Jackie Brown (1997)

 One Cool Movie packed with great features
This DVD is great! Not only does it contain a great movie but the special features are some of the most in depth and informative I have ever seen. We all already know what a gifted writer/director QT is and I think that this is one of his best works (next to Pulp Fiction of course) and that it has quickly become a worthy cult classic. March 7, 2008

 Jackie Brown
I bought this for my son last year and he said that it is a really good movie!! February 29, 2008

 Smooth & thrilling
I'll start with the soundtrack. Some movies are very much influenced and remembered for the soundtrack. Such examples of that would certainly be `Jaws' & `Psycho'. Background music is important, or lack there of, as is the case in the 2007 hit `No Country For Old Men', and so we tend to pay attention to it. In the case of Jackie Brown, the influence of the 70's musical touch creates a setting that compels us to maintain our focus, more so than with your run-of-the-mill movie. The music hooks us from the opening credits and never stops.

The acting in Jackie Brown is fantastic. There isn't a character in this movie that you don't believe or buy into. Samuel Jackson stunned me with his powerful performance and Robert De Niro has mastered the bit of a dim-witted, always high, ex-con. Together they dominate the screen with their plans to become successful gun dealers during the 80's.

What Quentin Tarantino does better than any other director, is he assembles a cast of actors who are able to portray characters which force the audience to both love and hate them at the same time. It doesn't matter whether the character is supposed to be good or evil, at some point during the movie; you're going to think of that character as both or either. You'll find yourself getting disgusted with the character and then laughing at or with them, sometimes in the same scene.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of Tarantino's movies is that of the dialogue. Sure his movies are graphic and filled with more twists than a gun barrel, but what makes them click, and none better than Jackie Brown, is the dialogue. The characters give it to you hard and fast and you believe them. While Pulp Fiction & the Kill Bill movies gained the most recognition, Jackie Brown is his sleeper masterpiece that puts them all to shame when it comes to the script. If there was an academy award category for dialogue - Jackie Brown would be a runaway nominee.

Jackie Brown is one of those movies that you don't need to put together, or try to figure out what is going on. That is a step away from what we have come to associate Tarantino with, but it works perfectly with Jackie Brown. We're allowed to simply sit back, watch, listen and enjoy a bunch of shady characters as they try to swindle and kill each other off - all in the name of the almighty dollar.

Jackie Brown is a thrilling ride and certainly one that you will enjoy watching more than once. February 19, 2008

 This is a gem
I'm dumbfounded that there are negative reviews of this. I do not see how you could not like it. Maybe the negatives come from those who are looking for another "Pulp Fiction." I thought "Pulp Fiction" was one of the best things I had ever seen, but it will never be duplicated. In some ways, "Jackie Brown" is a better movie. PF was more about action and shocking weirdness, whereas in JB, you actually care about the two main characters, played by Pam Grier, who looks great, and Robert Forster, in the role of a lifetime. This movie has everything. January 13, 2008

 What are you saying?....Tarantino's world is a cool place
If you were to take this film, and compare it to Tarantino's earlier work, you'd never guess they came from the same director and yes baby he did a great job with "Jackie." This is one of those films which is strange but yet captivating. You'll definitely feel as though you are watching a "Blaxploitation" flick to the point that you'll be wondering what corner Richard Roundtree was hiding behind.

Tarantino slows down a little and shows his skill at plotting an entertaining tale that doesn't tax your patience. In here, you do get less blood and more characterizations than usual and is unlike either of his first 2 movies. In Jackie Brown, Tarantino takes us for a ride as we follow Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), a flight attendant helping an arms dealer named Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) get money where it needs to be. After a flight, she is pull aside by two cops, one being Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton), who find the cash she is smuggling in for Ordell. Now she faces jail time and Ordell must get rid of somebody who might snitch. What happens now is the bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) and Brown team up to mess with Ordell and his two pot smoking companions, Melanie (Bridget Fonda) and Louis Gara (Robert De Niro). Now it's a nice plot of how Ordell wants the half a million dollars he has coming to him with these arms deals and how Jackie Brown is the only connection between Ordell and the police and Cherry.

This movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Forster) and many good reviews. Forster isn't the only one giving a great performance. De Niro, Fonda, Jackson, Grier, Keaton, even Chris Tucker who is in the movie for probably less than five or ten minutes gives a notable performance. The whole ensemble is incredibly well casted and deserves to be recognized.

However, this movie is uniquely Quentin T. and exhibits his versatile film making style. When he directs he allows his imagination free rein to experiment and explore. Each of his directorial efforts has been unique, and "Jackie Brown" is another successful experiment. This movie does have great dialogue. Not surprising considering this WAS an Elmore Leonard book with Tarantino doing the scripting. Both men have quite a talent for what they do. It is also clear that Tarantino loves what he does, sometimes a little too much.

I have the soundtrack and just loved it. If you own it you will see how great the songs fit in and the dialogue. Loved the scene when they're all going to the mall at the end, and DeNiro's car is playing "Midnight Confession," and Forster's car is playing the Delfonics, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind" (a song that desperately needed re-discovery, thank you Quentin), and Jackie's car is playing "Street life!" and when Robert Forster first meets Jackie as he's bailing her out and "Natural High" comes on!!!!. Yes, QT is BRILLIANT when it comes to the use of music in his films and soundtracks. At the end of this, all the adventures and bizarre paths taken by these characters converge into a great film. What more can I say but to highly recommended this film along with the soundtrack.

December 6, 2007

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