Tarantino Poll

I have a huge soft spot for scrappy reservoir dogs but it's gotta be pulp fiction

morbs challops in 4... 3... 2...

reservoir dogs cause it'll need the vote and i can watch it any time

I think I'm about at the point where I could re-experience PF. I think I got overexposed to it at one point. Certain members of my social circle decided that their entire sense of humor consisted of quoting that movie. Of course, they were the same people who had formerly constructed their sense of humor entirely out of Monty Python and Spinal Tap quotes, so.

Voted for Jackie because I loved it and thought it underrated.

KB1 4eva

will anyone sane vote for death proof

I considered it!

So, no.

I like Death Proof, but it's not his best movie.

In my experience, Jackie Brown is the one that rewards multiple viewings best. Not sure if that's a good criterion for 'best movie' but that's how I'm voting anyway.

LOVED jackie brown

I also loved "Jackie Brown"

still voted KB1

I'm tired of voting for Jackie Brown, but I don't want Reservoir Dogs to win, so I guess that's my best bet.

Well, that and it's clearly his best film. That's the other reason to vote for it, I mean.

I will totally rep for Death Proof but yeah whether or not its his best is arguable. As his certifiable "breakthrough" PF is good but in retrospect there are a lof of annoying things in it (Travolta, Bruce Willis, "dead nigger storage", etc.) that really make it his least enjoyable for me. It unfairly overshadows RD, which, while smaller in scope, has a lot more interesting things going on in it (plus my all-time favorite QT line: "Don't point that gun at my dad"). The KB movies are about equally matched.

Jackie Brown I think I've only seen once in the theater and then again recently on TV (very heavily edited). I should watch that again.

Travolta and Willis are just fine in PF, which is the winner.

yeah i disagree with all this critiques of pulp fiction, which is what i voted for.

kinda want to rep for jackie brown, as it is really good and nicely understated for QT. But I really think I enjoy PF (yeah, took some time + distance) and RD just ever so slightly more. haven't seen KB II or the grindhouse one, but KB wasn't my thing at all.

Still think KB1 is weak-ish.

Jackie Brown. If you're going to homage/pastiche b-movie genres, at least add something really good to it. tho i do like PF, RD and even the Kill Bill films. Death Proof was pretty weak, save Rosario.

no joke i was thinking about starting this thread last night

*~*~*this is how i rate*~*~*

1. kill bill 1
2. kill bill 2
3. death proof (this shit is hella underrate - new york chick in that movie is my boo 4 all time - also the shot in the second part of this where the girls walk into the convenience store and it switches into color and there are all BRIGHT SODAS AND COLORFUL CHIP BAGS is one of my favorite things ever)
4. reservoir dogs
5. pulp fiction

havent seen jackie brown

jackie brown ownes, it's the only one that feels like a 'real' movie 2 me

otm. robert forster and pam grier scenes only time i thought i was watching actual people in any of these films.

death proof is good but that twenty minute diner conversation w/the second set of girls is painful to watch

^yeah maybe but i liked it as a self-homage to the opening scene of reservoir dogs

ending of pulp fiction >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ending of reservoir dogs

like, death proof fits pretty well into his filmography if you follow his career down the line - obv the kill bills were his 'epics', but death proof doesn't stray very far from his aesthetic and as a compact, 'trashy' film it's really great i think

the end of reservoir dogs is pretty good, if not predictable

jackie brown, for robert forster and pam grier

also for the out of sight crossover

also jackie brown has best use of music imo

this is a dope poll btw

kill bill volumes 1 & 2 fight scenes poll

i think maybe my favorite is when the jersey girl in death proof gives a lap dance to "jeepster"

also for the out of sight crossover

― max, Monday, February 9, 2009 5:29 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i forgot about this! fuck, that rules. michael keaton rules.

yeah Michael Keaton is really well used in that

jackie brown ownes, it's the only one that feels like a 'real' movie 2 me

i think this is true, but "real movies" aren't tarantino's specialty, it's not what he's actually good at. it's obvious, but i think pulp fiction best got what he does. it's the "if you only see one quentin tarantino movie" movie.

J0rdan, see Jackie Brown.

reservoir>jackie>pulp>>>the rest

Death Proof easily.

gotta good feeling bout his next movie, that war saga,though

not much of a tarantino fan but jackie brown is a really good film.

I watched RD & PF so many times on so much weed in high school that it's hard for me to differentiate b/w the two: It's one globulous circular narrative stuffed w/ pop-culture and b-movie references, 70's pop, snappy dialog & the good old ultraviolence. I guess I'll go with Pulp, since it does seem like the magnum opus, even if the kick ass action scenes in KB1 & DP have me stroking my beard a little.

jackie brown is a really good film

it's also a great book (rum punch)

i was amazed at how completely dead-on the casting and flow of the movie fit my concept of the characters (except for deniro as louis - louis is a much bigger character in the book and his stumblebumness is less obvious)

In a Playboy interview, he talked of smoking cannabis and using ecstasy while filming Kill Bill.[28]

He was thanked in the liner notes of Nirvana's final studio album In Utero although the spelling of his name is incorrect. Tarantino returned the favor by thanking Nirvana on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, along with the message "RIP Kurt".

def looking forward to inglorious basterds

KB1-Jackie B-Death Proof-Pulp-Res Dogs - KB2

Jackie Brown, for being full of characters I actually cared about, although I still recall the giddy heist-without-the-heist thrills of Reservoir Dogs feeling like some kinda revelation.

Pulp Fiction

Reservoir Dogs is great and all but it's basically Pulp Fiction in embryonic form.

Jackie Brown is the most underrated.

The Kill Bills are fun.

Death Proof works as the second half of Grindhouse. It's not so fun on it's own.

Jacki Brown for me too but Pulp Fiction is unique and runs it very close. KB1 was great and KB2 was awful.

Jackie Brown >>>>>>> everything else

tracer otm. rum punch is a good read and QT & cast did an admirable job with the material.

KB1 was great and KB2 was awful.

― jed_, Monday, February 9, 2009 11:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i think someone has played a prank on you by switching the numbers on your keyboard

Nah, they're both good, but the 2nd is much better.

that's definitely the way i heard it. after noting my KB1 disappointment among friends, i was assured KB2 was much better. even so, i've yet to put it on the netflix queue

kb1 is the action half, kb2 is the character half

roughly

kb2 is the boring half.

Yeah I was unneccesarily harsh on KB1 for the sake of the lol

So, when Tarantino inevitably gets itchy for an Oscar and decides to do a hagiographic biopic, what direction will he go?

This makes me want to watch all these again! I'm voting RD because it was the first one I saw and for the great Tim Roth storytelling scene.

So, when Tarantino inevitably gets itchy for an Oscar and decides to do a hagiographic biopic, what direction will he go?

Quentin Tarantino's Sam Fuller.

Jackie Brown.

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs and Tarantino pisses me off most the time

Oh how I want to say fuck the challops and vote for boring old Pulp Fiction, but I just can't. I watched it a couple weeks ago and GODDAMN does the second segment drag. Quentin could've edited out the scene with Esmerelda and pretty much every scene with Bruce Willis' girlfriend and that'd be fine by me.

So Jackie Brown it is.

I am amazed I've seen 5 out of 6 of those. I did like Jackie Brown, but it wasn't really QT doing his QT thang. The Kill Bills were just silly, but amusingly silly. Pulp was compelling, but outpulped real pulp and was a bit too sick.

I voted Reservoir Dogs. T'was taut, strange without being too sick, and just silly enough you could walk out of the theater feeling entertained instead of violated.

I don't understand this "Jackie Brown isn't a REAL Tarantino movie" thing. Except for the fact that it wasn't an original script (and lol to a pastiche-io like Tarantino being the originator of nearly anything he's put out) what justification do you have for saying this? It seems like all his usual stylistic signatures are there, just toned down a hair, maybe.

I'd say refined.

^^^ precisely

KB1 was exciting and fun. KB2 was ponderous.

wait, I can resolve this

they both sucked balls

lol gtfo afaik tfg

true romance?

KB 1 > KB 2, but I still think they're going to cancel each other to an extent in this poll.

true romance?

― PappaWheelie V, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:15 AM (18 minutes ago)

like this a lot too

pulp fiction is one of my favorite movies ever though, so it's getting my vote

Quentin could've edited out the scene with Esmerelda and pretty much every scene with Bruce Willis' girlfriend

otm that shit is terrible

What, you don't like pancakes?

True Romance was terrible and i hated it. Reservoir Dogs all the way.

true romance? - a flawed movie with one utterly classic scene ("You, you look like an eggplant") & a great ensemble cast. I always wondered how it would have turned out, had Tarantino directed it.

lol, "you look line an eggplant"? Might want to rescreen that, buddy.

Jackie Brown, as it has actual characters.

One of the problems I have with RD/PF I associate with that entire period of 90s indie flicks that being overly talky and constantly dropping pop culture references were the heart of the flick. The guys who wrote _Generation Ecch_(which came out right as PF hit) had a great line about this, saying something about the problem of using pop cultural signposts to contribute a sense of imagination or creativity but not having near the level that those referred to icons might have had.

i liked death proof. but then ill still watch pretty much anything he makes and find something good about it.

"you look line an eggplant" - ah yes, "you're part eggplant" amirite

constantly dropping pop culture references were the heart of the flick.

if that seems like that heart of the movie to you, you're watching it wrong. seems like received "wisdom" based on very little actual evidence.

What struck me about reading Rum Punch, with Jackie Brown fresh in my head, was just how thoroughly Tarantino rewrote Elmore Leonard from top to bottom. He actually made the film feel MORE like an Elmore Leonard novel as a result--and Leonard said it was his favorite adaptation. My friend Joseph calls JB a long coffee break of a movie, and that's really more the feel of Swag, my favorite Leonard, which would be a great Tarantino movie set in '70s Detroit--hey, Michigan needs the money.

I'd rank 'em:

Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill Pt 1
Death Proof
Kill Bill Pt 2 (the only one I wouldn't watch again)

"Death Proof", easily, as it's the most fun and vibrantly alive for me. and also the only one I would consider watching again from time to time. I could easily never watch the others ever again, although I've all liked them, more or less, at their release, KBs being the worst. Second could be PF because I really liked it at the time, or JB.

I really don't trust ppl who hatr "Kill Bill", possibly because of the stupid argument we had with Momus about it.

I'd have voted "True Romance", I got it out on Video to some very puzzled looks from g/friend based on the title, but...!

I know it wasn't directed by the man, but hey.

? I missed the momusness - can ya recap?

Kill Bill part 1. I've not really liked any of the others, Jackie Brown was okay.

True Romance doesn't belong on this poll for the same reason Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Til Dawn, Mr. Destiny Turns On the Radio, and whatever else don't belong on it

This poll is impossibly hard for me, but I guess I need to pick one in the next few hours.

"Jackie Brown" easily

? I missed the momusness - can ya recap?

Come anticipate Kill Bill with me

RECAP: A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.

Momus otm

A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.

Is it the pitch for the following tarantino movie ?

what's cool about the pop referentiality of first couple tarantino flicks is how it allows him to create these vibrant, oddly authentic-seeming (though clearly artificial, contrived) movie-movie tough-guy characters -- while at the same time speaking very honestly, if indirectly, about the language, culture & fantasies of untough, geeky, media-obsessed, twenty-somehing fanboys. it's a nice trick, in that it seems to be an arch stylization of something that was unreal in the 1st place, but underneath that is observationally authentic, both sides of the equation informing and deepening the other.

pulp fiction is my favorite, followed by kill bill 1

voted death proof. with the exception of res dogs moving into place after kill bill 1, i rank these in exactly reverse chronological order. odd.

haha Morbs, you may agree with Momus in not liking the movie(s) but i SERIOUSLY doubt it's for the same reason

it used to be jackie brown, but i'm up for watching kill bill 1 at pretty much any moment

RECAP: A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.
― nosotros niggamos (HI DERE), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:48 AM (4 minutes ago)

Momus otm
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:49 AM (2 minutes ago)

That's like the ILX equivalent of those YouTube "[Insert Movie Title] in 5 Seconds" videos.

I'm glad there's some love for Death Proof on this thread cuz I was taking a lot of shit for arguing that it was the (far) superior half of Grindhouse on that movie's thread

Robert Rodriguez is such an unimaginative hack

lolz Momus Tarantino = IRAQ INVASION parallel that is some funny shit

planet terror is great! how could you dislike planet terror?

I dunno it was just kinda boring

"planet terror is great! how could you dislike planet terror?"

I didn't dislike it, but Death Proof was better.

i totally agree, didn't think it was far superior tho

there's a lot more going on in death proof than in planet terror, though it's still a huge mess. problem is that planet terror -- though cheap, trivial, obvious and dull-witted -- is a hell of a lot of fun. it's got about a hundred great bits, and moves from one thing to the next so fast that nothing has time to get old. death proof is much more hit-or-miss in this regard. only bits i really dug were stuntman mike & pam's scenes together, and the absolutely kick-ass final act.

in a way, planet terror is truer to the high-concept punchline. it shamelessly exploits the most low-com-denom vision of what a mod pop grindhouse flick might be. it doesn't concern itself with period authenticity or artistic objectives or any of that crap. it just dedicates itself to the delivery of maximum bang per buck. and there's something admirable in that, though the maxim/fratboy "attitude" annoys me. hated sin city for similar reasons

Can we do a Tarantino acting roles poll?

planet terror is truer to the high-concept punchline

see I don't think this is true at all. It isn't like a 70s grindhouse flick at all - its a relatively unimaginative homage to 80s zombie/horror movies (primarily John Carpenter)

Still would rather have gotten "Machete" - but I'm not a fan of RR generally.

OMG momus is hilarious on that thread

xpost ya shakey OTM about the fact that Planet Terror is straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe instead of 70's "Dawn Of The Dead".

Was the kill bill thread the first or greatest example of a momus-caused clusterfuck thread, or were there others?

straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe - absolutely nothing wrong with that

I was about to post a Danny Trejo poll, then realized he's been in ~200 movies.

Death Proof REALLy feels like a 70s road movie - the pacing is meandering, the action sequences are great, low-budget and go for a visceral kind of realism, there's a lot of subpar acting and weird dialogue, etc. By contrast 70s grindhouse horror films were not wall-to-wall stylized violence and laffs with two f's. They tended to be kinda creepy and seedy and also paced kind of slowly. The tone of Planet Terror is just all wrong.

x-post

My ranks would be:

Jackie Brown
Res Dogs
KBII
Pulp Fiction
KB1

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.

I was close to voting for Jackie Brown, but in the end I had to go for the far-from-perfect Pulp Fiction because the scenes that were great in that movie are the greatest he's ever done: Jules and Vega's conversation while walking up to the apartment, Jack Rabbit Slim's dance scene... the whole O.D. scene, the back of Marsellus's band-aid head w/ Al Green playing scene, the whole Bruce Willis story, starting with Chris Walken's watch.

These scenes are so vivid to me that they feel like memories. My opinion is that Tarantino has never come close to these scenes before or since. There is a lot to hate about Pulp Fiction, but I guess I feel like the highs in this movie are better than his more consistent stuff like Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs. Eff Kill Bill, and Death Proof should have been a 90 minute movie tops.

also... (and no challops intended):

1. Out of Sight
2. Get Shorty
3. Jackie Brown

all great movies, though.

I was about to post a Danny Trejo poll, then realized he's been in ~200 movies. - Why don't you run four polls simultaneously & then pit the top 12/13 of each against each other?

straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe - absolutely nothing wrong with that

― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (1 minute ago)

oh no, not at all, it was just weird that so many people cited it as the more truly "grindhouse" half of the movie.

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (36 seconds ago)

see the funny thing is that it is hugely character-driven, esp the second half

Because I'm only pretty stupid, not fantastically stupid.

xp

the only character I can remember in Death Proof is Kurt Russell who is awesome.

You didn't remember Zoe??!

no :(

xxxp: While we're at it, we could poll the complete discography of Elvis Presley.

70s grindhouse horror films were not wall-to-wall stylized violence and laffs with two f's. They tended to be kinda creepy and seedy and also paced kind of slowly. The tone of Planet Terror is just all wrong.

It isn't like a 70s grindhouse flick at all - its a relatively unimaginative homage to 80s zombie/horror movies...

that's what i mean about planet terror's exploitation bona fides, though. it doesn't give a shit about what grindhouse movies actually were, or even what we fondly remember about bad 70s culture. it just dedicates itself to providing maxiumum dumb-fun exploitation thrills for geeks, cannily referencing "super fun!" 80s pop rather than hard-sell 70s grit. it just gets in there and does the job: pandering crassly to move concessions and fill seats.

tarantino's approach is much more academic (and thus "correct"), but scrupulous academic formalism is anathema to the production of cheap, bullshit exploitation movies. tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear, while rodriguez made a cynical & loving pulp/trash exploitation flick.

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (36 seconds ago)

see the funny thing is that it is hugely character-driven, esp the second half

― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:30 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah there's like 20 mins total of action - if you're into his characters you'd dig the fuck out of the first half of the movie, i think

http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Fanboys/fanboys_image__1_.jpg

i think there is a huge and intentional setup going on with the kind of obnoxious vapid conversation the first group of women have and the way it contrasts with the second group, and it is done totally in service of making the second group (ok maybe not the cheerleader) real fleshed out characters. xposts

I voted Pulp Fiction, with Jackie Brown a close second. I always look forward to the cartoon square appearing when it's drawn in the air by Uma Thurman's character.

wait morbs i thought this was the part where you say that we all watch movies stoned

"tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear"

It wasn't that accurate. It was definitely a Tarantino film, just filtered through a particular template (which you can argue all his movies are basically.)

tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear, while rodriguez made a cynical & loving pulp/trash exploitation flick. - I can get with this. OTM!

also the callback to that in KB1

xp, i mean the "square" thing

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (36 seconds ago)

see the funny thing is that it is hugely character-driven, esp the second half

― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:30 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah there's like 20 mins total of action - if you're into his characters you'd dig the fuck out of the first half of the movie, i think

― nascar jesus (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Yeah those were unrelated statements (the second being more about my ranking). I didn't see Death Proof because I had no desire to sit through the RR half and because I have no knowledge of or attachment to "grindhouse" cinema. the trailers just seemed lame to me.

"because I have no knowledge of or attachment to "grindhouse" cinema"

I don't think this important to enjoying either half of the film. Most of us didn't grow up watching movies in Times Square either.

yeah i was really just annoyed at how it was marketed with the fake-damaged film reels and dated trailer style and stuff, there was just a bit too much of a knowing wink to it all. i like some movies but i don't really like 'cinema.'

A Tarantino mixtape would be the best thing. All the best sketches (scenes) from his movies strung together o make an enjoyable 90 min film.

It wasn't that accurate. It was definitely a Tarantino film, just filtered through a particular template (which you can argue all his movies are basically.)

― Alex in SF

"accurate" may not have been the best word. my point is that tarantino's approach was more reverential.

there is a huge and intentional setup going on with the kind of obnoxious vapid conversation the first group of women have and the way it contrasts with the second group, and it is done totally in service of making the second group (ok maybe not the cheerleader) real fleshed out characters. xposts

― jjjusten

i think this is true, but only true to a limited extent. 2nd group is clearly supposed to be more relatable/heroic than the 1st, but tarantino clearly lavishes a LOT of time, attention and even affection on the 1st. in death proof's first act, we're forced to put up with an incredible assload of superdetailed "obnoxious vapid conversation", and if it only serves to other conversations sound better later on, then it's bad strategy and should have been cut WAY down.

main deal: i just don't think QT's working at the top of his game in death proof. his strategy of using stereotypical tough-guy characters to give voice to authentic geek-boy dialog just doesn't work with female characters. he's not in love with steretypical cinematic femininity, and he's nowhere near so clued in to how contemporary geeky girls actually think/talk. so it comes across awkward, forced & stagy.

feeling contenderizer's summation of Death Proof big time

i would vote 'reservoir dogs' because all of the pop culture talk seems pretty natural and integrated into all of the dialogue scenes really nicely, and the directing and style are so impressive, but i still think the best scene in any tarantino film is the 'hold tight' scene in 'death proof'.

and kurt russell was GREAT

the car crash at the end of the first part of is better imo

yeah Kurt Russell is so amazing. and its funny/ironic that Tarantino got him to be in his half, as opposed to RR's Carpenter-lovefest.

that was the part i was talking about

ok ok well u otm then

That scene is incredible. Captures everything great about Tarantino.

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Kill Bill 1
3. Reservoir Dogs
4. Kill Bill 2
5. Jackie Brown
6. Death Proof

all classics, tho

my underrated fav moment in death proof is when the jersey girl and the greaser dude are on the porch and it's pouring and she's laying down the law to him re making out in the car

That scene is incredible. Captures everything great about Tarantino.

OTM

I keep losing track of what got cut from DP in Grindhouse. I know the lapdance didn't make it (no great loss) but didn't that scene get truncated too?

That scene = porch scene, not car crash scene.

idk ive only scene the dvd version

i remember seeing grindhouse at a midnight show in a packed theater and everyone in the house was basically like O_O at that scene

It's kind of the most extreme conclusion of the ear-cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs.

so the main subplot of the first part is whether or not jersey girl is going to give a lapdance to kurt russell but they cut that scene from the OG? weird. also it's a pretty girl dancing to "jeepster"!

I mean it's why all the nonsense about DP being just a pure GH homage is just nonsense. The movie is Tarantino through and through to me.

car crash scene is super-cool and well executed, about as good as tarantino gets (as is the seqence building up to it, from pam & mike leaving the bar onward). on the other hand, the business with zoe on the hood - buildup and chase - is one of the best supsense/action sequences of any kind i've ever seen. so it's a tough call. wish the rest of the movie were as disciplined and effective as these two bits.

Pshaw to discipline.

hey btw can someone clear this up

a few weeks ago i watched reservoir dogs w/ a friend on dvd. id never seen it before and he hadn't seen it in a few years and he swore that the ear cutting scene was more vile than what we had on the dvd, which didn't show madsen actually slicing the ear off. the whole thing didn't seem that bad to me - except maybe the parts where you see the side of dude's head sans ear - but then i was reading how ppl walked out at sundance and shit and i was thinking that maybe the dvd got edited or something. what do u guyz kno?

^^yeah i mean it's got some vague grindhouse elements but i feel like other than the overall general concept and the poster for the film it's all tarantino. it abandons any grindhouse trappings pretty quickly. xxxp

nah the ear was never shown being cut off

ookay, thx u

Sure that's why Death Proof is the MOST extreme conclusion to that scene!

film festival crowds are notoriously weak when it comes to being able to handle gore imo

yeah basically you see our first-half heroine's face get ripped off by a tire

I saw Tarantino talking about the making of "RD" on some about-movies special where he talked about how he shot that scene about a bazillion different ways and the one where the camera veered away and all you got was a window and the dude's agonized howls was far and away the most visceral, effective rendering of that scene. (It is certainly one of my, not favorite, but most-remembered movie moments.)

I mean it's why all the nonsense about DP being just a pure GH homage is just nonsense.

- alex

already responded to that point, alex. it's not "just a pure GH homage", but it is constrained in some ways by tarantino's reverence for the source material and for cinematic art in general. this is especially true in that the reverence in question prevents DP from being a simple exploitation flick. this is not a fault, mind, but rather an observation, a distinction. i don't think planet terror is better for being more authentically trashy/exploitative.

xp: oh shit I was only half-watching "Death Proof" (lol WoW) so I only saw homegirl get her legs severed

here's another shot that i love from death proof: the super extreme close up of kurt russell eating nachos. actually that whole scene when him and mcgowan first meet is the biz

"but it is constrained in some ways by tarantino's reverence for the source material and for cinematic art in general"

You could make this argument about any Tarantino movie though.

Inaccurate, anachronistic or whatever, there's little changing my mind that Planet Terror is the more entertaining half of Grindhouse, though I'll admit that Death Proof (when it's on) is the better film.

I haven't seen anything after Kill Bill but I've thought that he peaked with RD/PF, but countered with a subtle (well, for him) masterpiece with JB. Both the KBs I thought were OTT to the point self-parody that i doubt will age well.

something i wrote about RD's "ear scene" a while back:

...it's cool cuz it's not just a gnarly suspense/torture sequence, but also a smart & funny little meta-essay on how restraint and excess complement each WR2 screen violence. the first half of the scene is gruesome & tense as hell, but OT doesn’t show us any blood. he almost rubs this (relative) restraint in our faces, making a point of how brutally he can treat the audience without ever lowering himself to "mere splatter".

so, he makes this point, hangs us on a hook, and then takes a break. mr. blonde walks out of the garage into broad daylight (one of the only shots in the film that takes place in open air). the jarring quality is like a huge neon sign, drawing attention to the fact that something significant is happening...

and when mr. blonde goes back in to finish the job, tarantino shoots the entire remainder of the scene in tight, bleeding close-up on the victim’s severed ear. such a hilarious inversion of what came before. he’s rubbing it in again, standing apart from his own film like a college professer, saying, "see! i fucked you up with no blood at all, but not cuz i have to, not cuz i don’t wanna go there. i did it just to show you i can. and now i’m gonna fuck you up the other way too!" so great.

it’s everything that’s wonderful about tarantino wrapped up together with everything insufferable. it’s sadistic, self-indulgent, smug, smart, juvenile, referential and exceptionally well constructed. the movie is pretty damn good overall, but the ear scene is all-time brilliant.

You could make this argument about any Tarantino movie though.

― Alex in SF

goddang, man. yes you could make that point, and i would. alls i'm saying is that since planet terror is less reverent (i mean, it is, but in a less artistically meaningful way), it's therefore able to be more authentically trashy, base, exploitative.

"goddang"?

i put goddam, but it felt mean, so i changed it. goldang? gosh darn it?

I would have gone with "ARGH". That's just me, tho

"Goddang" seems a little too much like my cousin who will not curse but will say "nigga" at the drop of a hat, leading to him once saying "Bump that, nigga; I do not give a flip!"

^ display name

hahahahah i love "bump that"

it's therefore able to be more authentically trashy, base, exploitative = more reverential in a way doesn't it? Don't know why I'm arguing this, frankly. You can prefer it for whatever reason you want.

here's another shot that i love from death proof: the super extreme close up of kurt russell eating nachos. actually that whole scene when him and mcgowan first meet is the biz

― nascar jesus (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 7:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

that place's nachos are fly as fuck btw

they are much tastier than that scene suggets

idk if that scene is supposed to make them seem repulsive or like they are the bomb but it always made me hungry as fuck for some nachos

I am two blocks from that place RIGHT NOW.

fancy a nacho?

ha if only

i am up on the north side today, gon' get a friend addicted to the wire!

well, that's the best excuse I can think of

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

PF of course

but we will need to revisit this once inglourious basterds comes out

(massive x-posts) The best thing about the ear scene is how, at that point in the film, you the viewer haven't seen Mr. Blonde's evil side. As far as you know, he's this cool calm and collected who just stands there when Mr. White rages and screams at him for going on his shooting spree, you think, "Mr. Blonde? The guy that went 'psshw' with his fake finger-gun at the start of the movie? The guy that snarks 'You gonna bark all day, little doggie?' No way he could be a crazy psycho!"

So then fast-forward to the torture scene and Blonde has the cop tied up and then he puts on Stealers Wheel and he's doing his funny little dance............ and then all of a sudden... WHAM!! It hits you and the smile just goes right off your face and you're just like 'Holy shit! This guy really IS a fucking psycho!!' It's a lot like what I think Martin Scorsese was aiming at (and failed, in my opinion) with Joe Pesci's character in the "You think I'm funny?" scene in Goodfellas: Build up the audience's expectations and then throw a total curveball when you see just how fucked up the characters really are.

The only problem with Reservoir Dogs is the ending. It just seemed like a bit of a copout to me.

no i think in goodfellas scorsese was showing that pesci's character actually WAS totally crazy and even his best buddies were terrified of him going off at any second

indeed. I have to wonder how anyone could miss that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

huh pretty good results

i caught abt 10 minutes of 'death proof' last night on encore or some such - first time i'd seen it since the theater...the scene where the gas station attendant has a copy of italian vogue was way weird & bad. idk i just generally do not think it is a good movie

^ part of what makes me think QT just can't deal w girl culture the way he's used to dealing w boy culture. i cringed all the way through that scene

word i read some of your posts upthread and agree w/ that a lot...think i made similar sentiments originally when grindhouse was released

like around that time i recall him being on conan i think trying to expound abt 'girl talk' as a topic and i cringed all the way thru it

surprised that so few people voted for KB1 and so many voted for KB2 :D

(i like KB2 btw, but no one on the thread even spoke up for it as an all-around best)

i'm pretty sure i went with pf, but this poll got me thinking: one thing rd has going for it over its successor is there are no scenes completely without merit; i like it all. otoh tarantino's "dead nigger storage" bit in pf is just needlessly pugnacious and juvenile with no real payoff (i loved his 'like a virgin' speech in rd tho!). the blueberry pancakes bit is pretty annoying, too, as i think someone mentioned upthread.

i hated the d.n.s. stuff, and really all the stuff with Keitel and Julia Sweeny seemed totally useless, and kind of: "hey I've finally made it in Hollywood and now I'm gonna get all my friends and idols cameos in my great movie!"

Movie was way too long. By the time we get back to Jules and Vega in the restaurant, I really didn't care what happened. Every time I've watched it on VHS (it's been that long since I've seen it) I've turned it off after, "Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

What? The "Dead nigger storage" scene is hilarious!! And it invented the phrase "That's Kool and the Gang," which I adopted as my own (Hey, cut me some slack, I was 15.)

the only scene Tarantino has ever acted in that I liked him in, was the last one in Four Rooms.

yeah the more i think about it, they could of edited like 15 minutes out of this bitch and been a-ok.

actually, i find myself saying that about like 90% of the movies i go see these days.

xxpost

What? The "Dead nigger storage" scene is hilarious!! And it invented the phrase "That's Kool and the Gang," which I adopted as my own (Hey, cut me some slack, I was 15.)

i don't mind the rest at jimmy's house, it's just the way QT delivers DNS, like 4 times with no apparent reason than to say "nigger"

& tbh, it would probably annoy almost as much if he was saying "dead fireman storage." it's more his delivery & awkwardness that kind oftakes me out of the action completely. Again, i kind of like the "dick dick dick dick dick dick dick" bit in RD. I believed that guy. (Mr. Brown?)

actually, i find myself saying that about like 90% of the movies i go see these days.

ya same here

when I saw PF in the theater, a bunch of people walked out during the D.N.S. scene. made an impression on me.

I've always had a completely diff reaction to the DNS scene - a number of scenes in pulp fiction show how power is exercised in the relationships between the players. the DNS scene demonstrates how low tarantino's character is, using the situation to humiliate jules in a way he likely wouldn't dare to otherwise - similarly to how butch is humiliated by marcellus and vincent at the bar. it also shows how jules handles things differently than hotheaded vince, who's in the same desperate situation but still can't help mouthing off to the wolf.

the problem with the scene is that tarantino doesn't have the gravitas to sell it, so he ends up looking like a guy who thinks it's funny to say "nigger" a lot.

can't argue with that first sentences, but the last one is more OTM

I like True Romance and Natural Born Killers better than all of these.

the DNS scene demonstrates how low tarantino's character is, using the situation to humiliate jules in a way he likely wouldn't dare to otherwise - similarly to how butch is humiliated by marcellus and vincent at the bar

bingo

Edward III: i like your reading of that scene. and your last sentence is 100% otm

honestly I think it has more to do with the tarantino logic "swearing = always cool" than anything racial

Glad Jackie Brown was at least a strong runner-up.

It's cool, Jackie Brown is probably a better film than Reservoir Dogs. It is nice to see that it seems to have lost the stigma it had when it was released, it's a great movie.

finish is in order of merit shockah!

really all the stuff with Keitel and Julia Sweeny seemed totally useless

...but there's always room for lunacy. Keitel plays the role like Jackie Gleason, one of the best things he's done since the '70s.

that's crazy talk...

really all the stuff with Keitel and Julia Sweeny seemed totally useless

no way, i loved that

i wish Julia Sweeney was in more stuff

that movie had Julia Sweeney, pre-unbearable Kathy Griffin and first season dude from MadTV

According to wikipedia, Sweeney was a 29-year-old accountant who took a class at Groundlings and ended up on SNL a year later :O

and both Griffin AND Sweeney were in It's Pat the same year as Pulp Fiction!

didn't tarantino do a re-write for it's pat or something?

he produced it, according to wiki

"It's Pat, Nigger!"

lol

hahahhahah

XD

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pS7sKjlzwFg/RmdXqEsq-ZI/AAAAAAAAAj8/IFPuR6OyxjY/s400/sweeney_pat.jpg

I tend to think of "Kill Bill" as one picture ... maybe it would have done better here if listed that way. I wasn't overwhelmed with either part in the theater, but they stand up better than expected on repeated viewings. "Pulp Fiction" seems a little weaker each time I see it.

I voted "Jackie Brown" because it's the best Elmore Leonard adaptation. "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight" are both good, but "Jackie Brown" actually improves on its source material, mainly because of Pam Grier.

voted jackie brown too and I'm glad it had a strong showing. it's true, pam grier is pretty great in it. and so is... uh, the guy from alligator?

it's probably the least annoying qt flick. but I like all of these besides death proof.

reservoir dogs is the one that really didn't hold up for me over the years. even tho it was my fave movie EVER in 8th grade.

it's been years since the last time I watched it, but at the time, all of the macho dialog seemed a little lame. but all of the love on this thread is making me think I should give it another go sometime.

Yeah, bam bam bam bam bam.

reservoir dogs is the one that really didn't hold up for me over the years. even tho it was my fave movie EVER in 8th grade.

yea, agreed (tho a little later than 8th for me). i was one of those dudes that was like "pulp fiction pffffffft yea it's okay but RESERVOIR DOGS is the MASTERPIECE" in say, 10th grade. but i watched it again a few months ago and it really didn't do anything for me. i was pretty turned off by it. i've got a strong threshold for violence but for some reason the ear-cutting scene really got to me.

voted kill bill part 2. i haven't seen either kill bill more than once, tho. i enjoyed both a lot

People preferring Reservoir Dogs to PF remind me of those guys who prefer Bleach to Nevermind.

yea i think PF is the better film now

ha, but what of us who preferred "In Utero" ?

kill bill fans? i prefer in utero

ha

I'm waiting for his "Unplugged"

People preferring Reservoir Dogs to PF remind me of those guys who prefer Bleach to Nevermind.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 13, 2009 9:51 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is otm, i'd say

People preferring Reservoir Dogs to PF remind me of those guys who prefer Bleach to Nevermind.

hey, that's me! Apart from Bleach I can't really bear to listen to Nirvana anymore.

i dunno man, PF is kinda bloated and sprawling, i can see preferring the lean & meanness of RD

i can see preferring Bleach, too!

I can't imagine PF without bloat and sprawl.

im not saying its bad, im just saying, they're pretty different movies and i could sympathize with preferring a more basic heist thriller

OK, I like In Utero, and I guess "Jackie Brown"...

PF is kinda bloated and sprawling

big lol about a director whose oeuvre includes a 4-hour chopsocky/foot fetish movie.

PF is kinda and KB is hell of

i finally watched jackie brown

my faves are still the kill bills, followed by reservoir dogs -> death proof -> jackie brown -> pulp fiction

jackie brown was awesome, even tho it was looooong and takes a while to get to where it wants to go there didn't seem to be any unnecessary scenes, which is my prob with PF - i think i like sam l better in that than in PF

this is otm to how i feel btw

i dunno man, PF is kinda bloated and sprawling, i can see preferring the lean & meanness of RD

― s1ocki, Friday, February 13, 2009 10:34 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark

is true romance any good?

I tried to watch it once and had to turn it off because it was so retarded.

and I really like Tarantino!

shit

true romance is tarantino as his most immature and ridiculous. i actually think it's a really entertaining film but christian slater's performance and character are kinda problematic for me for some reason. best performances in the film: oldman & gandolfini. i think the walken/hopper scene is just a little overrated too.

and

SPOILER ALERT

this usually doesn't bother me but the final mexican standoff where every single character except for the heroes and michael rapaport gets killed has always kinda bugged me out b/c there are a lot of good supporting performances in this film and qt and tony scott are such misanthropic dudes that they have to make sure any character with any moral flaws has to get gunned down, and i think it was just kind of a bummer for some reason. and then scott ripped it off for enemy of the state.

i dunno what to say really cuz i think you're nuts for saying PF has unnecessary scenes (which scene would you take out/takes away from the movie? i've never really seen that criticism leveled at it). but if you like tarantino i dont see how you could not find something to like about true romance...the christopher walken scene is obviously super classic and it ends in a mexican standoff!

lol xp

alright im gonna watch it

the real classic scene in the film is gandolfini and arquette imo, because it's got actual drama and real stakes, the other scene is a couple of tough guys bullshitting and it's kinda clever but i dunno...

yeah that scene is wonderful too, not gonna take away from that. but the walken scene is just vintage tarantino

the real classic scene is anything with Brad Pitt

upon considered reflection, Pulp Fiction is totally his WORST movie. wtf ILX

Come in and check out his BEST movie. Ask for Jason, I'll show you how to get the Blu-Ray DVD of "Inglourious Basterds" with Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz for $29.99.

lol

Poll srsly needs to be redone with IB in the mix.

let's pretend we did

it won

or people who were interested could do it and you could not read the thread. crazy idea?

xpost

and then scott ripped it off for enemy of the state.

this scene was good tho! & he does have his name on true romance so is prob not ripping off

Sounds like his Friars Club roast was the best thing he's been associated with in 12 years....

No fewer than four roasters lobbed cracks about Travolta’s sexuality, Rob Schneider noting, “He was going to fly here, but he was having trouble with his cockpit—and by that, I mean his asshole.” Kathy Griffin frantically made visual quote marks when declaring that Travolta was busily engaged with his “normal” family. But the hilarious Whitney Cummings went completely off topic and took aim at Griffin’s obsession with Ryan Seacrest, saying, “The only thing that’s spent more time on Ryan is semen.”

It was Tarantino himself, of course, who restored some dignity to the proceedings by toasting another Pulp Fiction star, the event’s roastmaster, Samuel L. Jackson. Quipped the auteur, “You’re the only big black man in Hollywood that Tyler Perry doesn’t want to fuck.”

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-12-15/columns/black-swan-is-a-lezzie-wet-dream/

More here:

"Tarantino" is the Italian word for plagiarism

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/12/02/quentin-tarantinos-roast/

wow kill bills got hosed here huh

prob suffered from vote-splitting

damn, any video of the roast?

There's a link in there that I didn't click on, cuz QT's face hurts me to look at under any circumstances

Haha, closeted gays are so funny.

Is that what's behind that scene in Pulp Fiction with the two rednecks and Hooded Medieval Guy? Always thought that detour was kind of silly.

I didn't realize Rob Schneider was out of the closet.

gimp scene swerve in pulp fic is the best bit!!

To clarify, making fun of closeted gays is so funny.

Well, yeah

i'd give IB serious consideration if the poll were done again (voted for JB first time around)

i dont like the kill bills very much at all... they're well made but i just dont find them engaging or compelling i guess

still havent seen DP

To clarify, making fun of closeted gays is so funny.

it was a roast

oic didn't realize the subject of the roast is closeted actors

I bet Tarantino was so relieved tho

i dont like the kill bills very much at all... they're well made but i just dont find them engaging or compelling i guess

Felt this way about the first, thought the second was great.

I don't really like them either. I don't remember if I voted in this but if I did it would have most likely been for P Fiction or J Brown but I also agree that having since seen IB I might have to have voted for it instead.

IB had some of the best individual scenes he's done, but they didn't cohere at all for me.

I still have never seen Death Proof.

Definitely think a re-poll is in order.

the second one's a lot better, but again i just didnt really feel involved in the ~human drama~

stuff like the buried alive scene - superbly done, but i just didnt feel the drama in it, especially since i knew she'd get out. whereas i loved the long, deliberate conversations in IB, in KB2 it felt like wheel-spinning to me (and i couldnt tell you why one worked for me and the other didnt). the long confrontation with carradine at the end, which seems like its supposed to be the emotional core of the two movies, didnt resonate w/me at all. tho now that im thinking about this stuff, its playing better in my head than i remembered. havent seen either of them since they came out, might be time for a revisiting imo

the trailer fight w/daryl hannah was great tho

I still have never seen Death Proof.

― A brownish area with points (chap), Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:33 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

You should see it. While not my favorite, it's still pretty great.

Not really surprised it only got 7 votes but would definitely rank it above either KB personally.

where sarge at

this some blasphemy

oh lol i forgot he doesnt wake up before 3 usually

is true romance any good?

― hazmat yayo (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:04 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I tried to watch it once and had to turn it off because it was so retarded.

― iatee, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:40 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

O_O

Sure it's ridiculous but I love True Romance oh and I couldn't disagree more with Jordan about his ranking here. Maybe it has to do with our respective ages when these came out and therefore viewing them for the first time? I don't know. huh.

True Romance is repellent.

Whatever else, QT can stage violence. The scene between Gandolfini and Arquette is so ineptly shot that it's just offensive; I can't watch it.

then there's how smarmy Slater is, and how blank Arquette is. He should have saved the Walken-Hopper confrontation for another movie and dumped the rest of this shit.

That's insane to me. It's an entertaining movie with some seriously awesome scenes (mainly those referenced above with by Omar and Kev). Guess I'm not snobby enough to realize that I should have been offended by it.

Also: "Tony Scott" in the credits makes my teeth grind.

tony scott owns

tOWNy scott

Tony Scott owns a nice house.

alf, how do you feel about Top Gun

xpost Not as nice as Roland Emmerich's

alf, how do you feel about Top Gun

danger zone

you ppl never change do ya

Jerry Lewis was at the roast. There was some kind of charity auction segment, and when someone started with a low bid, Jerry shouted "FUCK YOU!"

(I have a friend who's a Friar)

JB got robbed

tamtamtino

the second one's a lot better, but again i just didnt really feel involved in the ~human drama~

stuff like the buried alive scene - superbly done, but i just didnt feel the drama in it, especially since i knew she'd get out. whereas i loved the long, deliberate conversations in IB, in KB2 it felt like wheel-spinning to me (and i couldnt tell you why one worked for me and the other didnt). the long confrontation with carradine at the end, which seems like its supposed to be the emotional core of the two movies, didnt resonate w/me at all. tho now that im thinking about this stuff, its playing better in my head than i remembered. havent seen either of them since they came out, might be time for a revisiting imo

the trailer fight w/daryl hannah was great tho

― xX_420_GoKu_ChRiStWaRrIoR_Xx (Princess TamTam), Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:39 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this is all evidence that it should have been ONE movie

yeah, just do one movie with the western revenge story and then do something entirely different for your samurai/kung-fu movie pastiche imo... u dont gotta cram it all in there

nah i think the decision to take the one kill bill movie and split it into two was not a smart one, should have been one 3-hour movie instead of 2 2-hrs

I still think the first half was gonna drag.

ya i mean you could probably (definitely) make one tight 3 hour movie out of the two parts. but how about one 2 hour movie about one thing and then one entirely different 2 hour movie about another thing. best of all imo. idk i was just thinking that the tonal shifts, while exciting in one way, were also possibly what created that distancing effect for me. i mean theres something to be said for like jackie brown, where it feels like it takes place in the same universe all the way through and doesn't suddenly dump you into a 70s kung fu movie (entertaining as those sequences were).

ok one more thread never to revive

haha

upon considered reflection, Pulp Fiction is totally his WORST movie. wtf ILX

― insert your favorite discriminatory practice here (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, June 25, 2010 6:46 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark

totally stand by this. so much about PF that I don't like - Travolta, Bruce Willis (easily two of the WORST casting decisions QT's ever made), the "dead nigger storage" sequence, Samuel Jackson at his hammiest, a real lack of narrative or even thematic cohesion.

Reservoir Dogs is worse.

yeah, no wimmin, we know

lol post-Jackie Brown "thematic cohesion"

great argument there

I think Reservoir Dogs benefits from being smaller in scale than Pulp Fiction. it's tighter, more focused. Pulp Fiction is all over the place, it is quite literally just "a bunch of stuff that happens" with basically nothing tying it together. it's all empty gestures and campy jokes and that's about it. it's the one movie where I think the obvious criticisms, like the ones Morbz is so fond of, actually hold a lot of weight.

lol post-Jackie Brown "thematic cohesion"

imho everything from Jackie Brown on hangs together very well

ya honestly i don't have that much fondness in my heart for PF, hard to tell if that's just because i'm so sick of everything to do with it tho

otm

reminds me of ppl claiming Nevermind is Nirvana's worst album

it kind of is...?

figured you'd be one of em

everyone must have the same opinion.

yes, we established that when B*sterds was crowned greatest film ever

I thought it finished 9th?

yes, we established that when B*sterds was crowned greatest film ever

nah that was Step Brothers

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/unclealp/unclealp0812/unclealp081200035/3984127.jpg

I can't even stand to listen to Nirvana at all anymore and haven't for maybe 10 years or so fwiw. it's too much like reading a suicide note.

probably would go

inglorious basterds
reservoir dogs
pulp fiction
jackie brown
kill bill 1
death proof
kill bill 2

i like all of them to vary degrees but the first five are endlessly entertaining, the last two have some deadly dull bits.

anyone know why tarentino is in the "in utero" liner note thank yous?

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/3307/inuterospecialthanks.jpg

dudes who super mega own in reservoir dogs: lawrence tierney, steve buscemi, chris penn

yeah Chris Penn is SO great.

don't point that gun at my dad

according to wiki

He was thanked in the liner notes of Nirvana's final studio album In Utero although the spelling of his name is incorrect. Tarantino returned the favor by thanking Nirvana on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, along with the message "RIP Kurt". It was thought that Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love rejected an offer to act in Pulp Fiction as Lance & Jody.[48] However Tarantino denied this rumor and claimed he had no real connection to Love and Cobain other than the fact that the couple liked Reservoir Dogs.[49]

xp

maybe a veiled reference to 'at close range' where he was all like, "dad don't point that gun at me!"

I loved Reservoir Dogs for a long time but sort of feel about it now the way Slocki mentioned about PF. It was just way too overexposed for me in college and I watched it too much I think. It totally still holds a place in my heart though.

k billy's super sounds of the 70's continues

oh god see that's so annoying to me because of the sheer number of times I heard that soundtrack played

"Tarantino denied this rumor and claimed he had no real connection to Love and Cobain other than the fact that the couple liked Reservoir Dogs."
hm... i smell coverup. or they must have REALLY liked it.

I don't remember voting in this. I'd probably go Reservoir Dogs, followed by Jackie Brown--love them both, think Jackie Brown gets better and better every time I watch it. Then Pulp Fiction, which I think is half-great, half descending into This Is What I'm Supposed To Do (e.g., the gimp scene). Not a fan of the Kill Bills. Haven't seen the last one.

If Tarantino is indeed closeted, I guess I'm so out of it, I never had a clue.

He buys popcorn and a soda. Quentin wants a box of candy, too, but he's already fishing for change in his pocket and the girl at the register is squinting her eyes at him. Quentin comes to the movie theatre enough to know that she gets off work (he looks at his watch as he drops the quarters on the counter) five minutes ago. He resists the temptation to make her spend even more time at the register by reminding himself that if he does, she'll probably spit in his drink next time he comes to catch a flick.

Glossy, garishly pink fingernails tap on the counter as he pulls out the last of the change from his pocket.

"Enjoy the movie," she says dryly, handing him a bucket of barely buttered popcorn.

It's a Sonny Chiba triple-feature. Who the fuck wouldn't?

*

Quentin can see what's happening in the film even when he shuts his eyes. He's seen it before, several times, but that doesn't mean he isn't more than happy to watch it again. Sonny Chiba is a fucking legend.

The doors in the back of the theatre open loudly, letting light shine in and illuminate the back few rows. Quentin cranes his neck to look, but gives the person standing there little thought and turns his attention back to the movie.

"You'll be unconscious soon after a lack of oxygen. It's an ancient technique," Tsurugi warns Junjou, and Quentin leans forward. He takes a bite of popcorn, and then --

and then he's covered in the stuff. Popcorn everywhere.

"Shit. Oh, shit, man, I'm sorry." It's the guy that just walked into the theatre. "You okay? Shit."

"Fine. I'm fine," Quentin says, brushing the popcorn off of his lap. "Don't worry about it."

"I'm apparently not so fantastic on my feet," the guy apologizes. "Sure you're okay?"

"It's just some popcorn. I'll live."

"Thanks," the guy says, relieved. "You could've been a real asshole about that." He sits down in a seat behind Quentin.

Quentin tries to focus on the movie again when the guy leans forward, draping his arms over the seat next to Quentin. The guy elbows Quentin's arm gently. "Mind telling me what I missed?"

"Um, no, sure," Quentin says, and the guy hops over the seat. He slides into the seat ungracefully, his feet hitting the floor with a loud thump. "Uh, that's Sonny Chiba. The one in black."

The guy tears open his box of candy. "You want some?" He holds the box out to Quentin, offering it freely. Quentin shakes his head.

"Uh, so, Sonny Chiba, at the beginning of the movie he was hired to kill this guy, right, and -"

"Man, you've got popcorn all over you," the guy points out, flicking a piece of popcorn away from Quentin's knee. Quentin brushes more of the popcorn away, and the guy's hand too, while he's at it. "Oh, is he supposed to be the good guy?" The guy points to the screen. Jesus, he had the focus of a goldfish.

"He's just a bad motherfucker," Quentin replies, and the guy smiles. He starts to laugh, and something about him makes Quentin want to laugh too.

Sometime during the opening titles of Sister Street Fighter the guy leans over.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Quentin."

"I'm Robert," the guy whispers back.

Quentin finds himself not being able to pay attention for the rest of the movie.

*

"You got any more questions?" Quentin asks, following Robert out of the movie theatre. Robert karate chops his shoulder.

"Nope. Well, yeah. What time is it?"

"Midnight, I guess."

"You gotta be up early tomorrow for anything?" Quentin shakes his head. "Man, I'm fuckin' starving. You wanna grab a burger?"

Quentin's pretty full, he had an entire bucket of popcorn. Then again, Robert had spilled his own popcorn all over Quentin. So it's probably pretty fair that he's hungry.

"Yeah, sure."

*

The only place they can find that's open this late is a hole-in-the-wall joint called Rae's. Rae's Restaurant. The burgers are shitty, but the conversation is good. They talk about the movies they just saw (thank God Quentin has seen the Street Fighter movies enough to be able to recite the dialogue in his sleep, otherwise he'd be fucked), which spirals into a conversation about the legend himself. But Sonny Chiba's only enough to hold the attention of the discussion for so long when you're eating a late-night meal with a mysterious stranger.

"Enough about Sonny Chiba," Quentin says. "Tell me about you."

"Like what?" Robert dips a french fry into a glob of watery ketchup.

"I don't know. What you do, where you're from, your favorite color, your favorite movie star, what kind of music you like, turn-ons, turn-offs..."

He grins, and Quentin smiles foolishly. Maybe that was a little too much.

"Is this a date?"

"What?" Quentin asks. He takes a bite of his burger and really fucking hopes he isn't blushing.

"You heard me."

"Is this a date?" Quentin asks, trying to express incredulity.

"Yeah."

"I don't know, is it?"

"Ask me later." Robert steals one of Quentin's french fries. Quentin takes one back from the guy's plate.

"Why did you sit by me? In a theatre that was totally empty?"

"You didn't look like an asshole." Robert shoves his plate toward Quentin. It still has a couple of french fries left. "You can have these. I'll get the check."

After taking a wad of bills out of his pocket and dropping a few on the table, Robert leans forward and grins.

"Where to next?"

*

Quentin leads Robert through the door he just unlocked, a hand on his back to guide him. "No peeking." He made Robert pull his bandana down over his eyes before they got here.

Quentin flips the light on, and Robert pulls the bandana back up to the top of his head.

It's a video store.

"You work here?"

"Pretty fucking awesome, huh?" For someone who loved movies, yeah, it was pretty fucking awesome. "I just hang out most of the time. Watch movies whenever I want."

"I'm jealous," Robert admits. He pokes at a copy of Escape From New York. "You get paid a lot?"

Quentin scoffs. "Of course not."

"Why don't you leave?"

"Better than a real job," he answers. Robert finds himself agreeing. Robert follows Quentin to a row of shelves and watches as Quentin tilts a movie back with his forefinger. "You ever seen Rio Bravo?"

Robert grins. "I love it."

Quentin slides the movie back into place, and as he turns back around to face Robert life seems to play in slow motion. Robert steps forward and corners Quentin against the shelves.

"I'm about to kiss you," he says.

His hands are on the shelves behind Quentin and their mouths are touching before Quentin even thinks to say "okay".

*

The thought that maybe things are moving too quickly enters Quentin's mind very briefly before Robert's touch on his skin burns that thought out of existence. They've moved on to Quentin's shitty apartment, and they're in his bed, and... aw, hell, it's way too late for any kind of regrets.

Quentin doesn't know what kind of luck let Robert bump into him at the movie theatre - literally bump into him - but somehow it must've been fate. It had to have been fate, otherwise there was no way the burgers would have happened or the kissing or the impending sex.

Robert straddles Quentin, and Quentin runs his palms back and forth over Robert's jean-clad thighs as they kiss.

*

Robert is gone for forty-five minutes before Quentin stirs enough to notice the bed is empty and that the window is open. It's cold enough at night that Quentin realizes he ought to get dressed. He throws on some clothes and pulls on a jacket as an afterthought.

He finds Robert out in front of the billboard adjacent to his apartment building, leaning against it and smoking a cigarette. He's wearing one of Quentin's sweaters. Quentin zips up his jacket and steps up to Robert.

"What's up?" Quentin asks, but quietly. The neighbors will kick his ass if he gets too loud at this time of night.

Robert takes a drag from his cigarette. He fidgets, agitated.

"I gotta tell you something, Quentin."

"What's that?"

"I didn't just... run into you at the movies. I was paid to be there."

"What, you work there? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't work there. I'm... I sleep with people. For money."

"You're a whore?" Quentin asks. What. the. fuck.

"No!" His hands fly up. "It's different. It's not that. This is only my fourth day on the job, or something like that. You're my third... customer."

"What?" Quentin breathes. What the hell is going on?

"Fuck," Robert mutters. "Here we go. Okay. You know the movie store? The one you work at? Your boss... what's his name?"

"Does it fucking matter what his fucking name is?"

"No, no. It's... he's the guy. He wanted to get you something for your birthday. He wanted me to act like I showed up... just ran into you..." Quentin doesn't look mad, but he isn't smiling, either. "Are you mad?"

Quentin thinks about it for a moment, then shakes his head. "I ain't gonna lie to you, that's one of the best nights I ever fucking had. The night and the sex." Robert looks a little relieved. "I guess I knew something was up. There was no way you could've liked me that much."

"Fuck. Quentin, this... This isn't me. I'm not about-" Robert waves his hands, smoke from his cigarette curling around him. "This. It's not what you think it is. I'm a good guy, I swear to fucking God."

Quentin kind of wishes he had his own cigarette right now. This is sort of a lot to take in.

"I just... When it comes to relationships, I'm one hundred percent, alright? All in. I don't sleep around. I'm with one person. If I'm with you, I'm with you. Nothing else fucking matters."

"Yeah?" Quentin can't resist taking the cigarette from Robert and taking a drag before handing it back. Robert looks him in the eye.

"Yeah." Robert puts the cigarette to his lips and draws in a final breath of smoke before dropping it to the floor and rubbing it out with the heel of his boot. "Hey, did you mean what you said about that being a really good night?"

"It's probably the best time I've ever had with somebody, if you want the truth. I mean, you like the same movies, you like the same music, you don't like pickles on your burgers-"

"Look, man, I feel sort of dumb saying this because I've only known you for one night and because of what I do or whatever, but I'm really, really into you."

Quentin grabs him by the front of the sweater (his sweater) and pulls him closer, close enough to stare into his eyes from a dangerously short distance before shutting him up with a kiss.

"Come back inside."

"Alright," Robert agrees.

He lets Quentin take his hand and lead him back in through the window.

Pulp Fiction is all over the place, it is quite literally just "a bunch of stuff that happens" with basically nothing tying it together.

shakey you are gonna make me unearth my ancient posts on pulp fiction

if I had to fuck a girl... I mean had to, if my life depended on it

thanks omar.

shakey you are gonna make me unearth my ancient posts on pulp fiction

pro or con? I don't remember said posts/thread

np xp

Pulp Fiction is all over the place, it is quite literally just "a bunch of stuff that happens" with basically nothing tying it together.

are you fucking kidding me

I can see an argument for it being totally contrived/unconvincing, but saying that there's "basically nothing tying it together" just shows you didn't pay any attention to the movie

found this on the IB thread:

his most moral film I'd say is pulp fiction. not sure how much that has to do with avery's involvement, but two of the stories involve redemption through moral choices that break the character's normative ethical code (e.g. butch saving marcellus, julius sparing ringo).

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, February 19, 2010 3:09 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark

like, it's a series of out-of-order vignettes about the same group of characters; how much more needs to happen to "tie it together"

omar i dont know what this means but as soon as i saw that slash posted i was like 'i bet omar posted this'

lol - me too

^ that repost was actually me & shakey discussing QT morality on the IB thread, irony

I don't mean the fanfic btw

x-post don't know what it means but I'm pretty sure he should be proud

butch saving marcellus

not sure how this really represents a break in his ethical code, which is shown to be conflicted and rife with contradiction from the outset.

the julius thing is more clear-cut. but how does Travolta's character arc tie in with this at all? and his shit is like 1/3rd of the movie!

xp

ethical decisions Butch makes in the movie:

- to take the money to throw the fight.
- but then he doesn't throw the fight.
- runs away from the consequences of this action
- initially tries to kill marcellus
- sees an opportunity to save his ass by saving marcellus. does so.

I don't see the break you're referring to. At every point he's driven by self-interest/self-preservation.

"but how does Travolta's character arc tie in with this at all?"

He doesn't have sex with Uma!

omar i dont know what this means but as soon as i saw that slash posted i was like 'i bet omar posted this'

― kanellos (gbx)

whenever u call me i'll be there (with slashfic)

#2 and #5 are really the only ethical decisions Butch makes.

#1, #3, #4 are all basically acts of survival.

He doesn't have sex with Uma!

and screwing every chick that comes his way is somehow part of an ethical code? he doesn't screw her because he knows it would mean getting killed! this is not an ethical decision.

he dies

"and screwing every chick that comes his way is somehow part of an ethical code?"

I totally spaced all the sex Travolta had during PF!

butch's normative ethical code is street ethics - fuck me, I fuck you back. in this he's pretty consistent. butch doesn't have to show mercy, but he does (same goes for julius). if you don't see butch's decision not to leave the pawn shop as a moral one I'm not sure what to say...

in a way these scenarios are almost like flannery o'connor - broken people having moral epiphanies, receiving grace via traumatic violence.

yeah but not cuz he had sex with Uma. his death is random, meaningless, a joke.

xp

I totally spaced all the sex Travolta had during PF!

you implied that sleeping with Uma would be part of his ethical code. the implication being his ethical code involves sleeping with whatever women present themselves to him.

if you don't see butch's decision not to leave the pawn shop as a moral one I'm not sure what to say...

I think it is (he could just leave Marcellus to die, and he'd likely be off scot free), but I don't see it as a dramatic break really. not in the same way Julius' is.

xp I was joking, Shakey. Besides we all know that he didn't sleep with her because he's a closeted homo.

lol

ugh and I haven't even started in on how horrible Willis' girlfriend is. and that scene with Willis in the taxicab. just awful.

nonetheless if u see travolta's arc as a problem wrt this morality ethical break thing, which u do, the fact is that it ends in death.

u see travolta's arc as a problem wrt this morality ethical break thing, which u do

you do? how so? what morality/ethical code does he break? how is NOT sleeping with Uma somehow an ethical decision?

I think it is (he could just leave Marcellus to die, and he'd likely be off scot free), but I don't see it as a dramatic break really. not in the same way Julius' is.

butch has been motivated by nothing but cold-blooded self-interest through the entire movie, so I think it's a pretty dramatic break to decide to save the life of a man who was just trying to kill him (and also he has no guarantee that marcellus won't *still* try to kill him). it's a selfless act of mercy. I won't go into how it ties to the story of the watch but the themes are pretty tightly bound here.

now if you hate willis' or de maderios' performances, that's a different story. but saying pulp fiction is some slapdash bucket of odds and ends is just way off.

right, so he just plows on being a hired gun and dies - consistent with ed's reading. xp

vv thinks jules' decision to leave is bullshit as are the reasons for it, a decision which would have saved his life if he'd also decided to leave the game for the ethical and moral reasons explauined in the diner speech?

like he said^

now if you hate willis' or de maderios' performances, that's a different story. but saying pulp fiction is some slapdash bucket of odds and ends is just way off.

I do hate Willis and De Madeiros performances fwiw.

the moral quandary thing is pretty clearcut with Jules - I don't think it's tied in well with the other plots. Saying Vega dies cuz he disagrees with Julius is... interesting tho.

(which doesn't have anything to do with sleeping with Uma - which is, again, like a third of the movie)

vince's decision not to sleep with mia isn't necessarily the only branch here. vince witnesses the miracle of mia's resurrection yet chooses to continue his life of crime - ergo he dies.

what in Mia's resurrection would imply he should leave a life of crime? I don't get it.

what in vince and jules not getting struck by bullets should imply they should leave a life of crime? they just got lucky! but jules point is, miracles are afoot. shortly afterwards vince experiences another one and still doesn't get it. this stuff is subtle but not accidental.

agree that the film's pretty leisurely, so if you don't like the scenery it's gonna suck 4 U

what in vince and jules not getting struck by bullets should imply they should leave a life of crime?

I was gonna bring this up as well, in that it's not exactly an "I saw a statue of Jesus crying tears of blood!" moment or anything, but Jules does a bunch of speechifying about it and the script tries hard to sell his conversion on this point. In his scenery-chewing way, Jackson sells it.

but yeah the scenery of Willis and Travolta bugs me

I think willis' and travolta's performances are pretty solid + amusing

easy to forget but travolta's perf here completely revived his career, I did not see that one coming

that scene where travolta pushes the intercom and says "hello" and gets a laugh out of me every time either proves I'm an idiot or that the guy was in a state of grace as an actor

how is it easy to forget?! after this the dude flooded the market with one unbelievably shitty movie after another! Michael. Battlefield Earth. Wild Hogs. Phenomenon. Swordfish.

xp

I'm reminded of it every time I see his bloated thetan-hating smirk

Face/Off was OK. I didn't realize he was doing a Nicholas Cage impression the whole movie.

yeah but it was big budget marquee crap, he was married to the look who's talking franchise the year before PF

btw I stole that state of grace phrase from del toro on whale and I'm going to be using it on the reg so

also feel like "tarantino revives another aging actor's career" has been something that's followed him at least up until IB

yeah but it was big budget marquee crap

you say this like it's a good thing. I mean obviously it was a good thing for Travolta, it's sort of a tragedy for the rest of us.

after this the dude flooded the market with one unbelievably shitty movie after another! Michael. Battlefield Earth. Wild Hogs. Phenomenon. Swordfish.

But you're forgetting he had a string of critical and commercial hits too; you're just naming the obvious dogs.

it was your failure to recognize the miracle of PF that caused all this to befall us shakey

REPENT

of course the only one I can watch again is Get Shorty, and his Clinton in Primary Colors is a watchable misfire.

also feel like "tarantino revives another aging actor's career" has been something that's followed him at least up until IB

his taste in aging actors has improved, that's for sure (Carradine, Forster, Grier, Russell>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Travolta, Willis)

calling Primary Colors a watchable misfire is pretty OTM. the rest of his films are straight garbage. Face/Off has its moments, I'll give you that. But in the end it's pretty much a mess, with an unforgivable final scene.

travolta had some pretty good post pulp fiction/pre battlefield earth, his best one was probably get shorty.

travolta is pretty hilarious in face/off imo, his cage impression is totally all right. cage himself is a lot more fun though.

every frame of face/off is brilliant

1999 The General's Daughter
Warr. Off. Paul Brenner

1999 Our Friend, Martin (video)
Kyle's Dad (voice)

1998 A Civil Action
Jan Schlichtmann

1998 The Thin Red Line
Brig. Gen. Quintard

1998 Primary Colors
Governor Jack Stanton

1997 Mad City
Sam

1997 Face/Off
Sean Archer / Castor Troy

1997 She's So Lovely
Joey Germoni

1996 Michael
Michael

1996 Phenomenon
George Malley

1996 Broken Arrow
Maj. Vic 'Deak' Deakins

1995 Get Shorty
Chili Palmer

1995 White Man's Burden
Louis Pinnock

1994 Pulp Fiction
Vincent Vega

Most of those pre-Battleship Earth were #1 box office hits. He probably scored the best second act of any actor of the last thirty years.

whenever im talking to someone about a beloved washed up actor i usually throw in a plea to tarantino to try and revive their career (c'mon bro, you know you can find a part for cynthia rothrock)

like I said, all those movies are terrible. some more terrible than others.

I could imagine Tom Cruise subbing in for Travolta in Face/Off with no detriment to the movie, but this is not so for Pulp Fiction.

Pam Grier sure went places, didn't she.

also feel like "tarantino revives another aging actor's career" has been something that's followed him at least up until IB

more like "tarantino plucks another fallen actor briefly out of obscurity"

well there's just SO MANY roles in Hollywood for aging black women, I'm sure she's had a hard time choosing.

xp

half of those are at least decent and several of them are v dope

robert forster has quietly done pretty well for himself. diamond men was a good film with a great, great performance from him.

yeah Travolta's career surged where others have failed because a) he will be in absolutely ANYTHING, and he will do it with gusto and b) he has Scientology behind him

more like "tarantino plucks another fallen actor briefly out of obscurity"

― if nothing else this thread will result in some great display names (Edward III), Thursday, December 16, 2010 2:01 PM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

well yeah

broken arrow owns

half of those are at least decent and several of them are v dope

I guess I will just ignore your film opinions from here on out

i remember liking a civil action too

broken arrow owns

^^ one of the last times a major Hollywood actor chain smokes on film.

i had no idea mad city was directed by costa-gavras O_O

Erin Brockovich >>>>>>>>>>>>> A Civil Action

robert forster before jackie brown = maniac cop 3
robert forster after jackie brown = dragon wars: d-war

robert forster's part in mulholland drive is so weird, you think he's going to be a big character and then you never see him again (because of the pilot into feature metamorphosis i guess)

actually if you look at the 3 films travolta made before PF and the 3 he made after, well, it tells the whole story

and by "look" I don't mean watch, look at 'em on imdb or sumthin, you'll go blind

Travolta's gusto (Shakey otm) earned him most of his good will. Shortly after PF, The New Yorker ran a Travolta profile, in which he made it very clear that he almost rejected the scripts for Get Shorty and PF and he didn't give a damn about starring in the next Look Who's Talking movie ("where, like, the CHAIRS talk"). The guy has no shame, which is very refreshing.

I guess I will just ignore your film opinions from here on out

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier)

face/off, get shorty, and the thin red line are dope, i don't think that's a challop?

Look Who's Talking Now (1993)
In this, the third film, it's the pets who do the talking. The Ubriacco's find themselves the owners of two dogs, Rocks, a street wise cross breed, and Daphne, a spoilled pedegree poodle. James has a new job, pilot to the sexy and lonely Samantha. Mollie's just lost hers and is stuck at home.

forget it, omar... its shakeytown

http://img.movieberry.com/static/photos/63472/5_midi.jpg

Shout (1991)
A new music teacher (John Travolta) in a 1955 West Texas home for wayward boys brings new vision and hope for many of the interned boys.

Eyes of an Angel (1991)
John Travolta is a downtrodden single father raising his daughter under difficult circumstances in Chicago. The young girl comes upon and then nurses a wounded Doberman used for fighting, back to health. Duped by underworld types he was working as a courier for, father and daughter leave the dog and flee cross-country to Los Angeles with both canine and mobsters in pursuit.

Shout (1991)
A new music teacher (John Travolta) in a 1955 West Texas home for wayward boys brings new vision and hope for many of the interned boys.

^^^^ actually saw this in the theatre. I was straight at the time.

btw all these movies were mid nineties Blockbuster staples after PF took off. I would walk past the sixteen boxes of Eyes of an Angel.

I guess it was a powerful film what with all those interned boys

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgWgTMcc6L4

how is it easy to forget?! after this Jackie Brown the dude flooded the market with one unbelievably shitty movie after another!

settle down morbs or we'll strap you down and make you watch chains of gold

alex de large style

put the lime in the coconut and drink em both up

http://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Entertainment/Tarantino-Israeli-thriller-iBig-Bad-Wolvesi-is-the-best-film-of-the-year-328545

"That's the beauty of it--we got places all over the place." Kills me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58V36ABwJY

The lowest of low-hanging fruit.

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/07/02/quentin-tarantino-renews-threat-to-retire-from-filmmaking

everyone is p good in Jackie Brown but they all feel like they're Acting. except Robert Forester who seems like he's a bit annoyed that he's being taken away from his bail bonds work to do a movie.

love the sound of Michael Keaton's jacket

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/cinema-speculation-quentin-tarantino?variant=40461820756002

Quentin needs to make another 90 minute movie.

Finished Cinema Speculation. I've posted about many of the book's strengths (the films) and weaknesses (a lot of the writing) across other threads, but the last chapter, about his friendship with his mother's friend Floyd, is really something. It's technically a 20-page footnote; when Floyd is mentioned earlier in the book, there's an asterisk beside his name but no accompanying footnote at the bottom of the page.

A lot there. Tarantino lands on one side of a topic, based on Floyd's comedic heroes, that is so out of sync with the moment we live in, I'm surprised I haven't encountered push-back. (Maybe it's out there, or maybe no one's bothering with the book enough to care.) Between that, a platform for Tarantino to say some stuff he wants to say, and the perfect sentimental ending to the book--which I did find moving--a small part of me wonders if Floyd isn't a fictional creation. Just a passing thought; I'm sure he was a real guy.

Didn't realize that Richard Brody had reviewed the book; I was able to read it going incognito.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/quentin-tarantinos-cinema-speculation-is-an-obsessive-insiders-view-of-hollywood

He liked the book a lot, more than I did.

Marcus has an entry on the book in Real Life this month:

Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation (Harper). On how lots of 1970s movies (Bullitt, The Getaway) could have turned out differently--so and so wanted a different director, a different actor, but this accident and that rights dispute got in the way but what if? At first it’s kind of interesting, in a They-wanted-Ronald-Reagan-for-the-lead-in-Casablanca way. And then it’s a big so what and you wonder why you read right up to the chapter on Hardcore.

Except for the what-if-De Palma-had-directed-Taxi-Driver chapter, I really didn't find the book all that speculative. And the interest level, for me, was pretty steady throughout.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/quentin-tarantino-sets-the-movie-critic-final-movie-1235351260/

Logline details are being kept in a suitcase but sources describe the story as being set in late 1970s Los Angeles with a female lead at its center

It is possible the story focuses on Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics of all time. Kael, who died in 2001, was not just a critic but also an essayist and novelist. She was known for her pugnacious fights with editors as well as filmmakers. In the late 1970s, Kael had a very brief tenure working as a consultant for Paramount, a position she accepted at the behest of actor Warren Beatty. The timing of that Paramount job seems to coincide with the setting of the script — and the filmmaker is known to have a deep respect for Kael, making the odds of her being the subject of the film more likely.

Just watched Pulp Fiction again last week with my 19 year old son. It's an immaculately scripted film and a shitload of fun.

no Star Trek film?

Ha! I've been saying here and elsewhere for the past few years that Kael's life could make a great fictionalized film. Hopefully it's not about this one guy he ridicules three or four times in his book--really nasty stuff--and towards whom he obviously still bears a major grudge.

Kael's gonna kill that guy on-screen, I guarantee it.

https://tenor.com/view/trump-shrug-smile-idk-i-dont-know-gif-16515321

really nasty stuff

Imagine thats a gif of trump shrugging

I've always thought KB 2 was far better than KB 1.

Kael wrote a novel?

Oh, I like this idea a lot.

A rep theatre here has a Friday night series running based on his book: Taxi Driver, Sisters, Deliverance, Escape from Alcatraz, and Dirty Harry. Planned on seeing this first--Friday night, packed theatre probably--but a terrible storm quashed that. (The manager said they still drew 80 people.) Skipped Sisters, may see one or two or all three of the others, although I wish I hadn't just watched them while reading the book.

I'll say it again: if the above is true, Meryl Streep has to play Kael. I actually think she'd keep some well deserved payback out of it and create something memorable.

Mary Charlotte Wilcox has retired from acting to become a minister, otherwise she'd be in the running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVpPsATDyy0

"I don't languish in that kind of naïveté"--love that whole bit! So that's what her name was...maybe the only thing she ever did on the show? She definitely caught some of Kael's manner of speaking.

My post above doesn't make sense--should read "Planned on seeing Taxi Driver..."

Holly Hunter is a little older than Kael was in 1979, but she'd be fun.

I always kind hoped he would do Kill Bill 3 with Vivica Fox's daughter going after Uma, but this will hopefully be a much better movie to go out on.

I liked the Kellow bio well enough, but I worry about a Kael "biopic." So much of a writer's life is writing. Once she settled into Shawn's New Yorker her life was watching movies, with her daughter as faithful amanuensis. If Tarantino (or anybody) created a work of fiction about a formidably intelligent female writer in the 1950s experimenting with fiction and theater who marries a gay man, this would be worth watching.

To be clear: a chapter of her life which a director would fictionalize.

Given his previous film, he'll set it up so she ends up going out to Kalispell, forcing Cimino to focus and saving New Hollywood (with guns).

I could imagine a great movie more in the “hang out” style of most of once upon a time in hollywood.

The movie will end with her watching Reservoir dogs

I thought of guns too--an alternate ending where she just blows away Renata Adler. (Still alive...sorry, that's in bad taste.)

Holly Hunter is a little older than Kael was in 1979, but she'd be fun.

I could see that, yeah--Kael liked Hunter. Maybe a couple of other actresses she really liked too: Joan Cusack or Sigourney Weaver. (Not Debra Winger, though, I don't think.)

Tagline: "You won't see it a second time."

Nice!

LOL

I could imagine a great movie more in the “hang out” style of most of once upon a time in hollywood.

― omar little,

she won't let you finish lunch until you agree to knock Shoah off your top ten.

Forgive me, since I'm knee deep in Biskind's New Hollywood book right now, so I wouldn't mind a revisionist take where Kael just blows all of the misogynist fucks away. Though that would end up wiping out half of the decades best movies.

So that's what her name was...maybe the only thing she ever did on the show?

She was a featured player in the last seasons of SCTV, usually playing a woman several decades her senior (as she did in that clip).

her life was watching movies

In homage to Kiarostami, the Tarantino film is going to be one reel of her in close-up watching Bonnie and Clyde, then a reel of her watching Last Tango, then Nashville...

Then The Fury ...

Then Batman...

Kael wrote a novel?

Calling her a novelist puzzles me as well. Maybe they're thinking of Renata Adler, who wrote two.

Kael did write (or attempted to write) plays iirc

yep

This Peter Bradshaw piece has a couple of good lines:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/16/quentin-tarantino-next-film-critic-pauline-kael?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Pauline Kael isn’t going to be putting her bare feet up on the car dashboard in this film. At least I don’t think so.

I like this suggestion from a friend (as to who might play Kael): Laura Linney.

That's kinda brilliant. Not sure who else I'd even suggest.

Christian Bale?

Random thought: I like Tarantino a lot, but nothing makes me more certain that a film is going to be embarassing bullshit than the words "influenced by Quentin Tarantino".

Oh, definitely.

Pretty much ... the gap between him and his imitators is about as vast as any I can imagine.

Tho, to be fair, the only movies I think we're talking about when it comes to "Tarantino imitators" are Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, no?

That

xp, Tarantino ruined dickwit testosterone film school kids

Pauline Kael isn’t going to be putting her bare feet up on the car dashboard in this film. At least I don’t think so.

🥱🥱🥱

Tho, to be fair, the only movies I think we're talking about when it comes to "Tarantino imitators" are Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, no?

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.),

It's a good question. Are there Jackie Brown heirs running around?

Tho, to be fair, the only movies I think we're talking about when it comes to "Tarantino imitators" are Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, no?

https://collider.com/once-upon-a-time-in-ukraine-trailer/

Collider can exclusively unveil the trailer for Once Upon a Time in Ukraine, aka Inglorious Serfs, an upcoming action comedy inspired by the work of Quentin Tarantino. Mixing alternative history, ultra-violence, and good humor, Once Upon a Time in Ukraine is finally crossing the ocean after becoming a cult classic in Europe.

Out of Sight had Michael Keaton playing the exact same character. You could make the argument that it is more of an Elmore Leonard thing, but I think Tarantino was the driving force behind the uptick in Leonard adaptations.

xp

Leonard was an excellent genre/movie writer who never earned his worth until Tarantination, which is another tick in Quentin's box for me but also really telling cos QT's Leonard adaptations are the worst possible adaptations of Leonard's work

do you consider Jackie Brown a bad movie or just not great as an adaptation?

i think most of Tarantino's movies are good to great, as movies. i was thinking about this between the bus stop and home: the thing that makes QT a bad influence for me is his winkingness. i'm not even sure that makes the films he's made himself bad. Jackie Brown is a great movie. but people who ape his style generally make shit

Leonard's stuff seems so downbeat to me and i don't think Tarantino can do downbeat. MR MAJESTYK (1974) is way better than any QT adaptation of Leonard imo at least in terms of articulating Leonard's vibe but probly also in terms of being a better movie, maybe

I'd say this is due for a re-poll but may as well wait the four or so years until the Kael movie is released.

Watched Pulp Fiction over the weekend; in honor, I guess, if its 30th Anniversary(!) year. It's been long enough since the last time I saw it that I was able to enjoy it with slightly "fresh eyes." It's not much to look at, and some of the "tech specs" (camerawork, lighting) are really not great; but the performances and many of the scenarios still pack a punch, enough to give you that sense memory of how hard it hit when it actually was fresh.

The main cast is terrific (of course), but also/especially some of the minor players, like Eric Stoltz & Amanda Plummer... so much so that you almost marvel at those performances (like, where did they pull them from?). Stoltz is someone I've seen in a bunch of movies, and while he's good, he never really makes a big impression (other than in Mask, I guess) – but he's so perfect in this, he just knocks it out of the park.

And Uma Thurman is just fantastic, in a role that could have been played any number of ways (most of them probably not as effective). I feel like if that performance had been weaker, the center would have fallen out of the movie, in a way. I didn't realize there are two (2) Arquettes in the cast, and had forgotten about some other minor/cameo appearances. The cast list is stacked, but in a way that feels low-key / well integrated, and not like, "Here's another famous player showing up..."

The Butch/Fabienne scenes (in the hotel room) were the faintest in my memory; and yet they may be the best written scenes in the movie (or at least they have the least "show-y" writing). The film gets a little dull toward the end, in The Bonnie Situation segment, but obv the final scene is great.

Circling back for one minor gripe (which I could only articulate after living in L.A. for years): for such an iconic "L.A." movie, it doesn't really have a strong sense of place. Other than a few times when specific neighborhoods/streets/cities are named ("Move out of the sticks, gentlemen..."), the action could be taking place anywhere. Most of the street/apartment scenes just feel like "generic Los Angeles." Though maybe that's kind of the point?

Yeah, they are mostly generic, but I do think that's part of the point. Interesting that the most "iconic" location, Jackrabbit Slim's, does not exist.

Marcellus' house scenes were shot up in the hills, ofc. Summitridge Drive, according to the webs.

It definitely doesn't feel like an L.A. movie in the way that, say, Lebowski does.

Or some of the "noirs" that are in its bloodstream – e.g., the famous one with a glowing suitcase. It's neat to think of Repo Man in contrast, which (like PF) pays homage both to Kiss Me Deadly and Grease, but has as deeply ingrained a sense of location any "L.A. movie" ever... (well, that I've seen).

The Movie Critic is no more:

EXCLUSIVE: Quentin Tarantino’s movies are always full of surprises, and here is one about ‘The Movie Critic’ we did not expect.

Deadline can reveal that Tarantino has dropped the film as his 10th and final project. He simply changed his mind, Deadline has been told… pic.twitter.com/G4lkDArsCD

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 17, 2024

Aw, man

A pissed off movie critic goes on a Taxi Driver-esque killing spree. Was that the pitch? It does sound kinda lame imo. Perhaps he made the right call.

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/cfc/eb8/803df44f5af5251c2a5291e53596004a6c-the-critic-lede.rsquare.w400.jpg

Dudes brain is all fried since he movies to Israel

I still wish he did the Star Trek movie

Moved*