Tarantino brings a toned down version of Pulp (re-review in 2010)

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2000)

"One of her brothers was a bad outlaw..." It was satisfying to see Jackie Brown on a big-screen, finally, as I had originally meant to see it when it came out in 1997. It also was fitting that the print of the film screened hadn't been updated or changed since 97, so there were parts that looked scratched and worn - ironically a Grindhouse-looking print for a QT movie that is the least Grindhouse-like movie he's made. The violence here, one of the things that people expect in his movies, is toned down; only once, when a particular character is killed in a car is it bloody or really shocking. The other few kills in the movie are off-screen or far away. That doesn't mean they don't have an impact - if anything, you feel it a bit more due to it popping out.
The whole movie carries restraint to it, but this is a good thing. Tarantino isn't concerned so much with plot- though it has a kickin'-good yarn spun by Elmore Leonard to work off from - but with the characters, hanging out with them (he's said that it's "his" Rio Bravo - just chilling out with some guys who happen to be in a story with some danger and action to it, but more-so talking about what will happen and seeing how the dominoes fall).
Another thing I noticed this time, after seeing the film so many times I've lost count (though it's less than the number of lost-count-times than Pulp Fiction, more than Reservoir Dogs), is how masterful Samuel L. Jackson is here. This may be my favorite performance from him, or at least the most he's given per capita seeming to do so little, as he exudes a brooding, intelligent menace for Ordell, a guy who is, if one has to pigeon-hole him, the 'villain' of the story. But he also epitomizes the gangster-style of the Wu-Tang song 'CREAM' ("Cash rules everything around me, cream, get the money, dolla dolla bill y'all") and is serious as a heart attack about it.
And yet he's not someone I outright hate as a villain or detest; he's like a cool-ass mother*****' snake who gets done what he had to get done, and is on top of everything until he isn't. Jackson makes the guy look cool, though dangerous, and he has especially great scenes in the final 20 minutes of the film where his ponytail hair is let down all like a crazy samurai and he gives his threats in a hushed tone to Robert Forster in the car. Really excellent work.
Also reminded again: Pam Grier in a red dress. Oooh. Just saying.