Tough-talking but surprisingly low-keyed Tarantino curiosity...

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2006)

Quentin Tarantino's much-anticipated return to film-making following "Pulp Fiction" is an intriguing character-drama about a cool-headed flight attendant in cahoots with a merciless gunrunner who ends up playing both sides of the law to save herself from going to jail. From Elmore Leonard's book "Rum Punch", and full of punch-drunk people, dreamers, and low-life scuzzies with cockeyed, crazy ambitions. Great acting by nearly everyone (particularly Robert Forster as Pam Grier's bail-bondsman), but in the end it does feel a little thin--especially as the plot is stretched out too long. Tarantino's technical dazzle is certainly in place, but there's possibly too much exposition for the film to really hit the bull's-eye. Hot soundtrack, lots of funny/scary moments courtesy of the auteur, and some fine conversational dialogue, as when Grier tells Forster about her record collection: "I was gonna buy a CD player, but I didn't feel like starting over." *** from ****