Oh My God!

Rating: 1/10 (20 October 2006)

I was so angry when I saw this one in the theater. Now I can just laugh at it. By and large, just overkill for Tarantino. Way too self absorbed. Perhaps he was over-thinking it? Perhaps he did way too much coke before doing this? I dunno. He had some good ideas, but he just couldn't deliver. There was one scene that worked for me. The exchange between Samuel Jackson and Chris Tucker. That was nice. It had some edgy realism that took you to another level. Some pure American street jive that portrayed hoods or gangsters, showing the gritty underbelly of America. And if Tarantino went that harsh realistic route it may have been a good movie; an interesting departure for Tarantino. But unfortunately after that scene it simply fell apart. He tried to do too much. The worst scene was the one in the mall where you had three different takes on one scene. A complete waste of time because it was a useless scene to begin with. If that isn't self gratuitous I don't know what is. And DeNiro. Man was he embarrassing! I don't think that was his fault. What the hell kind of character was that?? For such an accomplished actor too. On the other hand you give Pam Grier the lead? Bad choice QT.
Oh well, you can forgive Tarantino for this one. Every director has a stink bomb. And considering he has done 'Resevoir Dogs', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2', and wrote 'Natural Born Killers' and 'True Romance' (all brilliant films), he has plenty of room to mess up.