess for a small carrier, and she happens to be friends with Ordell Robbie - a small time gun dealer in Compton, who, if you get on his wrong side - you end up dying. He's got a lot of cash down in Mexico, as he wants to hide it there while he makes his first million, so he sends Jackie Brown to a guy in Mexico who's keeping it for him. Things go pear shaped when she brings some back, and the worst part is, she's got cocaine on her too, a present for Ordell from the Mexican!So what can Jackie do? She knows that if you mess with Ordell you die, (like Beaumont Livingston did) plus she really cannot afford to loose this job, as it's not her first time in trouble with an airline.As I said, this is an excellent movie, both Jackson and Grier work really well together, and the cameo from Chris Tucker is excellent, much better than his Rush Hour work. Quentin's even managed to get Robert De Niro on this, and the excellent Robert Forster. The music is ace too, old Motown hits blaring out of classic cars - you can tell QT wanted to stay in the 70s.The plot is really good too, it doesn't falter. Some people have complained about the length of Jackie Brown, but I think every minute is justified and we really get to know the folk on this film. I actually think Quentin should adapt more books of this genre, he's really shining here.This DVD, which I haven't got yet, seems to be packed with goodies so I think I will definitely get it - there's an interview with Quentin I especially look forward to watching.If you haven't got this, then I suggest getting it, I am so hoping that QT orders this a Blu-Ray conversion as the picture is so dynamic it really needs a decent medium to be on.Edit for the Blu-Ray shoppers: This is fantastic in Blu-ray, it is a shame Amazon won't let us review this separately, but at least I can comment on it. The video is VC-1 running at a smooth 35MB/s and the audio is a lossless track, which is very much acceptable and welcomed. There are too many extras to mention, including a new trivia track which runs discreetly during the film. This is quite good as you can enjoy the movie and see things you never knew about. I also enjoyed the QT interview too.Worth getting on BD if you have the technology.

I love the director's first triology, altough he made an obscure film before Reservoir Dogs, which really don't count. On this monumental cinematic experience he really combined his dialog driven excellence with (for the first time) with really good storytelling plot. The first two movies were, off course driven by the dialog driven exellence, and Pulp Fiction has the incdredible multitude of intervowen stories, which in my cinematic experience is unparallelled.With Jackie Brown he made, in my opinion, for the first time a really gigantic leap in classic movie directing. No longer was the film driven by his, to the point of hillarity, love of shocking love for visual violence. This is a work of high class mobie art, altough his wicked sense of humour clearly is a large part of this film as well, but it surpass the the first two films by bringing in his video/tv hero/heroine of his video past: Plot main character Pam Grier, surprise choice and a mighty delivered appereance by Robert Foster, with the usual suspect (Samuel Jackson) and celluoid giant De Niro who delivers his most comedic appearance since King Of Comedy. These factors combined with the jaw dropping directorial stamp, the cinematic beauty, the exceptional good storyline (the script was written on the basis of the Leonard novel, Rum Punch, if I am not mistaken) and the clear departure from the first two pictures, cements my subjective stand that this is his best movie.Unfortunately i feel his vision and filmaking has gone down the tube since this milestone. I know he did a fantastisc job in exegurated graphic violence, to the brink of hilarity, and his martial artist fetischism in Kill Bill 1, but this was not my cup of tea. The follow up movie was a yawn and the rest of his cineomatic carreer has, sadly, taken a nosedive. Though the idea behind Django Unchained was probably a leap towards former glories, and believe me I would have loved if he made another epic. He was without a doubt the most talented director and dialog writer of my generation (there weren't many of them). Although he stole as a raven, true geniuses steal without getting caught, dillettantes do. He took his "trash"/ B-movies knowledge and produced it into new cinematic/orgasmic dimensions.The first triology will stand their test of time and will be hailed as masterpieces long after I turn my toes up.Jackie Brown stands out as his directorial zenith in this triology, and in my book is that era's by far best cinematographic excellence (the irony is on it's cinema debut in my country, many walked out on this movie, just looking for the violence of the predecessors, which in their ignorance, clearly missed the other strenghts of 😱😄). I hope it'll be realeased in the tin book treatment Pulp Fiction was given a year or two a go, and I'll buy it again on Blu Ray (that'll be the fifth time I buy it, from the VHS days, to two DVD editions and now on Blu Ray). Collectomania and my love of directors contrary to actors, has decreased my bank account to the brink of poverty on many occasions.Run out, log on the the net, stand on your head if you like, but do yourself a big favour and buy this masterpiece, preferably in its highest quality format to date, Blu Ray! "The Resovoir" Blu Ray edition is the clearest picture I ever seen on this format (you can see very clearly the textures in Mr. White's suit! 😍). I hope this can be in any help to any fence sitters. It lit my world and gave me hope in "new cinema", back in the day.

Jackie Brown is a mature adult film that is the total opposite of films like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. There's no childish shock violence or idiotic dialogue like "don't you hate long silences" or "royale with cheese" Jackie Brown is character-driven film that shows that Taratino does have talent for a writing a good screenplay spending time on character development as opposed to his usual extreme violence and trying to be cool attitude. What makes the film enjoyable is the array of characters on display: Pam Grier as stewardess in crummy job with a plan to steal a lot of cash, Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robbie a funny yet vicious small-time gun runner, Robert Forster as Max Cherry a bondsman involved in the scheme, Robert De Niro as Louis Gara a burnt-out criminal and others. The concentration on the film is people trying to escape or come to terms with being past their prime and that makes for intelligent theme; the characters Jackie Brown and Max Cherry have real emotion and sympathy to them unlike the cheap caricatures and undeveloped ones found in Reservoir Dogs. Even though it has been claimed that Jackie Brown is a homage to the "blaxplotation" genre championed by films like Shaft, Black Ceaser, Superfly and Coffy this isn't really at all like one with the exception of having black main character who played in a lot of those movies' Jackie Brown is not at all a homage to blaxplotation-if it was it would have lurid nudity and lots of excessive violence which is trademark for a lot of those types of films which Jackie Brown lacks. Slow yet gripping, funny, great acting and some good music makes this Tarantino's best film and shows the sort of film he's really capable of doing.