← Back to Reviews
in
"16"
MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
288 .......................... 347
__________________________
December 14th
—— 1997 ——
Jackie
Brown
—— drama ——
REWATCH
I just talked about how ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was a riveting debut with a plot structure and style
later more or less perfected with Tarantino’s sophomore effort, ‘Pulp Fiction’...
Now, with ‘Jackie Brown’, Quentin Tarantino takes his third round inside the somber chamber of the crime genre, which also happens to be the first film – and to this date only film – not based on an original idea from the mind of the man himself. The script is Tarantino’s own and it shows, while the story isn’t and that unfortunately also shows…
‘Jackie Brown’ is a lengthy, lush crime-drama with the usual, uncut spoken leeway of the main characters, who talk about nothing of importance, while also telling us something important along the way as well – a little something known as the “Tarantino transcription tactic”, which he later perfected in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ – and perhaps to some minds – overdid. Anyways, the point is that all the Tarantino pinpoints can be pointed out here and it looks, sounds and feels pretty much like any Tarantino movie – just not a full-blooded one, in my opinion, and that has to do primarily with the story. This is undoubtedly a long feature, but that has never truly been a fault with this director’s films, since he usually entertains and stimulates our minds plenty, so that we don’t care much when the credits suddenly roll. But with ‘Jackie Brown’ the does not roll, it drags, and Tarantino struggles with making a novel into a movie without making a novel out of his movie along the way. What I mean is that Tarantino seems to deliver what appears to be his classic loose dialogue, which now seems to be missing the tight grip that made us all invested in everything from blabbering to basic information to begin with.
Usually a Tarantino picture doesn’t bore me at all, but ‘Jackie Brown’ is on the verge of doing so several times throughout. There is an interesting little mystery in here but it gets lost in pot smoke and strenuous scenes of blabbering, which really doesn’t feel rewarding for its overlong 2 hours and 34 minutes’ worth of running time. And even if the characters are still pretty strong in their own right, they do pale a little next to other Tarantino flicks, in my opinion. But they are still fun enough to follow, the soundtrack is still awesome and the dialogue still keeps me more invested than not. Yet, despite coming together more towards the end, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that I feel sort of hollow inside after watching ‘Jackie Brown’. It is really missing that edge and that energy that usually comes with a Tarantino movie, at least that’s how I see it…
__________________________
MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
288 .......................... 347
__________________________
December 14th
—— 1997 ——
Jackie
Brown
—— drama ——
REWATCH
I just talked about how ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was a riveting debut with a plot structure and style
later more or less perfected with Tarantino’s sophomore effort, ‘Pulp Fiction’...
Now, with ‘Jackie Brown’, Quentin Tarantino takes his third round inside the somber chamber of the crime genre, which also happens to be the first film – and to this date only film – not based on an original idea from the mind of the man himself. The script is Tarantino’s own and it shows, while the story isn’t and that unfortunately also shows…
‘Jackie Brown’ is a lengthy, lush crime-drama with the usual, uncut spoken leeway of the main characters, who talk about nothing of importance, while also telling us something important along the way as well – a little something known as the “Tarantino transcription tactic”, which he later perfected in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ – and perhaps to some minds – overdid. Anyways, the point is that all the Tarantino pinpoints can be pointed out here and it looks, sounds and feels pretty much like any Tarantino movie – just not a full-blooded one, in my opinion, and that has to do primarily with the story. This is undoubtedly a long feature, but that has never truly been a fault with this director’s films, since he usually entertains and stimulates our minds plenty, so that we don’t care much when the credits suddenly roll. But with ‘Jackie Brown’ the does not roll, it drags, and Tarantino struggles with making a novel into a movie without making a novel out of his movie along the way. What I mean is that Tarantino seems to deliver what appears to be his classic loose dialogue, which now seems to be missing the tight grip that made us all invested in everything from blabbering to basic information to begin with.
Usually a Tarantino picture doesn’t bore me at all, but ‘Jackie Brown’ is on the verge of doing so several times throughout. There is an interesting little mystery in here but it gets lost in pot smoke and strenuous scenes of blabbering, which really doesn’t feel rewarding for its overlong 2 hours and 34 minutes’ worth of running time. And even if the characters are still pretty strong in their own right, they do pale a little next to other Tarantino flicks, in my opinion. But they are still fun enough to follow, the soundtrack is still awesome and the dialogue still keeps me more invested than not. Yet, despite coming together more towards the end, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that I feel sort of hollow inside after watching ‘Jackie Brown’. It is really missing that edge and that energy that usually comes with a Tarantino movie, at least that’s how I see it…
__________________________