1997
Tag: Samuel L Jackson
video review : Pulp Fiction
The best thing Pulp Fiction has going for it are its flashy characters and the things they say. Quentin Tarantino, the movie’s writer and director, has a knack for creating interesting people. With John Travolta and Samuel Jackson on set to bring them to life, it’s just a matter of putting them in the right situations.
Vincent and Jules are contract killers who probably wouldn’t be hanging around each other if there weren’t “work” involved. They have contradicting personalities. Vincent is cool. He knows when to keep his mouth shut. Jules is a loudmouth who recites Bible passages to his victims before killing them.
A day or two in the life of a couple of hitmen is only part of the story, the worn pages of which also feature Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge; a crooked boxer on the run with his girlfriend; and Uma Thurman as the wife of the notorious mob boss Vincent and Jules work for. At one point, he’s butt-raped by a man.
Pulp Fiction is mostly a series of flashbacks. One character is shot to death in the middle of the movie, comes back in the next scene and stays alive to the end. Other scenes are cut short and continued later. It’s a style of storytelling that’s somewhat confusing but also quite clever and entertaining.
my rating : 4 of 5
1994
I Can’t Breathe ( song ) … Mad Lion + Brother J ( featuring KRS-One + Talib Kweli + Sticky Fingaz )
video review : The Hateful Eight
If not for Inglourious Basterds, his masterpiece, I’d say Quentin Tarantino hasn’t wowed me, in a good way, since Jackie Brown. The Hateful Eight, like Django before it, is more epic in scale than substance. There are memorable quotes; the “goddamn Mexican” bit is hilarious; but they’re too far and few between to justify the script’s grandiose verbosity. Nearly every member of The Hateful Eight is a stone-cold killer, but they’re apt to talk you to death. That should be a positive. Tarantino has long had a knack for punchy dialogue, but he seems to be losing it.
The problem of the characters only sometimes saying interesting things to one another is compounded by the fact that they’re snowed-in at the mercy of a blizzard for most of the plot, which circles around a prisoner named Daisy Domergue; the one woman and most despicable of the bunch. The haven is a lodge named Minnie’s Haberdashery and, though this virtual stage play runs for nearly three hours, the suspense and bloodshed doesn’t begin until about the halfway point. Ironically enough considering the fact that a tighter edit could make the film better in half the time.
my rating : 3 of 5
2015
promo : Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight roadshow
video review : Goodfellas
These “good” fellas are ruthless mobsters. When they need money, they take it and dare whoever it is they’re taking it from to go to the cops. If you cross them, they’ll whack you, bury your body and go out for drinks. They’re organized criminals, wiseguys, above the law in more than enough ways to keep things running smoothly for themselves. As a kid, Henry Hill always wanted to be one of them.
Goodfellas focuses on him doing just that. The first third is mainly backstory and the plot doesn’t really shoot-up until the final third. That’s when the Lufthansa heist goes down and things begin to fall apart. The movie is too long and some of the acting seems caricatural; Karen is particularly annoying; but it’s an interesting glimpse into the (real) life of the Lucchese crime family.
my rating : 4 of 5
1990
Charlamagne Tha God and girls talking about fucking celebrities
2010
djfrosty.com
video review : Inglourious Basterds
“I think this just might be my masterpiece,” a character says to another just before the ending credits begin. It’s an obvious wink from director Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds is his best movie yet, even better than Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs, and he seems to know it. There’s no “might” about it. It’s a masterpiece. It’s also one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
The story takes place during WW2 as Nazis, led by Hitler, seize control of France, killing Jews along the way. Their opposition? A small troop of Jewish soldiers whose primary goal is to kill Nazis and off their scalps for souvenirs. It’s a brutal battle with clever crossplots; scenes simmer with suspence until someone’s killed once their cover is blown; thrown in for narrative measure.
my rating : 5 of 5
2009
video review : Jurassic Park
T-Rex and other dinosaurs come back to life in Jurassic Park, an on-screen adaption of the Michael Crichton novel. It begins as a thrill-ride the whole family can enjoy, quite literally, before developing into another entertaining Steven Speilberg movie. It would be better if it were more serious and less predictable; meat-eating dinosaurs only catch expendable humans; but it’s a memorable adventure nonetheless.
my rating : 4 of 5
1993
video review : Do The Right Thing
There are plenty of stupid things in this movie, beginning with the opening dance sequence, but the stupidest or at least most annoying are Smiley and Buggin Out. They’re characters who live in Brooklyn and are obsessively infatuated with the black race like seemingly every other black character in this movie. Smiley, who stutters whenever he speaks, is a retard. Buggin Out just acts like one. The problem with the two is that their annoying ways are played-out almost to the point of caricaturization. They come across as virtual cartoons in a movie that’s supposed to be about real life.
It’s a hot summer day and Mookie, who works as a delivery man for an Italian pizzeria, is just trying to get thru life. That’s the gist of a plot that cares more about observing characters in their everyday environment; the neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant; than telling a cohesive story. At one point, the story is temporarily abandoned for an impromptu insult session. That bit too is, of course, all about race. “Tawana (Brawley) told the truth,” reads a graffiti message in a another scene. All this racial tension peaks at the end when a guy named Radio Raheem becomes the victim of police brutality.
my rating : 3 of 5
1989
video review : Django Unchained
Silent letters are stupid and I don’t like Jamie Fox, but such nuisances are beside the point. It’s the plot of Django Unchained, a historic epic of sorts in which Fox plays a “nigger” slave turned contract killer, that’s the problem. The first half or so presents an interesting plotline as we travel with Django, led by fellow bounty hunter King Schultz; Christoph Waltz as the movie’s coolest character; to a “MISSISSIPPI” plantation to free his (Django’s) estranged wife. The final stretch is where everything sort of falls apart. Quentin Tarantino may be one of the best movie-makers pop cinema has to offer, yes, but this one suffers from what seems to be a simple case of artistic overindulgence. That final stretch, which begins with a ridiculous shoot-out, comes across as an unnecessary tack-on to what, though nowhere near his Inglourious Basterds magnum opus, could’ve been an enjoyable movie.
A dinner scene involving a slave named Stephen and a secret revealed unravels too conveniently; there isn’t enough reason given for Stephen’s sudden plot-turning suspicion; but there are moments of genuine tension there. You wonder, if only for a minute or two, whether or not the protagonists will make it out alive. That’s it though. There is no real tension or suspense anywhere else in the movie, which also lacks in the way of humor. Violence breaks itself for chuckle time and sometimes that works; a scene involving a blind lynch mob on horseback nears hilarity; but the movie’s many comedy attempts too often fall flat. Quentin Tarantino composed the words, but the dialogue is missing his signature zing. There’s not really any cleverness or grand irony here. Nothing wows, at least not in a positive sense. It’s just a slightly engaging slave story that runs too long.
my rating : 3 of 5
2012