Quentin, you owe us an apology

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2013)

When first hearing of this title, you would of expected another Pulp Fiction. Sadly here you;re very mistaken. You've been very short changed I'm afraid. Working from Elmore Leonard's novel, Quentin must of been self conscious in his telling of this nothing impressive tale. There's hardly any Tarantino humor or VIOLENCE. We have a few stretched out scenes, wasted ones, of little significance, ones that take place in Jackson's Venice beach apartment. We can tell he's held back here, as if to honor or not disrespect crime author, Leonard's book. Pam Grier playing the title, one of the many great performances, is a 44 year old black woman trying to make ends meat, by earning her undeserved share of money made off selling guns, that her boss, Ordell Robbie sells. Jackson is fun to watch in this, playing bad good, in reverse to the much gentler and reserved teacher he played in 187. When Grier is arrested by the feds, she has her own way of snaking out of it, outwitting authorities, while hatching a plan to rip off Ordeal. You gotta admire the courage and strength of the character, but the storytelling just seems to be prolonged. There's not many surprises in the thriller department either. We know what each character wants, whether he/she is good or bad. They're an open book. Deniro was fun to watch as as ex parolee friend of Jackson, who lags around in Jackson's apartment with skinny bikini bodied pot smoking Mel (Fonda). Her murder in the car park was a shock. On the whole Jackie Brown was a bitter disappointment when seeing it in the cinema. This disappointing feature almost had me wondering if I was in the right cinema. I enjoyed it more second time around on video, but this Tarantino flick is a two an hour flick that could of easily been told in 90 minutes. It's just a prolonged story with a lot of flat, not much happening scenes. If Tarantino did it his way, minus Leonard's' influence, we would of had a better movie.