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Jackie Brown - Miramax Collector's Edition

Jackie Brown - Miramax Collector's Edition

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $14.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: make that four and a half stars
Review: This is vintage Tarantino here. It is action packed and features plenty of delicious dialogue. It is funny as hell and will keep you on the edge of your seat. I am sure that many QT fans will complain that it isnt as good as Pulp Fiction. That is kind of a silly attitude. It is a great movie of its own accord. The acting in this movie is superb. Nobody executes Tarantino dialogue quite like Samuel L Jackson. Jackson is the most underrated actor in Hollywood. Why hasnt this man garnered an oscar or two by now? But let let me not digress. This is another brilliant performance. I dont care what Spike Lee has to say about it. Pam Grier still electrifies the screen. DeNiro and Michael Keaton and Bridget Fonda all turn in sensational performances. Tarantino does seem to have a skill at drawing out top notch performances from his cast. Quentin Tarantino has produced another winner. Each time I see a movie I am left waiting for the next one. This video (along with all his others will have to ease my appetite until his next project comes out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A bases-loaded double up the gap for QT
Review: QT delivers the goods once again.

Viewing this film over and over is like getting into a nice, hot bathtub. It simmers on the low boil, taking its time, building momentum and taking us on a very entertaining tour of LA lowlifestyle. Fonda, Keaton, Tucker and especially De Niro are wonderful acting dumb. Such a treat to see actors let loose to play to the camera with style, slyness and breathing room. I imagine that any actor who considers himself an artist would be tickled to work with QT.

Forget about Mr. Jackson and Mr. Forster and Ms. Grier; they make it look easy. This movie is for the ages. Looking forward to QT's next, and next, and next. Movies are in good hands with him.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not widescreen, less than fullscreen.
Review: I love this movie, but the widescreen version isn't widescreen, it is fullscreen with black bars that erase the top and bottom of the picture. See also my reviews of the Shawshank Redemption DVD as it is also flawed. Compare the two versions of Jackie Brown. It is easy enough to see in the scene where Bridgit Fonda services Robert DeNiro. Her buns disappear in the widescreen version but are fully visible in the fullscreen version. I took both these "widescreen" items back to the point of purchase, demonstrated the difference and was promptly granted a refund. We should check our 1.85-1 ratio videos to see what other movies are flawed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jackie Brown
Review: This is a superb example of Tarantino's talents. It deserved better reviews than it has had from some quarters and surely merits a DVD release. It was released on DVD in the U.K. last year, unfortunately double-sided, but still technically a great improvement on VHS.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Movies that make you go 'hmmmm'
Review: I read with great interest the 4 and 5 stars reviews. I liked Tarantino's first 2 movies but would have been terribly disappointed if he had made something close. So I give some kudos to him for trying something new. What is similar is his desire to tell a story through dialogue and circumstances. What I didn't feel were the accolades others have bestowed - interesting story, strong characters, etc. I feel like I should go back and watch this again just to make sure I'm not losing my mind. Quite honestly I was bored. None of the characters seemed interesting and I had no emotional attachment to any of them. The story seemed to plod. The 2 stars are really for the acting which is well done. But you can't act yourself out of bad writing and direction. Maybe I'll go back and rent this. Surely I'm missing something?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Dazzling Film Where All The Stars Shine
Review: It is wonderful to think that the lesser stars of the film Jackie Brown, Pam Grier and Robert Forster, emerge as the dazzling talent and that the major stars, Robert DeNiro, Samuel Jackson, Michael Keaton, and Bridget Fonda, are left to make the very best of their minor roles. Fortunately, all of the players, and they are all the best, have successfully combined their efforts to make Jackie Brown one of the greatest films of the Nineties.

The night that Jackie Brown, played by Pam Grier, is escorted released on bail from the Los Angeles County Jail by bondsman Max Cherry, played by Robert Forster, is the night she is down and almost out. As Max watches Jackie come into view he is spellbound by a woman who is proving that you may meet Prince Charming but you probably won't be dressed for the occasion. At this point in the film, even though all evidence points to the contrary, Jackie's luck has just taken a turn for the best instead of the usual worst. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Max Cherry is one of the few true gentlemen that Jackie Brown has ever encountered in her unenviable forty-four years on earth.

Max Cherry has just met Jackie's would-be nemesis, Ordell Robie played by Samuel Jackson, on two bail applications, one for his ill-fated gunrunner, and one for the doomed Jackie Brown. Jackie has been shuttling Ordell's money back and forth to Mexico while working for a small Mexican airline as a stewardess. It does not take Max Cherry long to figure out that Ordell is a formidable enemy and that Jackie is smart enough but may not be lucky enough to get out of his clutches alive.

Max is instantly attracted to the lovely and charming Jackie Brown while maintaining a wise detachment from the brilliant and audacious scheme she concocts to turn her misfortune into a small fortune while helping the police to put Ordell away in prison permanently. Max is the right blend of decency and analytical intelligence to appeal to Jackie's street-wise genius.

The plot of this film is intricate, intriguing from the first second, and best experienced as it unfolds on the screen. Despite the eternal foul-mouthed witty patois of Ordell, the script is beautifully written and provides the basis of the flawless characterizations by each actor. Robert DeNiro is brilliant as Ordell's newly-released mumbling jailbird buddy, a man who is patently not destined for any form of re-entry into mainstream life. In fact, one has to look twice to make sure that it is Robert DeNiro. Bridget Fonda shines in her small role as Melanie, one of Ordell's stable of unambitious kept women.

The pace of Jackie Brown follows the story in perfect cadence. This is not a cheap action movie with a load of noisy stunts and fireworks. Unlike Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown is not a beguiling throw-away flick that you see once with no great reason to see it again.

Jackie Brown is the tale of love and luck. Where luck triumphs over evil and love is born when the bad breaks are tired and finally at an end.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: He's 3 for 3, folks
Review: Quentin Tarantino has directed three films now - the low-budget, violent "Resevoir Dogs", the seminal, highly acclaimed and influential "Pulp Fiction", and "Jackie Brown". Prior to "Jackie Brown", it seemed that Tarantino was either lionized as the next Martin Scorsese or thought of as the current flavor-of-the-month. "Jackie Brown" dispels the later notion, I think, adding another notch to the director's belt of cool flicks.

Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier stars as Jackie, a 44-year-old flight attendant working for bottom-of-the-rung Cabo Air. A long-haired and goateed Samuel L. Jackson plays Ordell Robbie, an illegal gun dealer with a half-million sitting in lock boxes in Mexico. Ordell's afraid to try and pick up the money himself so Jackie (who needs extra cash) does delivery runs for him. But she's nabbed early on by an ATF agent, played by Michael Keaton. Worried she'll talk, Ordell gets bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) to post her bail. And it's Max who ends up driving her home from prison - a nice relationship soon forms.

I really liked the scene where Max shows up on her doorstep the next morning and the two have coffee. She plays a Delfonics record and a few scenes later you smile when Max actually buys a Delfonics tape (the other key music is the carefully considered "Across 100th Street", which opens and closes the film). Also in the cast is Robert De Niro, who plays an ex-prison buddy of Ordell's. And Bridgett Fonda is a perpetually stoned beach bunny - look quick and you might notice she's watching "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" on TV (Fonda's real-life father, Peter starred in that one from the 70's).

I won't give away any of the plot, because there's some fun surprises, even if the film runs a little on the long side. It'll be interesting to see if "Jackie Brown" can do for Pam Grier's career what "Pulp Fiction" did for Travolta's. This one's rated R, so be warned - it contains adult language (lots of four and twelve-letter words).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Insert Title Here
Review: Jackie Brown is Tarantino's most well-rounded movie;it flows much more smoothly than Pulp Fiction, and it doesn't seem over too soon like Reservoir Dogs. The cast is delightful and the plot is somewhat believable. I haven't finished the book yet, but every part (save for the beginning) parallels the movie, which is very lengthy, but seems over in just the right amount of time. I don't feel like writing much more, so that's about it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Tarantino film I've ever seen
Review: Just to dismiss this factor, Tarantino is not black and should not be writing stories about black experiences. But, considering the degree of ignorance within him that we all know exists, he comes through with an excellent final product in this case. The entire cast delivers OSCAR worthy performances and one has to respect Tarantino for never making his film's predictable. The man has genius flowing from every opening in his body. This film, however, does not belong in the DRAMA category. And, for those reviewers out there who hate Tarantino for his blatant admiration for black people, you didn't have to watch the movie. The people who actually enjoyed the film see something you obviously don't.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I don't know...
Review: If this weren't a Quentin Tarantino film, I probably would have given it four stars. However, given what he is capable of, I couldn't help but be disappointed with this one. Maybe it's because it's not an original screenplay. I found the whole thing rather long, drawn out and tedious. (BTW, Reservoir Dogs is my favorite film of all time, so this isn't an anti-QT posting.) I just didn't care for this one.


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