A very slick, entertaining caper

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2002)

"It wasn't as good as 'Pulp Fiction'," you've probably heard many people say.
"Jackie Brown" was Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to his 1994 Academy-Award winner "Pulp Fiction." Granted, this time around, Tarantino takes his filmmaking approach differently, but it is far more satisfying than its predecessor.
A lot of you are probably thinking that what I just said is sacrilege. I'll repeat myself: "Jackie Brown" is better than "Pulp Fiction", and here's why:
-- Smart retelling of an Elmore Leonard caper(his novel "Rum Punch"), which always make for good films.
-- Explosive soundtrack featuring Bobby Womack, The Delfonics, Johnny Cash and more.
-- Excellent cinematography by Guillermo Navarro.
-- Surehanded direction by Tarantino, who leisurely paces the film with some creative one-shot sequences, but never bores us, who embraces the blaxploitation film influences but never spoofing them, and doing something different from the similar "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs".
-- The casting of Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Michael Bowen, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr., Chris Tucker, and especially Robert Forster in his Academy-Award nominated turn as Max Cherry, the no-nonsense bail bondsman who helps set up the caper and can't help but fall for Jackie in the process.
-- And, of course, Pam Grier, one of the most underused actresses we have, in her most explosive performance to date. She commands the screen with her sense of fear of Jackson's character, her sense of style (a nice touch involving buying a suit DURING the score) and her sense of cool. And her chemistry with Robert Forster is perfect. That last scene gets me every time.
Plus, everyone told every key plot twist in "Pulp Fiction" before I ever got to see the damn thing. Worse things have happened, but Tarantino is not slumming. If anything, he is grown as a filmmaker, and I hope that he can take his time and give us something new to chew on. His next film, "Kill Bill" with David Carradine, Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba and Daryl Hannah, sounds terrific.
***1/2 out of ****