The Emperor has shown us he ain't got no mother-f***ing clothes on

Rating: 5/10 (10 February 1999)

In Tarantino's screenplay for "True Romance" the main character, Clarance says: "Like that Merchant-Ivory clap-trap. All those a**holes make are unwatchable movies from unreadable books." Unsurprisingly, that line didn't make it into Tony Scott's movie. About five years ago I tried to read the book that Tarantino turned into Jackie Brown, but lost the will to finish it. And I don't think I would have lasted the 2.5 hours of the movie if I hadn't kept telling myself that it was made by the Emperor of all things post-modern.
The problem is this: it's Tarantino without the gimmicks, without the shocks, without the over-cool sense of style. And if you take away all that, there ain't too much left. His comic-book characters just don't stand up to prelonged bouts of soul searching realism. I just got plain bored listening to a bunch of low-lives waffle on about themselves. If this is the way Tarantino sees himself going, he's just gonna end up as a poor-man's Scorcese.
The danger always was that Tarantino would start to take himself seriously after Pulp Fiction. He's tried to show us that beneath the funny guy, there's a real talent trying to get out - but I'm afraid it turned out to be just a nurd all the time.