Jackie Brown

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2005)

For a Quentin Tarantino film, this is pretty clever, even if it doesn't mix up scenes like his others have. Basically Jackie Brown (Golden Globe nominated Pam Grier) is a flight attendant caught by the cops smuggling gun money at the airline she works for, along with some cocaine. Eventually though, Fed Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton) and LA Cop Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) decide to team up in order to arrest the arms dealer she works for, who they don't know, Ordell Robbie (Golden Globe nominated Samuel L. Jackson). She has to choose to tell the cops about the arms dealer, or get her freedom with Ordell suspecting, or shut up and do some time. That's when she meets Max Cherry (Oscar nominated Robert Forster), her bail bondsman, who falls for her. Then Jackie comes up with a plan to play the cops off against Ordell and the guys he works for, Melanie Ralston (Bridget Fonda, Peter's daughter and Jane's niece) and Louis Gara (Robert De Niro), among others, and walk off with their money, but she needs Max's help. Also starring Rush Hour's Chris Tucker as Beaumont Livingston and Lisa Gay Hamilton as Sheronda. The scenes in the department showing the different times of the payoff from the three sides of the story, Jackie, Melanie and Louis, and Max is really engaging, The Simpsons even spoofed the same format. Samuel L. Jackson was number 11, and Robert De Niro number 2 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was also number 50 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and he was number 5 (along with Al Pacino) on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!