Paging Elmore Leonard

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2016)

That rarity of Tarantino films, more character than gore.
Who would have ever thought it possible?
The only reason Jackie Brown works, and works quite well, is that it's based on a novel by the late Elmore Leonard. Now, Leonard could go pretty medieval in his novels, but his characters always felt like real people, good 'uns and bad. The language coming out of their mouths sounded real.
I saw Jackie Brown some 15 years ago, about the same time I saw Out of Sight, based on another Leonard work, and I thought the two made great bookends. They seemed to honor Elmore Leonard. Seeing the movies made me want to read more Leonard novels.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Charles Bronson flick, Mr. Majestyk, was one of his. I love that movie, and it made me love it more.
15 years after my viewing Jackie Brown, the story itself is pretty much gone, but I do recall that it was suspenseful, had interesting folks doing bad and not-so-bad things, and even had a smidgen of humor that didn't depend on John Travolta hitting a chuckhole and blowing some poor doofus' head off.
I have not seen the Django thing or Kill Thrill Bill, 1-47, or Inglorious Remakes or the recent Hateful Hatful. If I want to participate in Tarantino's pornographic horror shows, I guess I should watch more, but why would I want to? He hit his high point with the film version of a pretty good crime novel, and all we can do now is bring a mop to the theatre to push around the blood sloshing off the screen.
Gag.