Tarantino Lite

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2012)

, I love Pam Grier and Tarantino is my favorite director. That being said, I was disappointed in his follow up to Pulp Fiction, a much better film. Pam is Jackie, a stewardess on a Mexican airline who smuggles cash for a gun runner named Ordell(Samuel L. Jackson). One of his workers, Beaumont, is arrested and jailed, so Ordell pays a bondsman, Max, to get him out in order to kill him before he turns informant. Too late, as he has already given Jackie's name and she is busted with planted cocaine and sent to the pokey. Her boss sends Max to bail her out and he is awed by her body and will not set her up to be killed. Instead they go back to her house where she pulls a gun on Ordell, and they make a deal where she will smuggle half a million dollars for him and he will retire. Of course, there is no honor among thieves, and Q.T. uses several plot twists throughout the Elmore Leonard inspired movie. It is also a tribute to Foxy Brown, the 60s blaxploitation film which starred Pam Grier. She still looks great; a very well preserved and sexy woman. The major problem is the 2-1/2 hour plus running time, which needed a good 1/2 hour edited out. Also, Bridget Fonda is one of the most annoying actresses on earth. She should go away forever. The rest of the cast is good, especially Robert Forster as Max and Robert DeNiro as Louis Gara. The length and Fonda's bad acting ruin it for me.