comment #1

Rich S. says ...

Damn, Kurt Russell was great in Death Proof.

comment #2

p.Vice says ...

Why does every so-called appreciation of Tarantino's work give one the impression that Jackie Brown never existed?

comment #3

115thDreamer says ...

Fun, but you've got to include some of the Jackson-Roth back-and-forth at the end of Pulp Fiction....that's maybe the one clip you'd show if you had to pick one Tarantino (or Samuel L.) scene for a tribute or similar occassion. "But I'm tryin', Ringo, I'm trying reallllll hard, to be the Shepherd". That's just epic stuff.

comment #4

mrzero27 says ...

Only ONE perfect diamond (Pulp Fiction - arguably one of the greatest films ever) sitting in a mountain of painful, self-absorbed crap. Especially 'Death Proof.' Those girls were (almost) as painful to watch again here as they were in the theatre. Seriously, Jeff... Recognize.

comment #5

moviesquad says ...

When did Jeffrey turn on Inglorious Bastards. Forgive me if I'm misremembering, but wasn't he a huge proponent of this film when he read the script before it went into production? Did the final product not match up with the script he read? What gives?

comment #6

bulltron says ...

No more Deathproof, please.

comment #7

Jeffrey Wells says ...

A script that reads like candy and milkshakes -- a delight to leaf through -- can seem, oddly, curiously, lacking in nutrition when it hits the screen as a film. It's hard to figure but I wrote a piece in the mid '90s called "Loved The Script, Hated The Movie."

comment #8

Jesse Perry says ...

"It's hard to figure but I wrote a piece in the mid '90s called "Loved The Script, Hated The Movie." "

Any way you can repost? Would love to read.

comment #9

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"A script that reads like candy and milkshakes -- a delight to leaf through -- can seem, oddly, curiously, lacking in nutrition when it hits the screen as a film."

Yeah, but your main complaint with IB seems to be it's.....too talky or something?

Still a little foggy on your specific reasons for hating this. You even seemed OK (not great, but okay) with it after seeing it at Cannes.

Weird.

comment #10

Mark says ...

They should recut Death Proof so that the Benny Hill song loudly replaces all spoken dialouge that involves either Zoe and/or Rosario. A much more tolerable movie that would make.

comment #11

Sean says ...

Wow, Mr. Zero/bulltron/Mark -- watching this reminded me of how good Zoe, Tracie and Rosario were in that movie. If you've ever been on Tarantino's wavelength, I don't know what you would object to here, and if you've never been, I don't know why you would single these ladies out.

comment #12

JapAdapters says ...

Maybe QTs "God antenna" is broken.

comment #13

Mark says ...

Bad acting, uninspired dialouge, and complete lack of believable relationships between the girlfriends. But my comment was less about that and more about a love for Benny Hill music.

comment #14

Sonic Boom says ...

Jackie Brown is his best film. It never gets the proper love and respect.

comment #15

Jonah says ...

As a director, Tarantino has made three masterpieces.

Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown
The second half of Kill Bill

He has made a great, almost brilliant film

The first half of Kill Bill

A pretty good movie that hasn't aged well

Reservoir dogs

and a misfire that had great moments

Death Proof

He's also written some really fun films.

True Romance
From Dusk Till Dawn
Natural Born Killers

I don't get the hate some people have for QT. Is it wrong to just have a good time at the movies.

Thank God Basterds opens soon. I'm getting tired of another attempted takedown by Wells.

comment #16

Joshua Mooney says ...

There are only two Tarantino films I can watch over and over: "Dogs" and "Jackie Brown."

comment #17

BurmaShave says ...

That video leans far too heavily on DEATH PROOF, which besides Kurt and Michael Parks is all shit dialogue. And it also emphasizes how much David Carradine was robbed of a nomination for playing Bill, arguably Tarantino's greatest character other than Jules.

comment #18

Edward says ...

I'm in the greatness of "Jackie Brown" camp. Not only is it well written, but QT's directions is brilliant. The execution in the VW Bus. Those amazing moving shots from exteriors to interiors and vice versa, to just name a couple of examples.

comment #19

Pelham123 says ...

I just watched "Kill Bill" 1 & 2 back to back & I second the brilliance of Carradine in that film. I didn't realize just how menacing he was until watching it all the way through. That last bit w/The Bride is fantastic.

comment #20

MilkMan says ...

From MSTRMND:

'This Friday, Quentin Tarantino essentially arrives to save the summer from the sequel (Transformers), the retread (Star Trek, doing its own lazy merge of Lucas and QT) and the Pixar repeat cycle (apt name: UP!). The only practicing voodoo artist of cinema history, QT is an allusionist of wildest merit, his films are the only divergence in town from the form-shifting of Lynch, Kubrick and Lucas. He laughs and mocks 60's visual existentialists like Antonioni and embraces the more animal pulses of Bava, Yakuza, Blaxploitation, fake snuff, and B-teen camp. His toil is so good it inspires many, many lesser retreads (Three Days in the Valley) and even converts once-linear, rank L.A. sentimentalism like Crash into an Oscar-winner simply by forcing Haggis (probably out of jealousy) to copy the plot-structure of Pulp Fiction. It's the same way Minghella scored his Oscar by copying Lean's technique inside The English Patient. Cheap Tricks. Even his two after-thought films are masterpieces (Jackie Brown and Death Proof). Tarantino takes an Elmore Leonard book and manufactures a Hollywood actor's insurrection: he subjecates the then-current leaders of acting elite (DeNiro, Fonda, Keaton) as low-life has-beens or pussies that can barely keep their pants on and in their place he canonizes Robert Forrester and Pam Grier who outwit and outclass them, Jackie Brown is a contained revolt against the acting nomenclature of the nineties (he even has Samuel L. Jackson kill his young competition for lead when he annihilates Chris Rock in a trunk, and in succession go the other eliters). QT is a deceptive genie, reviewers, film-historians and deep fans can troll the VHS bins for obscure sources he's encyclopped, but his films are flooded with inherent questions left unasked, unanswered and unsaid. His trick is to make you think you know the film by knowing its references, which he mutates anyway to make the scent murkier. A myth is at the core of each film and it is orbited by these referenced characters and sequences (even costumes and props) to keep hidden a splinter of plot that no one can answer, and sometimes it remains unanswered across films. Like Lynch, who ends some films with the first shot of his next film (the ocean of Dune to the blue velvet of Blue Velvet/the roads of Wild at Heart, Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive) , QT launches his films with pre-existing characters in forms of identity flow. Mia Wallace, who wins the dance contest of Pulp Fiction, mentions her appearance in an unaired Pilot for a show called Fox Force Five, appears suddenly in FFF's mutation, The Deadly Viper's of Kill Bill, herself now a renegade formerly under the Viper's leader's control: a television guru from Kung Fu, while a variety of TV actor's, foreign exploitation stars, and feature film actors fight for screen time, KB is one of the most insidiously ingenious medium battles, literally a TV versus Film war, with The Bride (a film character herself almost birth-wedded to a TV action anti-hero, Carradine playing Grasshopper to a tee) mowing down a Television concept and anyone in her way. That she and the daughter of this genre-union watch TV giggling as a post-script to The Bride's literally breaking Bill's heart with a move from a film-hero (Pai Mei's five-finger exploding heart technique: Fox Force Five) tells you QT has all his i's dotted. The complexities of KB are ripe for a lengthy breakdown later, but some are too good to be ignored now. Watch, for example, how color is introduced in KB. Like Pulp Fiction, QT isolates his world's color use to suggest fantasy/time travel (the Jack Rabbit Slim's), in KB, The Bride brings color, the instructors Hanzo and Pai Mei are both Black and White. The paired dance sequences in Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction are evolved into the ultimate solo: the House of Blue Leaves massacre (notice the floor from Fever evolved, people even dance on it before the blood flows) ends with the Bride and O-Ren Ishii's paired sabre dance.

'Probably QT's most enduring taunt is the ending of Pulp Fiction (which he hides by ending the film in the past of the film with Vincent Vega still alive) and the fixation on Tony "Rocky Horror"'s inglorious ending off screen. What QT is asking the audience unconsciously to do is replace Tony "Rocky Horror" with Vincent Vega and explain to future sewing circles the reason for Vincent's demise since Marcellus must hide it in the same kind of myth. It's one of the more unusual and hidden of unanswered questions since the film is about another mythical rationale for a very real act. How can we tell? The name of the subject of the myth is Tony "Rocky Horror", an in-joke: Travolta's film role QT channel's in PF is Tony Manero's (Saturday Night Fever) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a film released into midnights across America the same year. QT shows us a logical progression (Mia Wallace's dance contest evening, Vincent Vega's death, Butch's exoneration) to explain a myth (Tony "Rocky Horror"'s demise) that parallels the film. This is something the New Wave could never have achieved.'

comment #21

MilkMan says ...

BTW: TYPO: should read CHRIS TUCKER, instead of ROCK.

comment #22

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Well, that was certainly an interesting read. Not sure I agree with all the far-fetched hypotheses, but I certainly never thought of KB as a duel between Film and Television. I might have to investigate that one further.

Was Three Days in the Valley really a lesser retread? If so, I'd like to hear a better QT retread; I honestly thought that was one of the best.

And sorry, but then-current leaders of the acting elite? B. Fonda was never in that class, M. Keaton was (at least) five years removed from it. I'm certainly not going to contest DeNiro, but he was definitely at the very tail end of his "classic" acting period (along with Ronin, Wag the Dog). Why just not say it was a very well-cast movie with many underused character actors?

comment #23

Wes Caline says ...

Another typo: ROBERT FORSTER instead of FORRESTER. (Not that I read the whole shit).

comment #24

Renfield says ...

Chapter selcetion on DVDs was invented for "Death Proof".

Just skip to anything with Stuntman Mike in it and then let it ride for the last 20 minutes.

It would've been an amazing short film that I would watch over and over.

comment #25

JapAdapters says ...

I think the problem with Death Proof is it was QTs "girl takl" movie. Seriously, find me an interview with QT (especially recently) where he doesn't talk about all the cool chicks he hangs out with and, personally, I think DP bore the brunt of that BS. QT wrote (or adapted) good female characters in PF, JB, and the KB films but, revenge Bride/aspects aside, wouldn't the life he led in the 10 years between JB and DP kinda narrow the scope of his female characters? I mean, the chicks in DP sound lie women trying to talk like Tarantino would write a woman, which is probably what the women he actually talks to talk to him like. Think about it, Rosario Dawson's speech in this clip is delivered in QTs cadence, for fuck's sake!

comment #26

DeeZee says ...

*sigh* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HgbSAL8OKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZKgptV4GmQ&feature=related
Also from Wikipedia: "Bill's speech towards the end of the movie, regarding the differences between Batman and Superman, is taken from "The Great Comic Book Heroes" by Jules Feiffer."

Burma: "And it also emphasizes how much David Carradine was robbed of a nomination for playing Bill"

Well, Carradine robbed Bruce Lee of his chance at being a lead on Kung Fu, so I guess it's only fair.

Milkman: I love the irony of him being compared to Lynch, when Lynch did the ear thing first.

comment #27

DeeZee says ...

*sigh* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HgbSAL8OKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZKgptV4GmQ&feature=related
Also from Wikipedia: "Bill's speech towards the end of the movie, regarding the differences between Batman and Superman, is taken from "The Great Comic Book Heroes" by Jules Feiffer."

Burma: "And it also emphasizes how much David Carradine was robbed of a nomination for playing Bill"

Well, Carradine robbed Bruce Lee of his chance at being a lead on Kung Fu, so I guess it's only fair.

Milkman: I love the irony of him being compared to Lynch, when Lynch did the ear thing first.

comment #28

JapAdapters says ...

DeeZee, you've really grown into the character. Your work is fantastic and your reward is online arguments with people who don't know any better. Congrats!

comment #29

TulseLuper says ...

All this did was remind me why Jackie Brown is his best film and leagues above Kill Bill and Death Proof. In all the other films, even Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, every character talks like Quentin Tarantino. In Jackie Brown, he actually gave the characters unique and personal voices, which is why its presence on this montage is minimal.

Instead, we have to endure most of David Carradine's awful speech about Superman in Kill Bill which demonstrates the worst side of Tarantino's self-indulgence.

comment #30

mccool says ...

I cant imagine the stamina it must take to keep up the charade of being the real DZ/Daniel Zelter.

This clip is "great stuff"? If by great you mean ignoring all of the truly engaging and witty lines from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction....great if you like lots and lots of pauses and dead space and really bad actresses delivering really bad lines to each other and Rosario Dawson so in love with herself it's a shock she's able to complete sentences without her eyes rolling back and her toes curling up. I'm not even a QT guy and I can think of at least 20 better lines off the top of my head that make you say "damn, this guy can fucking write". Disappointing clip.

comment #31

Travis Crabtree says ...

Try doing a table read of Pulp Fiction scenes between Travolta and Jackson. You'll see that the "brilliance" is less the writing than the fact that it's fucking Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta reading it.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy the hell out of "Pulp Fiction". I did. And it actually holds up suprisingly well.

comment #32

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I disagree. The brilliance of the Jules/Vincent scenes are right there on the page. I'm the first to admit that SLJ and QT have a real collaborative, creative synergy on film (when will they work together again?), but I'll be damned if I give Travolta too much credit for anything.

I stand by the fact that he has only really given 3 really good performances (PF, Sat Night Fever, Blow Out). Luckily for him, all 3 of those movies are every bit as good (if not better) than he is in them.

That's pretty lucky.

comment #33

BurmaShave says ...

Yeah truly, the "Do they speak English in wha?!t" sequence is up there with Mamet at his best.

comment #34

DeeZee says ...

Kane: You forgot about Face/Off.

comment #35

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Yeah Burma...how the hell do you leave that sequence out of this montage? Confounding.

DeeZee -- He blew in Face/Off. Same performance he gave in Swordfish, General's Daughter, Basic, and about every other action thriller he's been in since Broken Arrow.

Now Nic Cage in Face/Off is a slightly different story. He's fucking fun to watch, as long as he's playing the villain.

comment #36

Wrecktem says ...

There's a reason the producers of Lost killed off Zoe Bell after two episodes: worse acting is not possible.

comment #37

goodvibe61 says ...

What I have long argued about much of Tarantino's work is touched on by Milk Man's post above, and there is a great deal to be dealt with in Pulp Fiction about the Tony Rocky Horror mythology, how it unspools and is then "commented" on by the action and subsequent demise of Vincent Vega. It's one of the most passionate, and to me fascinating commentaries on the nature of cinematic metafiction and storytelling that I've ever seen on film, and frankly it has amazed how for over 15 years now this aspect of Pulp has been mostly ignored.

What critics love to do with Tarantino's work, even with the great Pulp Fiction screenplay and film, is fob it off as "cool", or "ripping off cinema", or "talky", or any of another variations of thought speak which can basically be translated into critical apathy or laziness. Criticism of these works is laced with "I don't get it so there must not be anything there". And yet, there is SO MUCH THERE, an embarrassment of story telling riches that the lazy thinking commentaries say much, much more about the critics than the artist they're struggling to acknowledge.

One of the main thrusts of Pulp Fiction is that Vincent Vega's story is a kind of alternate universe to the mythology of what became of Tony Rocky Horror. Tony is an epic character, a fabulous trick of story structure, a character we never get to actually see, but someone who looms large throughout the narrative.

There are many theories as to what happened to Tony, there are grand conversations detailing a couple possibilities, and there's a debunking of those theories by an unreliable narrator. After these stories are told, we then watch Vincent Vega undertake a series fo adventures that oddly mirror Tony's, resulting in an untimely death. And like Tony, Vincent's death is RIPE for future mytholgizing by everyone that dares to tread in Marcellus Wallace's world.

That the screenplay's time structure works wonders to comment on that mythos is to me a tremendous element that you see less and less in contemporary screenplays. Say what you want about Tarantino; but to deny his daring and orginality as a writer is just plain dumb. One of the funniest things EVER was reading Wells, Tapley, and may others questioning whether Quentin was actually literate, upon viewing the misspelling laced screenplay for BastErds.

Hey fools: the joke's on you; can there be any question whether Quentin was at least subliminally going for that ridiculous reaction when he put his script out there online for everyone to see? That was another comment on people wanting to merely skim the surface and not bother to look underneath.

Kudos to Milk for bringing this up. I find it to be one of my favorite elements of that hugely satisfying film.

comment #38

Joshua Mooney says ...

Perfectly understandable, MilkMan. All comics look alike.

MilkMan says ...
BTW: TYPO: should read CHRIS TUCKER, instead of ROCK.

comment #39

AtticusRex says ...

I was kinda surprised that at least two of my favorite verbal moments in QT's movies didn't make that video. i.e. QT himself in PF when he asks JT & SLJ if there is a particular type of sign out front on the lawn. And in Jackie Brown when SLJ introduces RDN to a ex-employee in the trunk.

As for one long great moment the opening of FDTD. That had to be QT's writing. In just a few minutes we learn all we need to know about GC & QT's characters and in even less screen time QT is able to build a complete myth for he Texas Ranger played by the under-rated cool Michael Parks.

Still for me, the best QT dialog & scenes he has written appear in True Romance, Tony Scott's best film ever.

I still would like to see a real version of Natural Born Killers the way QT had intended it to be... a hipper version of Badlands and not that off the charts mash-up that Stone turned in.

I also agree that from a 'real world feel' Jackie Brown comes closest followed by Res. Dogs.

comment #40

Doug says ...

Haven't seen the film yet, but I love Brad Pitt's accent and dialogue I've heard so far. I've been reciting it for weeks - like the "Taken" trailer.

comment #41

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