Michael Madsen, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Chris Penn, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi are killers for hire in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
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lives, so that they're never pinned down to the machinations of the story.
I hope Kill Bill retains the same sense of irreverence. Certainly it will display Tarantino's penchant for cataloguing similar films in history. References here include The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.
—Stephen Shupe
Grade: A
Pulp Fiction (1994) R. 154 minutes, VHS and DVD
Perhaps the most celebrated of Quentin Tarantino's films, Pulp Fiction is a raw and funny look at L.A. in the '90s through a looking glass of violence, drugs, sex and quick wit. The masterfully written, Oscarwinning script grabs you from the first scene and never loosens its grip.
The film weaves three stories together but doesn't connect them until the last scene. Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) are gophers for a crime boss, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Uma Thurman plays Wallace's eccentric wife, who Vincent takes out for a night on the town. Lastly, there is Butch (Bruce Willis), a boxer who instead of taking a fall in a fixed fight decides to reap all the benefits of winning.
Together these characters make for an assault on the eyes and mind. Tarantino's stylized technique is one of the reasons we watch films like this because it was his job as a director to take what could have
been a mediocre crime/drama and make into a masterpiece of cinema art.
—Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: A
Jackie Brown (1997) R. 151 minutes, VHS and DVD
Jackie Brown is director Quentin Tarantino's third and most reserved film.
Rather than rely on the ultra-violent, giant cast and disjointed narrative style of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino relies on strong acting and a believable heist story based on Elmore Leonard's novel, Rum Punch.
Tarantino and Leonard tell the story of Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), a middle-aged flight attendant who smuggles money for gunrunner Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson). When the police catch Jackie with the money she must decide whether to rat out Ordell, ditch the police or take the fall. Along the way Jackie enlists the help of bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) in a plot with enough twists to engage even the most die-hard crime story enthusiasts.
While the film does have several bigname actors — Jackson, Robert DeNiro and Michael Keaton — it is the acting of Grier and Forster that is especially impressive. The two middle-aged actors develop a relaxed chemistry that fits the film perfectly.
—Cal Creek Grade: B+
STUDENT RUSH $10
More Than Just Your Daily Crossword
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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thursday, october 9, 2003
jayplay 23