what a pleasure it is to watch something as wonderful as this

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2019)

Having recently watched the glorious and faultless Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (twice) it seemed apposite to re-watch my previous favourite Tarantino movie and see how it compares. And what a pleasure it is to watch something as wonderful as this after so many average films. Splendidly plotted, thanks to a large extent to the original Elmore Leonard book, Rum Punch, this traverses its considerable length with ease and panache. Once more I am struck just what fantastic performances QT seems to obtain. Pam Grier gives the performance of a lifetime (better even than her tremendous 1974 Foxy Brown turn) and she seems to grow in stature and presence as the film progresses. Robert Forster is perfect and a great balancing element between some towering and competing personalities. Robert DeNiro, of whom I am no great fan, here, surely gives his greatest ever performance and even Bridget Fonda is really good, bare feet and wiggly toes and all. Overall this may turn out to outlive the wonder of the latest film but for me, though this is still a stupendous film with great acting and good jokes it didn't have that 'makes me smile' factor the new film seems to have, for me anyway.