nan | 楠木

Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino’s third full-length feature film, and while it carries some of the trademark elements of his two earlier films (Reservoir Dogs and everyone’s favorite 90s’ cult film, Pulp Fiction), it is also more reserved in style. The result is a distinctively Tarantino crime film that is perhaps more mainstream, though the plot is not as exciting as it pretends to be.

The cast is spectacular – 70s Blaxploitation (look it up on Wikipedia, I did) star Pam Grier stars as Jackie Brown of the title (and the whole film is homage to her 70s career); Samuel L. Jackson is back as a badass (though decidedly more wacko and less philosophical than his previous Tarantino character, Jules of Pulp Fiction), Robert Forster and Robert De Niro offer two steady supporting roles, and there’s also Bridget Fonda as an interesting side-character.

The plot is a convoluted crime story, involving an arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson) and th dirty money he’s trying to move via a flight attendant (Pam Grier). I would amateurishly say there’s some film noir element to it, as every character seems to have his/her own ideas of the money, and certainly some events don’t go along as planned. The film has a good opening, a solid second act in which the suspense is built up (everyone is scheming, but who’ll have the last laugh?), but the third act doesn’t live up to the promise (the resolution, while logical, is not as exciting or surprising as we hope).

Still, this is a solid crime film, with your usual dose of Tarantino-style trash talk and a great soundtrack. And it’s more reserved in content than the cult director’s other works, which might appeal to a broader audience demographically.

7/10