somewhat interesting

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2000)

There's sort of an unwritten rule that you shouldn't review movies before their time, but I gotta break it here in saying this is the only one of Tarantino's films I remotely liked. Everything he followed up with disinterested me, the dialogue laden, near 3 hour yawn-fest "Pulp Fiction", the meandering "True Romance", the dull vampire offering "From Dusk till Dawn", and "...Fiction" wannabe/clone "Jackie Brown". His pacing here (most of the time) is frenetic and the characters always have something interesting to say. But what didn't make it recommendable for me was Tarentino's usual overwriting in some scenes. An example would be the moments in the office of the head honcho, which go on way too long. And some of Roth's undercover nonsense should've been trimmed, but after knowing of this film for years and avoiding it because of Tarantino's other offerings that I didn't go for, I got stunned at the watchability here. There's lots of tension, some action, time for laughs, and plenty of moments that pop outta nowhere and stun. Oh, the plot? A group of thieves get screwed over during a jewel heist and hold up in a wharehouse trying to figure out what went wrong. But via flashbacks, we are given a glimpse into other activities of the men. It manages to stay engrossing enough, though it's too bad about the longer moments that drown it, either from too much dialogue or Tarantino lingering on one shot for an entire seen like he revels in doing. As far as the infamous cop torture scene, he wisely pans away from the goings on to avoid too much unpleasantness, and just shocks with the aftermath. But be warned, there is a lot of bloodletting throughout the film, I guess the amount you'd expect from a crime movie. So even though it may not work for most, this'll still give you a lot to chew on.