Good Movie, but is not praised with Tarantino's other work for a reason...

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2005)

After Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction you knew that this was going to be over-hyped and expectations far too high. Tarantino had a lot to live up to get this movie to compare with the other two, and although he fails, Jackie Brown is still an above average movie.
Jackie Brown is Tarantino Light, and avoids much of the flash and violence of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. This isn't a bad thing because the movie decides to exchange flash and flair for character development. This wouldn't be a bad thing if anyone outside of the two main characters were very interesting. Jackie and Max are both well fleshed out real characters who the audience feels they get to know and care for.
Grier and Forster bring great skill to their performances of Jackie and Max and the rest of the cast is acceptable as well. The one possible exception is DeNiro (gasp!) although his character really has nothing to go with. That brings me to one of the films faults, it spends too much time with Samuel L Jackson, Robert DeNiro, and Bridget Fonda especially in the first half hour. There characters are one note, and not very funny even though they seem to be there mostly for comic relief. Jacksons character is interesting but his shtick tires on you after the first great scene with the women who love guns.
Tarantino's direction in the movie is quite good. Its easily the best thing in the movie. There is an interesting mix of trademark Tarantino shots, long takes, and some nice long shots and tracking shots. Unfortunately some of the shots seem to be more so for the sake of being "cool" than anything else.
Overall the film is an above average film, that seemed to get ripped apart because it was under extreme scrutiny. Overall this movie is about ***/****.