JACKIE BROWN (July 23 - July 29)

[Mike Sampson]

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This week's movie is: JACKIE BROWN

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6305006598.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif

"The new film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the creator of PULP FICTION, is this crime caper based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. Pam Grier stars in the title role of Jackie Brown, an attractive stewardess who supplements her income by smuggling cash into the country for an illegal arms dealer - until the day federal agents bust her. The only way she'll stay out of jail is to set up a sting to bring in a half-million dollars and bring down the gun runner. In this web of dangerous characters, she should be wondering: how will she stay alive? But all she's thinking about is: how can she make off with the money?

JACKIE BROWN heralds the return of 70's film star Grier, and also features Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton and Robert De Niro. The film is produced by Lawrence Bender (PULP FICTION)."

Support JoBlo.com and click here (/netflix.htm) to rent JACKIE BROWN.

[This message has been edited by Joey Baloney (edited 07-19-2001).]

[Ebert]

This was a excellent Film! It's got all the 70's soul feeling to it!

Jackson was hilarious!

excellent film

(9/10)

[screamfan]

I love this movie!!! it is my 4th favourite movie! i loved everything about it

[bskutle]

A minor, underrated masterpiece by Tarantino. QT writes some of the greatest dialogue ever, and he's dynamite with actors. Grier, Forster, DeNiro, Jackson, Fonda- all excellent.

Grade- A+ or 9.5/10

[bmain77]

I tell you what, Pam Grier was so freakin hot in this movie that it's not even funny. She's aging almost as well as Sophia Loren. That aside, the rest of the movie also rocked. Bridgit Fonda looked great in her little bikini. The scenes between her and Robert Deniro were hysterical. Even when he finally shoots her I laughed by ass off. Samuel was, well, Samuel. "AK-47 when you absolutely positively have to kill every last mother fucker in the room, accept no substitue" That was one of his best lines ever.

In the whole Tarantino universe I'd rank this behind Pulp Fiction and Resevior Dogs, but just ahead of True Romance. (8/10)

[Mike Sampson]

Besides seeing Bridget Fonda's ass in a bikini this film just didn't do it for me. I went to see this on opening night and I was so let down. I almost fell asleep during it and I never sleep during movies. Don't get me wrong, I love all things Tarantino (was there on opening night for PULP FICTION) but I just couldn't get into this film. I certainly don't think this ranks above TRUE ROMANCE but that's just me.

[neo]

Jackie Brown" was the first Tarantino film I ever saw. I saw it on an edited for television thing, so a lot of it was cut out. I also remembered I didn't enjoy it. I thought it was boring and dull to watch. But then I watched "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction". They are in my top five favorite films of all time. So I decided to give "Jackie Brown" another try. It must have been because it was edited or something. I loved it the second time.

Tarantino has always had a great deal of respect for actors. This is obvious because of all of his films. The casting of John Travolta was a stroke of genious. Hollywood had long given up on him, but Quentin new no one could be Vincent Vega quite like he could. And he was right. And now in this, the casting of Pam Grier, one of the pioneering blaxploitation stars of the early 70's, now to star as an aging gangster. That was casting genious.

There is a moment in "Jackie Brown" that I find incredible. It is not a talking scene, or violent scene. It is the scene where Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) is sitting in a car with Robert De Niro. Ordell is so mad about an issue (I'll never tell) a vain just bulges out of his head. It is so creepy and Samuel L. Jackson proves why he is one of the greatest actors out there right now. The intensity in his eyes is so real and powerful.

I am also a huge fan of the scene that is shown three times. To anyone who hasn't seen the film, that might not sound right. But believe me it works so well, it is scary. Amazing directing by Tarantino.8/10

[Bart Simpson]

Ok, personally I am not a big fan of this movie, the sound is crap and what's with the microphones. You can see the microphone's hanging down. I don't know if this was on purpose or what, but it's not one of his best movies. I think that the cast is great, when they do things without each other, but the movie just sucks. I have to agree with JoeyB,on this one, I had to stop this movie, it was so bad.
I watched Dogma again

[pennywise46]

I love this movie. It makes me so happy when I watch it, I'm not sure why. The dialogue is great. The acting is so good too, especially DeNiro, Forester, and Jackson. Its so cool to see Deniro and Fonda take bong hits and Jackson talk about guns. It is one of the most entertaining movies I can think of. Jackie Brown is very underrated and it seems like people either like it alot or don't like it at all. I won't ever forget the weekend I rented Jackie Brown, Planet of the Apes, and Natural Born Killers all for the first time. I was really starting to love movies.9/10.

[This message has been edited by pennywise46 (edited 07-23-2001).]

[JJGittes]

I was dissappointed in this one. To me it was though the parts were just better than the whole. The DeNiro-Jackson-Fonda trio was a highlight but the whole Grier-Forster story just didn't cut it for me. And Micheal Keaton's scenes could have been left out and nothing would have been lost. True Romance and Pulp Fiction set awfully high standards when it came to creating "quirky" characters and putting them together to create dark humor. Whereas I watch Tarantino's movies with a "can this get any weirder?" type of enjoyment, at this one I was saying "couldn't this be any shorter?"

[dh1989]

Joey Baloney you have made another great choice! "Jackie Brown" is the best film ever made by Tarantino. The acting was just in one simple word:amazing. Robert DeNiro is great and so in Jackson. Grier and Fonda were good. My only problem was Forster(that dude can't act). Keaton rocked. This film was a great 70's film with knock-out performances.

[The Heart Collector]

This movie, although quite good, didn't do it for me.


The plot, which took 2 1/2 hours to resolve, was way too short for this amount of time. The movie wasn't hip. Now, being hip isn't necesary, but come on! This is Tarantino we're talking about. The characters were mostly uninteresting and many things seemed scripted. In fact, the only character I liked was DeNiro's Louis. No one liners here either.

Granted, the movie started getting better by the end, but the payoff was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I mean, it was plain stupid.

Overall, an average movie, the only thing that truly made me give it a 7/10 was DeNiro's character and actions.

[MrBrown]

Hi...
Quentin Tarantino is my idol and I've seen ALL of his films...
Jackie Brown is a fuckin' great film I give it a 10/10, love the screenplay/script, acting and no-one's mentioned the music, it moves with the film like a guy and a girl having seX.
But what I don't understand is how can you possibally be a fan of Quentin's and actually like NATURAL BORN KILLERS? Quentin sold his perfectly great screenplay of NATURAL BORN KILLERS to Oliver Stone who re-wrote the script with othe rpeople and directed the film in a horrible manner, that pissed me off and ruined Quentin's beautiful script and apparantly it pissed Quentin off as well.
Pulp Fiction is my all time favourite film and RESERVOIR DOGS is definitely in my top 5. Jackie Brown is somewhere in my top 10.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN is fuckin' great and TRUE ROMANCE is classic.
In conclusion...Jackie Brown rocks!
-Mr. Brown

[Oedipa M]

I went into this one with high hopes. There were a lot of good elements, and I agree with everyone that paraised the cast to the skies. Not a weak link in the bunch! Tarantino dropped the ball in the editing room. This book (Rum Punch, by Ellmore Leonard,) is a tight little fast-paced crime novel, almost a novella, it's so concise. Jackie Brown had about 15-20 minutes' worth of scenes of people walking places that SERIOUSLY needed to be trimmed. No dialogue, no suspense, just walking. Dragged down the whole pace of the film. I LOVE meaningful silences and non-verbal scenes in films, but the key word is "meaningful." Also, having proven himself an innovator in altering the form of a movie (a la Pulp Fiction,) I think he missed the opportunity to utilize the multiple points of view on several other scenes in the movie. If he'd done what he did at the end throughout, the movie could have even been longer, but wouldn't have seemed so empty.

[Mike Sampson]

Yeah, it is a great cast but that can't help the fact that the film drags like an old lady's boobs. I'd like to love this film and I've watched it again hoping a second viewing would reveal something I liked but it didn't. It just made me realize what a great ass Bridget Fonda has.

[Zed]

Ok, there's my opinion even when Quentin (wait a second, I haven't seen any Quentin post here?) kills me.

It is a bad movie. The script and direction of Tarantino simply don't reach his usual level. The movie, of course got a great cast, but the plot is not good enough.

The main defect of the movie is that the characters (the complete opossite of Pulp Fiction) are not deep enough like to explore them in a two and plus hours movie.

But I had to agree in something. The best part of the movie was Briggitte's ass.

[SIREN30]

I wike it! /ubb/biggrin.gif I think it was great and loved loved loved Robert Forster's performance. I am completely of the opinion that he shouldve won the oscar for it. I also liked the suspense in this one especially since the violence was a little less gratuitous than other Tarantino films. I also look a little like Bridget Fonda so of course I love any movie with her in it! /ubb/cool.gif

[stiles]

The first film I ever walked out on.

I'm a huge elmore leonard fan, and this film was just a vehicle for Tarantino to try and bring back Pam Grier. It's a terrible film, and it's no wonder the guy hasn't done any work since.

to be sure, I dug Dogs a lot, and Pulp Fiction is ok.

[Narrator]

This movie disappointed me, I saw this movie after seeing, pulp fiction, reservoir dogs and the tarantino scripted true romance and it sucked! I was unbelievably disappointed by it!

[Zed]

Yeah, well siren, if you do look like Fonda in this movie, you are certanly waisting your time posting here. You should be casting in Hollywood right now.

I think the point is that if you already have seen other Tarantino's movies, you came to the theaters or rent the video expecting a similar quality. That's why you get dissapointed.

[The Heart Collector]

I had only seen Pulp Fiction.

I actually think the characters in this film WERE deep, but to tell you the truth, the way as it is... I'm not OLD, and I don't sympathize or find anything in common with these OLD people.

[screamfan]

i can't believe the amount of people here that don't like it and also surely i'm not the only one that felt that this movie was not slow at all

BTW the three-way scene is awesome

[SIREN30]

I only look like her in the face Zed...I have a much better body...just joking. I do think I resemble her but I just really like her as an actress. I also admire her class ( I said CLASS ) when she's being interviewed, at the oscars, etc. She carries the family name well.

[Thewiz]

I don't see how many of you don't like this film. Sure this movie is more dialogue driven, sure its slower than the usual wham-bam Tarantino film, but I felt this movie was more rewarding than Pulp Fiction and Reservior Dogs, which relied on extreme violence to carry the film on. The actors were great, with Keaton and Forster surprising me the most. I loved the soundtrack to this movie as well, it really sparked in this movie. Grier, Jackson, and DeNiro were also great in this film. I say people who didn't like it, see it with an open mind and try not to compare it in violence standards. It's a rewarding, character driven film. 9/10

[Cyclonus]

It's a good film overall, but I can see why some people didn't like it. It just can't hold a candle to "Pulp Fiction." There were some good scenes (such as the part in the mall) but it was overlong and somewhat slow in parts.

[BuddhaMonk]

Not a very good movie. Pretty damn boring actually. I kept waiting for something of interest to happen and it never did. The whole Forster/Grier thing was painful to watch, they were horrible on screen together. I did enjoy Bridget but that was about it. Somebody mentioned that it wasn't hip, this is totally true. It wasn't. For most movies this wouldn't matter. But Tarantino is all about being hip and clever, and he failed at both in this movie. 3/10

[spark-o-matic]

This is one of those movies that really threw me for a loop. The first time I saw it I was really disappointed. I am a huge QT fan, and was expecting more of the same(PF, ResDogs, etc). This seemed more like an above average mainstream movie to me. Watching it a second(and third and fourth) time, I changed my mind. This is QT in all of his brilliance, just manifesting it a different way. The acting is unbelievable, especially from Pam Grier and Robert Forrester. You expect great acting from Jackson and DeNiro, but who knew these two were so good! Bridgit Fonda is perfect as the bimbo who wants it all and doesn't want to lift a finger to get it. DeNiro is fucking amazing as a dumb ex-con and Jackson as scary as Madsen in RD. A 9/10.

[Mr. D]

I think Jakie's a solid movie, but it does indeed drag, and could've been trimmed. I gave it 7/10.

My main beef with it is that there's no element of surprise or suspense in that movie. Everything, I mean, everything goes according to Jackie's plan. That's just kinda boring...

It leaves you hoping something goes wrong, but nothing does. Oh, De Niro and Fonda die - but does that force Ordell to change his plan and show us he's as smart a person as Jackie, and rival each other with their wits?

No.

I like the movie, I'm a Tarantino, but this really missed out on the surprise factor, which lead to people getting bored with the movie. Great performances, but the pacing and plotting could've been tighter, and more effective.

[Cyclonus]

Well, maybe I'll look at it again and see if I enjoy it more...some other time.

[Raena]

Okay, I'm really great at giving bad analogies so here goes:

After THE SIXTH SENSE, many folks went into UNBREAKABLE expecting the same type of chit, and to their misfortune were let down. But actually (and debatably so) both THE SIXTH SENSE & UNBREAKABLE are very good flicks--and in my opiniion UNBREAKABLE is the better of the two, it's just different and had to live up to all of those expectations.


I say the same goes for PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN. JACKIE BROWN is a different type of flick, not in terms of genre, but storytelling, and folks were expecting another PULP FICTION and didn't get it. What they did get however was a smart flick and I will forever love what Tarantino did at the mall in JACKIE BROWN with the different perspectives/angles.

[KornKidJedi]

Screamfan,what is your 1st,2nd,and 3rd favorite movies??

[JoBlo]

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