Slick, Witty & Highly Entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2017)

It's slick, witty and highly entertaining, but this money-spinning crime thriller's greatest asset is its colourful characters who, between them, take the art of deception to extraordinary heights. The plot inevitably gets convoluted by all its double-crosses, schemes and scams and the dialogue is wonderfully sharp and realistic. There's also a great deal of dark humour to enjoy and of course, the top class performances provided by the movie's exceptional cast.
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who works for a Mexican airline and tops up her modest income by smuggling cash into the United States for L.A. gun dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L Jackson). Her luck runs out one day when she gets arrested by ATF Agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and LAPD Detective Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) who had been tipped off about her activities by another of Ordell's couriers called Beaumont Livingstone (Chris Tucker). After being arrested, Beaumont had provided information to avoid doing time in prison but later, after being bailed out by Ordell, was shot and killed by his old boss. When Ordell arranges bail for Jackie, her prospects suddenly don't look too good.
Max Cherry (Robert Forster) is the bail bondsman that Ordell had used to arrange the releases of both Beaumont and Jackie and when he meets Jackie, he instantly falls in love with her. When Ordell comes around to Jackie's place with the intention of killing her, she talks him out of it by suggesting a plan which would enable her to bring back from Mexico, all the money that he'd stashed away ($500,000) during his gun-dealing career. Ordell agrees to Jackie's plan and devises a way in which she could pass the money to his young mistress, Melanie Ralston (Bridget Fonda). She then goes ahead and makes a deal with Nicolette which would enable him to arrest Ordell and recover the $500,000.
Jackie tells Max about her plan to con both Ordell and the cops so that she can make off with the money and he readily agrees to help. Everyone involved then knows that in order to achieve the outcomes that they want, the elaborate plan devised to transfer the money to Melanie will need to be carried out perfectly.
Pam Grier is believable as the 44-year-old who, through having a criminal record, had been reduced to working for a third-rate airline and being very poorly paid. She conveys Jackie's combination of toughness and vulnerability really well and is a compelling presence throughout the entire movie. Samuel L Jackson is superb as the ruthless gun dealer and Robert Forster, in his Oscar Nominated performance, makes the bail bondsman a surprisingly sympathetic character. Bridget Fonda and Robert De Niro also do well in their supporting roles.
Quentin Tarantino, whose screenplay is based on Elmore Leonard's novel "Rum Punch", directs the whole movie with some style and particularly excels during the sequence in which Ordell's money goes through the various exchanges needed in order for it to eventually be collected by Melanie. The soundtrack is also marvellous both because of the quality of the music and also the way in which it evokes the 1970s so well.