On J List of Movie Reviews

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Jackie Brown (1997)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 3/04, 7/25

7/25: Of the three core films by Quentin Tarantino during the 90's, Jackie Brown is the weakest.

I remember being disappointed by it in 1997 after experiencing Pulp Fiction. Jackie Brown is so Kubrick-esque in technique: long, slow, and thorough. As a result, it clocks at two hours and thirty-four minutes. Who can believe law enforcement is this stupid? And it doesn't even bother to tap the phones of people involved in the scheme? How about looking over the surveillance video in the store or the mall to see if Jackie Brown's story matches up?

Robert Forster was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor? No way. All I saw was Samuel L. Jackson. He dominated the show from start to finish and should've been recognized instead. An icon of the Blaxploitation genre during the 70's, Pam Grier makes a nice comeback to show everybody that she still got it. The rest of the supporting cast is decent but nothing special.

Quentin Tarantino's writing is the film's biggest strength, but the plot is so basic that it's hard to believe. There's one song being played a couple of times, especially at the end, that makes it hard for me not to think of Across 110th Street. Michael Keaton looks out of place as Ray Nicolette and will appear again in Out of Sight because Elmore Leonard was the author of both books.

All in all, Jackie Brown is a very, very dialogue-heavy picture, hence the slow pace.

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